Sitting disease is a term used to refer to chronic conditions that are associated with a sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise.

Our bodies are designed to be active. However, with changes in lifestyle brought about by technological advances that make our lives easier, humans have become more and more sedentary.

When you sit for too long, you use less energy than when you are standing or moving. This lack of movement has been linked to various health problems, such as cognitive decline, obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers, and even a shorter life expectancy. It is considered one of the most unexpected health threats of modern times.

Sitting disease can be especially problematic for the elderly, since the physical effects of aging can make it more challenging to stay active.

Studies have reported that reducing sitting to less than 3 hours a day can increase life expectancy by as much as 2 years.

Sitting at your office desk working all week long may help you achieve your self-actualization goals, or pay your bills and keep you out of debt, but may also be setting you up for some health problems in the future.

Sitting disease is the new smoking in the workplace, and it may be slowly draining your health while you make ends meet.

While all jobs require a mix of standing, walking, and sitting, some jobs require one to sit more than they stand or walk.

Most people employed in corporate jobs, including lawyers, accountants, human resource managers, and software designers spent more than 75 percent of their time sitting than either standing or walking, posing a serious health threat to them.

 

The health risks of too much sitting.

Sitting constitutes physical inactivity and if for too long each day or on most days implies having a sedentary lifestyle, whether or not one exercises. This has adverse effects on breathing, blood circulation, and posture, increasing the risk of several diseases.

Physical inactivity is linked to more than 3 million preventable deaths every year globally, ranking as the fourth leading cause of death resulting from non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The health risks of prolonged sitting include:

Obesity: One of the more obvious and faster hitting consequences of sitting too much is that it’s really easy to gain weight. Apart from the fact that prolonged sitting reduces your energy expenditure, which in turn increases fat accumulation in the body, physical inactivity also impairs the breakdown of fats and sugars in the body.

The consequent imbalance between energy intake and expenditure leads to an unhealthy weight gain and obesity. Obesity, in turn, raises the risk of several deadly non-communicable diseases, including metabolic syndrome and heart disease.

Chronic Joint Pains: The muscles of the legs and hips, particularly the glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps, are the major muscles you make use of when you sit.

However, when you sit for too long, you overstretch and strain these muscles and this may cause them to become tight and short. When they become inflexible and short, especially if you maintain a poor sitting posture, they cause problems for your hip joints and back.

Some complications of these include disc prolapse, nerve impingement, and premature degeneration of the joint structures.

Spending a long time hunched back over your desk or computer may also lead to stiff neck and pains in the shoulders and back.

Heart Disease: Sitting for long periods has been linked to heart disease: experts say that people who sit for long periods have a 147 percent greater risk of developing heart disease (heart attacks and stroke). Sitting for long hours raises the risk of dying of heart disease by 18 percent.

Diabetes: Inactivity from prolonged sitting can impairs tissue sensitivity to insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. This leads to diabetes, as excess sugar is underutilized by tissues, accumulating in the blood. Research shows that sitting for long periods raises the risk of diabetes by more than 112 percent.

Cancer: Physical inactivity has been linked to certain types of cancer, including the lungs, colon, and endometrium. Too much sitting may raise the risk of colon cancer by 24 percent, the risk of lung cancer by 21 percent, and the risk of endometrial cancer by 24 percent.

Deep Vein Thrombosis: A deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a blood clot in the deep veins of the leg. DVT is a serious health problem because the clot could break off and obstruct blood flow in other blood vessels it may settle in.

If the clot settles in the pulmonary artery of the lungs, it causes pulmonary embolism, a medical emergency that can lead to death if not promptly treated. Sitting for too long is one of the main risk factors for DVT because it causes stasis or pooling of blood in the legs.

Mental Illness: Sitting too much each day has been linked to mental health issues, including anxiety disorders and depression. This may be due to lack of exercise and fitness, which boost mental health.

Regardless of whether you exercise or not, if you sit for long periods each day, it counteracts the effects of the exercises and increases your risk of these diseases. In fact, experts say these risks increase with every 2 hours of sitting.

While the solution to this is not to go out of business or quit your job, there are viable solutions to getting you more active.

Sitting for long stretches can cause the large leg and gluteal muscles, which are responsible for walking and balance, to weaken. If these muscles become weak, they can lead to injuries and an increased risk of falls.

Sitting for a long time with your legs dangling can cause blood to pool in your legs, which can lead to varicose or spider veins.

Progress from exercising gone: A few weeks of inactivity can cost you all the progress you've made before. The more often you take breaks of inactivity, the faster you regress with each one.

Your endurance level and cardio health are the first victims. They start to go out the window in no more than two weeks. Then you’re back to your inactivity levels in no time. 

Dementia: Research has linked more sitting and less activity with an increased risk of developing dementia.

Chronic fatigue: It is common knowledge that people who work out on a regular basis have more energy. In fact, cancer patients’ symptoms improved when they began exercising more, a study shows.

Other research suggests that light exercise reduced feelings of fatigue by as much as 65 percent and boosted energy levels by 20 percent.

 

How to Cut Down on Prolonged Sitting in the Office.

Movement is the key: To reduce your risk of these diseases associated with prolonged inactivity. Here are simple, cost-effective solutions:

Change how you sit.

Move while you sit. A number of innovative seats help to redefine workplace design by promoting motion seating.  Swopper chairs allow for rocking, bouncing, and perching while also helping to maintain a good posture.

Recreate your Workstation: One way you could ensure you move around often is setting things up in your office to get you up often – place the printer, copy machine, and other office items away from your desk, so you have to walk to reach them every time you need them.

Also, raise your work surface to a height that keeps you standing while you work. Standing for three hours every day can burn up to 30,000 calories. 

Stand up and Stretch Every Hour: After every hour of sitting, take a walk around the office or just walk outside to get some fresh air. You may set a ringer to go off when it's time

You can also take short exercise breaks at intervals. Stand-ups, squats, arm rolls, and push-ups are a few exercises you could try at your desk.

Go see a co-worker instead of sending them a mail or a text; take the stairs instead of the elevator, and; when you drive in, park at the back of the garage, so you have to walk a distance before getting to your car on your way out.

Walk while you talk.

Walk while you answer your cell phone or while conversing with a coworker. Employers may also set up walking meetings to curb physical inactivity in the workplace. This not only burns excess calories, but it also boosts mental clarity, creativity, mood, and energy levels.

Sitting may not be as harmless as you think but with the high risk of disease and death this seemingly innocuous activity is associated with, there’s a call on employers, managers, and even entrepreneurs to rethink workplace design and culture and to encourage their employees and co-workers to walk while they work.

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