Are You Sitting Too Much?

 Right now you are probably sitting down to read this blog and staying seated for a few minutes is probably okay but the longer you sit the more agitated your body becomes. It sits there counting down the moments until you stand up again and take it for a walk. That may sound ridiculous because we love to sit right? Not really sitting for brief periods can help us recover from stress but nowadays our lifestyles make us sit much more than we move around and our bodies are simply not built for such a sedentary existence. In fact, just the opposite is true, the human body is built to move and you can see evidence of that in the way it is structured. Inside us are over 36o joints and about 700 skeletal muscles that enable easy, fluid motion. The body's unique physical structure gives the ability to stand straight against the pull of gravity. Our blood depends on us moving around to be able to circulate properly. Our nerve cells benefit from movements and our skin is elastic meaning it moulds to our motions. So with every inch of the body ready and waiting for you to move what happens when you just don't move?

Effects of being seated for so long:

Let's start with the backbone of the problem. Our spine is a long structure made up of bones and a cartilage discs that sits between that. Joints, muscles and ligaments that are attached to the bones hold it all together. A common way of sitting is with a curved back and slumped shoulders, it is a position that puts uneven pressure on your spine. Over time this causes wear and tear in your spinal discs and put a strain on muscles that stretch to accommodate your back's curved position. This hunched shape also shrinks your chest cavity while you sit meaning your lungs have less space to expand into when you breathe. This is a problem because it temporarily limits the amount of oxygen that fills your lungs and filters into your blood. 

Around the skeleton, there are muscles, nerves, arteries and veins that form the body's soft tissue layer. The very active sitting squashes pressurize and compresses and these more delicate tissues really feel the brunt. Have you ever experienced numbness or swelling in your limbs when you sit? In areas that are most compressed your nerves, arteries and veins can become blocked which limits the nerve signalling causing the numbness and produces blood flow in your limbs causing them to swell. 

Sitting for long periods also temporarily deactivates LipoProtein Lipase which is a special enzyme in the walls of blood capillaries that breaks down fats in the blood. So when you sit you are not burning fat nearly as well as when you are not moving around. 

What effect does all of these have on the brain?  Most of the time you probably sit down to use your brain but ironically the periods of sitting runs counter to this goal. Being stationary reduces blood flow and the amount of oxygen entering your bloodstream through your lungs your brain requires both of these two things to remain alert. As a result, your concentration levels will most likely dip as your brain activities slow. 

Long-term effects:

Unfortunately, the ill effects of being seated don't only exist in the short term recent studies have found that sitting for long periods is linked with some types of cancers and heart disease and can contribute to diabetes, kidney and liver problems. In fact, researchers have worked out that worldwide inactivity causes about 9% of premature deaths a year which is over 5 million people.  So what seems like harmless inactivity actually has the power to change our health. 

Luckily the solutions to these mounting threats are simple. When you have no choice but to sit, try switching the slouch for a straighter spine and when you do not have to be bound to your sit aim to move around much more. Set a reminder to yourself to get up every half an hour. Just appreciate the fact that bodies are made for motion, not stillness. In fact, as this article is almost over why not get up and stretch right now. Treat your body to a walk it will thank you later.