Sitting disease a main cause of morbidity, mortality

“We are physicians from different specialties with a specific interest in public health advocacy and promotion. We, also, aim to increase awareness among the Kuwaiti public regarding a variety of diseases and conditions and to rectify the misconceptions they may have.

Since our group consists of multiple physicians we decided to write under the pen name of L’homme en Blanc.”

People in the old days used to travel by means that required physical activity, such as walking or riding a donkey, however, nowadays everyone has a car and tends to park it at the closest available spot to the entrance of their office or the shopping mall. This change in behavior has resulted in a dramatic decrease in an individual’s average level of physical activity.

The average person should walk around 10,000 steps a day. I personally connected a step meter on myself and found that I walk around 5000 steps a day. Thus I am short of half the average steps I need to fulfill the requirement of a healthy day. I also convinced my family to do the same and it was not a surprise when I found that their average was around 3,000.

So why is it important to stay active? Well that is fairly easy. Think of your body as a machine. Now if this machine is not used for a long time it starts to decay and wear out. This is actually what is happening to our bodies when we sit down for long periods of time. Our heart starts to weaken and cholesterol starts to build up in our arties resulting in an increased risk of heart attacks. In addition, when we are physically unfit we increase our risk of developing dementia (deceased cognitive brain function). Furthermore, staying inactive increases your risk of developing osteorthritis.

There is a video that went viral on TouTube a few years back, it spoke about the sitting disease in an interesting way. This video is called twenty three and a half hours. I urge everyone to YouTube the video. The basic summary of that video is that since you have 24 hours in a day, 23 and 1/2 of those should be used for work, sleep, leisure, and further activities that you usually engage in. The 30 minutes of your day that are left should be used as a medicament, and that medicament is physical activity. Physical activity has been proven to decrease the risk of heart disease and dementia by half, and the risk of osteoarthritis by 30%.

I know the weather in Kuwait does propagate the problem of the sitting dis- ease, but that does not mean we should surrender to this deadly disease and just give up. No! There are ways that we can overcome this obstacle. One of these ways is to have a gym membership, which would enable you to get your 30 minutes a day. Other ways include going for a brisk walk at night when the weather is cooler, especially since the temperatures are dropping and we will enjoying the winter breezes soon. Keep walking and stay healthy Kuwait!