During a long car ride to visit a friend at her school yesterday, my legs were beginning to cramp up and experience a lot of pain. I hadn’t moved in over and hour, and while I debated pulling over to let them stretch, I wondered how damaging it is to your body to sit in one spot for so long. Could there be any harmful effects besides the obvious pain in your legs?
According to WebMD, “researchers have reported that sitting for long hours is linked to worse mental health, a higher risk of death from heart disease and other causes, and a higher risk of being disabled.” So aside from some temporary pain, there can be some serious consequences of sitting for too long. But today, it is hard to avoid sitting for such long periods of time, with school, desk jobs, and our addiction to computers and Netflix. But how does something so common and part of our everyday lives cause such severe results? According to the article, scientists just do not know. One explanation is that sitting causes your blood to flow more slowly and muscles begin to burn less fat. This is turn increases the risk of heart disease and blood pressure, which lead to hard endpoints such as death or serious health complications. The article goes on to explain a study done by Andrea LaCroix, where she found that older women who reported that they sat the most hours during the day were more likely to die between then and a 12-year follow up. However, the article does not include any other information about the study, such as how many participants there were, or anything about their health that might also cause on impact, so it is not very reliable.
The information presented in the article does not rule out reverse causation. What if people with poor health or with higher blood pressure and heart problems are just prone to sitting more? As of right now, there is no way to tell which comes first. Reverse causation may very well be present here, which means that sitting for too long may not even be a problem, it could just be the result of people who are already have heart and blood pressure problems. However, until we find out, it would be a good idea to break up the periods of time that we are sitting for. Getting up and walking around during a commercial, taking a break to stretch while driving, or getting up more during long hours of work are all ways to reduce the risk of sitting in the same place for hours.
Love this blog! In class Andrew says that we can’t rule our reverse causation right away and Im glad you addressed that in your blog because before I read the last paragraph thats what I automatically began to think about. We must think that what if someone sits more so they’re prone to these health complications. When you think about it sitting at a desk job does have so many cons. You can gain weight from not moving around, have muscles issues as well as back issues, and lets not forget about carpal tunnel from sitting and typing all day. Given that i am going for a desk job this blog about the negatives of sitting worries me. To fix this problem it is safe to say we need to take breaks when sitting long periods of time to walk around and break the time up for our health. While sitting seems to be the issue we must also recognize that other variables can account for these health problems such as the types of food you eat and your family healthy history. Of course nobody wants to gain weight so how can we avoid this problem of gaining weight when sitting at a desk job? lets take a look at this informative link suggesting a resolution to our problem http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Weight-Gain-While-Working-a-Desk-Job
Very interesting post. When I read this blog I just started to think about when a persons legs falling asleep. I absolutely hate that. To me it is one of the worst feelings ever, and when I sit for a long time it happens to me quickly, and depending on where the cramp happened it can take a few minutes to go away which is an absolute pain. I recently found a websitetalking about why parts of our bodies fall asleep it was very interesting. Overall great post!
This is really scary considering a lot of the jobs I am considering in the future include a lot of desk work. This article got me thinking about this and as I did research, I found more and more depressing data. What I found was that sitting for extended periods of time can cause an increase in your chance of getting high blood pressure, cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. This is because muscles burn less fat and blood flow becomes more sluggish, allowing fatty acids to clog easier. One study conducted in 2011, found that after just one day of extended sitting can cause a decline in insulin response because the pancreas produces too much insulin for the body to be able to process. I was shocked at how many serious medical problems could arise just from sitting for too long. Along with all of these medical problems, the body also experiences physical problems such a back, leg, and neck pain which can get worse over time if the long period of sitting continues for weeks or even months. So I think you will be okay after sitting in the car for a few hours a couple of times a year, but if your everyday job included long periods of sitting, you may want to see a doctor to get further help with these issues to make sure they don’t escalate.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/the-health-hazards-of-sitting/750/
I never even considered sitting as being negative. An article in the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nilofer-merchant/sitting-is-the-smoking-of-our-generation_b_2506748.html) goes as far as comparing the harm of sitting to smoking! A fact on here that I found interesting was “After one hour of sitting, “the production of enzymes that burn fat declines by as much as 90 percent.”
I found this post to be very intriguing! I never really thought about sitting being an unhealthy action. Thinking about it now, when a person is sitting, they are not doing any exercise. So, it makes sense that increased time sitting leads to obesity and the diseases that come along with obesity. The Mayo Clinic conducted an experiment where they compared adults who spent 4+ hours sitting in front of a television set and adults who spent 2- hours sitting in front of a television. According to the Mayo Clinic, the results showed that the adults who spent 4+ hours sitting in front of the TV have “a nearly 50 percent increased risk of death from any cause, and about a 125 percent increased risk of events associated with cardiovascular disease, such as chest pain (angina) or heart attack.” It is incredible how a simple action could make a such big difference with your health.
Check out this article for more information about this topic: http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/adult-health/expert-answers/sitting/faq-20058005
So weird that something we do all the time could be so harmful! NBC News also did an article focusing on the downsides of sitting. Their article reported that sitting could lead to colon and endometrial cancer. The study NBC focused on also did not conclude why sitting showed higher risks in these types of cancer. It may simply be due to obesity; people who sit more tend to be heavier and thus have a higher risk for cancer. More studies definitely need to be done so we can better understand if it’s really obesity or sitting.
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/heres-just-how-bad-sitting-around-you-n132471