Sitting pretty is not all it’s made out to be
ARE you sitting comfortably? You won’t be for long.
Scientists have an unsettling update about an activity that 50 to 70% of us spend about six hours a day doing.
Putting your feet up, taking a load off: whatever we call it, the simple act of sitting has started to look a lot less appealing in recent years.
Until new research last month by the Medical College of Wisconsin, one of the largest studies into the effects of our sedentary lifestyles was in 2012, when researchers from Loughborough University and the University of Leicester assessed nearly 800 000 people from a range of countries.
They found incredibly strong evidence linking excessive sitting to poor health: compared to people who sit the least, those who spend most time in a chair have a 112% higher risk of developing diabetes, a 147% higher risk of suffering “cardiovascular events” such as strokes and a 49% increased risk of death from any cause.
High cholesterol, lower back pain, colon cancer and slow blood circulation are just a few of the problems caused by too much sitting.
Following this research the term “sitting disease” was coined for the array of inactivity-related conditions that are becoming ever more common.
But beyond general advice, such as “try to walk while on the phone” or “take the stairs instead of the lift”, few practical solutions have emerged.
What is perhaps less obvious – and even more worrying – than the fact that inactivity is bad for us, is the recent Wisconsin discovery that the health risks from sitting down cannot be entirely counteracted by exercise, as you may imagine.
The study assessed the activity levels of more than 2 000 adults with an average age of 50. They were found to spend, on average, just over five hours a day in a chair, and for each hour they weren’t standing, the levels of artery deposits in their blood vessels increased by 14%. Most alarmingly, any improvement in fitness due to time at the gym was almost completely negated by staying still for a few hours.
“Active couch potato” is another recently invented term, and it describes so many of us with office jobs: we meet recommended exercise guidelines but still spend long periods sitting down, storing up health issues.
This poses particularly difficult challenges for companies. Sedentary jobs have increased by 83% since 1950, and the UK government estimates that “presenteeism”, defined as “the loss of productivity that occurs when people come to work ill”, costs the UK economy more than £15-billion (R275-billion) every year.
Where a few years ago companies talked of the “green economy”, which prioritised environmental sustainability, survival in the business world now depends on the sustainability of an employee’s wellbeing. It is no longer enough to dole out discount gym memberships – expect bouncing balls to take the place of your chairs any day now. – The Telegraph