This is the last week of passion blogs and I really had a hard time deciding what to talk about this week. Then I decided why not talk about sitting. Lately I have been under the weather and between that and all of the studying I have been doing I have done a large amount of sitting. I have always known that sitting a lot was not that good for me, but I have never really looked into it so I felt like this was the perfect opportunity.

Researchers have linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns, including obesity and metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that includes increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels. Too much sitting also seems to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

There have been many studies done on the effects of sitting too much but one recent study compared adults who spent less than two hours a day in front of the TV or other screen-based entertainment with those who logged more than four hours a day of recreational screen time.The results from the study showed that those with greater screen time had a nearly 50 percent increased risk of death from any cause. Also they had about a 125 percent increased risk of events associated with cardiovascular disease, such as chest pain or heart attack. The increased risk was separate from other traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as smoking or high blood pressure.

Sitting in front of a TV is not the only concern. Any type of extended sitting such as at a desk or behind the wheel of a car can be harmful to individuals. The solution to eliminating this risk seems to be less sitting and more moving overall.

The impact of movement,even leisurely movement, can be significantly high. For starters, you’ll burn more calories. This might lead to weight loss and increased energy. Also the muscle activity needed for standing and other movement seems to trigger important processes related to the breakdown of fats and sugars within the body. When you sit, these processes stall and your health risks increase. When you’re standing or actively moving, you kick the processes back into action.

There are many different ways you can make activities where you usually sit into an activity where you are standing. For example, you can stand while talking on the phone or eating lunch.Also if you sit at a desk to do work, like all of us do as college students, try something different and when doing work stand at a high desk or do work on a counter.

Since I have came to college I have done a lot more sitting than I have ever done in my life. The amount of studying and work I have to do has increased which has increased the amount of sitting I do. I know I am not the only person who has experienced this and we all need to realize the negative effects of it. So next time you want to spend hours on studying think about these negative side effects of it and find a good way to change your sitting into standing.