Sitting for long hours as bad as smoking a cigarette pack: Study

NEW DELHI: Did you know, siting for long hours at a stretch can give you high blood pressure and increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer?

In fact, any extended siting such as at a desk, behind a wheel, or in front of a screen can be harmful.

Prolonged siting is as bad as smoking a daily cigarete pack a day. When you are active your levels and endurance improves, and your bones maintain strength. You might start by simply standing rather than siting when you have the chance, or finding ways to walk while you work.

Every 30 minutes, take a break from siting. Stand while talking on the phone or while watching television

If you work at a desk, try a standing desk - or improvise with a high table or counter

Position your work surface above a treadmill -- with a computer screen and keyboard on a stand or a specialized treadmill-ready vertical desk, so that you can be in motion throughout the day

The impact of movement, even leisurely movement, can be profound.

For starters, you will burn more calories. This might lead to weight loss and increased energy levels. Also, physical activity helps maintain muscle tone and leads us to overall mental well-being.

When we sit, we use less energy as compared to standing or moving. Research has linked siting for long periods of time with several health concerns.

They include obesity and a cluster of conditions -- high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol levels.

Prolonged periods of siting also seem to increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Several studies done to understand the link between siting time and health risk factors found that those who sat for more than eight hours a day with no physical activity, faced similar risks of dying as posed by obesity or smoking.

Therefore, living a sedentary lifestyle can be dangerous to your health.

The less siting or lying down you do during the day, the beter your chances for living a healthy life. We know that due to the pandemic, most people are confined to their homes and work-from-home has added up to more working hours, leading to long siting hours in front of the screens. But the health impact it has is manifold.

Humans are built to stand upright. Our heart and cardiovascular system work more effectively that way. Our bowel function is also more efficient when we are upright. It is common for people who are bedridden in the hospital to experience problems with their bowel function, isn’t it? Similarly, siting for long or being inactive for prolonged hours can be very harmful to health.

Siting for long periods can lead to weakening and wasting away of the large leg and gluteal muscles. These large muscles are important for walking and for stabilizing us.

If these muscles are weak, we are more likely to get injured from falls, and from exercises.

Moving the muscles helps our body digest the fats and sugars we eat. If we spend a lot of time siting, digestion is not as efficient, so the body will retain those fats and sugars.

Siting causes our hip flexor muscles to shorten, which can lead to problems with hip joints. Siting for long periods can also cause problems with the back, especially if one consistently sits with poor posture or doesn’t use an ergonomically designed chair or workstation. Even if you exercise but end up spending a large amount of time siting, you are still at risk of health problems such as Metabolic Syndrome.

Emerging studies suggest that the dangers of siting include increasing your chances of developing some types of Cancer, including lung, uterine, and colon cancers.

A couple of months ago the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that working long hours is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year in a worsening trend that may accelerate further due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first global study of the loss of life associated with longer working hours, the paper in the journal Environment International showed that 745,000 people died from stroke and heart disease associated with long working hours in 2016.

The joint study, produced by the WHO and the International Labour Organization, showed that most victims (72%) were men and were middle-aged or older. Oten, the deaths occurred much later in life, sometimes decades later, than the shits worked.

It also showed that people living in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific region — a Who-defined region which includes China, Japan and Australia — were the most affected.

Overall, the study - drawing on data from 194 countries - said that working 55 hours or more a week is associated with a 35% higher risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease compared with a 35-40 hour working week.