You’ve probably heard the warning that sitting for too long can lead to cancer. A sedentary lifestyle poses a great threat to our health. If we sit for too long every day and are tied down by computers and TV, it will do great harm to our health. However, health experts are worried not only about sitting too much but also about a general lack of physical activity.
In a new paper published in the journal of the American medical association, researchers at the centers for disease control and Prevention (CDC) observed that one in four U.S. adults spends more than eight hours a day sitting. This means that we spend most of our waking hours sitting.
The data come from the 2017 to 2018 national health and nutrition survey of 5,900 U.S. adults. In the survey, people were also asked when they exercised. Two-fifths of those surveyed said they did not exercise enough, which means they did not exercise moderately or intensively every week. The CDC recommends at least two hours and 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise.
Unfortunately, while standing desks are touted as the “antidote to a sedentary lifestyle,” their benefits are grossly overstated. Standing is not considered exercise, and, unlike running or cycling, there is no evidence that working standing alone improves cardiovascular health. In fact, new scientific research suggests that lack of exercise and not sitting at work may be a greater health threat.
The relationship between sitting and health
The link between sitting and death is based on a number of studies linking sitting to premature death and a higher risk of chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. But in recent years, the link between sitting and death has become complicated. As it turns out, the environment may be more important than sitting. Emmanuel Stamatakis, associate professor at the University of Sydney, said: “sitting at work is not associated with a significant long-term health risk. Perhaps this is because higher social status requires more sitting at work, and higher socioeconomic status is associated with lower risk of chronic disease. But sitting in front of the television is another condition, and sitting for long periods of time is the most likely cause of long-term health risks, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and early death, he explained. People who watch a lot of TVs tend to have lower socioeconomic status, be unemployed, have poorer mental health, eat unhealthy food and be exposed to unhealthy food advertisements. In other words, the literature on sitting may be influenced by socioeconomic factors that may help explain why some sedentary people are in poorer health than others.
Aaron Carroll says people who stand or walk more than six hours a day at work are at least twice as likely to have varicose vein surgery.
Varicose veins increase the risk of arterial disease and heart failure. As a result, standing at work, like sitting and watching too much TV, “may be a sign of other unhealthy factors or habits, including lower socioeconomic status.”
Exercise can prevent the potential harm of sitting too much
Exercise can protect against the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle. Physical inactivity (not just sitting) seems to increase the risk of chronic disease. Researchers found that when people exercised for about an hour a day, the health risks of sitting seemed to disappear.
A 2018 report by the royal college of medicine on the benefits of exercise found that regular physical activity can “prevent dementia, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, depression, heart disease and other common serious diseases by at least 30 percent,” which is better than many drugs.
At the same time, exercise also helps people live longer. “A number of studies have suggested that exercise may contribute to a reduction in all forms of mortality by about 30 percent,” the report said. Smoking is the leading cause of early death, chronic disease, and disability for many years. Overall, regular exercise reduced the risk of heart death by 31 percent, the researchers found.
The new survey found that two-fifths of Americans say they don’t exercise at all, which means they don’t do moderate or vigorous exercise.
More exercise doesn’t necessarily require extra time
Americans often complain that they don’t have enough time to do exercise. A 2018 survey asked 1,000 respondents what they would do with their extra four hours a week if they had the time. Exercise is the answer for most people. The desire to spend more time exercising beats the desire to spend more time with family, sleeping, or even doing a hobby.
But a paper published in the lancet in 2017 suggests that all kinds of physical activity are just as good for the heart. In fact, we may not need to set aside extra time for exercise. Exercise doesn’t require a gym membership or expensive shoes. Exercise is something you can do every day. It doesn’t have to be tiring or cost anything to see the health benefits.
It’s important to simply walk more while commuting, running errands, attending meetings or making phone calls. The Lancet researchers also found a linear relationship between physical activity and risk. That is, the more time a person spends exercising (in any form), the lower the risk of illness and death. The people who reported the most activity were also those who exercised regularly in their daily lives. These exercises are accomplished by many simple things, such as walking to work, doing housework and so on. Notice, this isn’t like standing at a table.
Leave A Comment