The Sitting Disease

The lack of activity in our day-to-day lives is taking a toll on our bodies. The prevalence of something known as “The Sitting Disease” has been growing over the past several decades and is known to cause at least 300,000 deaths annually. The problem is that more and more people are sitting for their jobs and then heading home to sit more at home. The sitting disease is noted in people who sit 11 or more hours a day.  One study done in 2020 showed that 80% of US jobs are predominately sedentary, with little to no activity to perform their job tasks. This is problematic, because our bodies require and thrive on movement and activity; and without that movement injuries can happen and our bodies can break down. Also, if we don’t use it we lose it. Therefore, if you are sitting for an extended amount of time without using your muscles; your muscle strength, by default, is going to decrease.  In order to understanding the implications of the “sitting disease”, we must first understand why sitting for long periods of time can be harmful to our bodies.

There are hard realities we need to face as a society when it comes to a majority of occupations that require long periods of sitting and very little activity. One of the reasons that sitting is so detrimental, is with sitting there is less muscles activity, leading to less blood to circulate and more blood to pool, particularly in our lower legs. This causes a venous overload and places excess pressure on the vessels in the feet. When we walk and move, our muscles help to pump blood out of the legs and back to the heart.  Without those muscles being active, the blood tends to pool in the legs causing edema and stress on the feet and ankles. Often, to compensate, our bodies increase the blood pressure to provide improved venous return, but prolonged elevated blood pressure can be a risk factor for an increase in cardiovascular events, such as strokes and heart attacks. Prolonged sitting is also associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, which is often caused by an inactive lifestyle. Prolonged inactivity generally leads to increased adipose tissue and decrease in muscle mass, which tends to have a high association with insulin resistance. A final reason that sitting can be harmful to our bodies, is that prolonged sitting tends to put our spine in a less-than-optimal position. The curves in our back are there for a reason. When our spines maintain those curves they provide shock absorption and optimal muscle stability. When we sit, it is more difficult to maintain these curves in our backs, and eventually our posture fails. How often to you sit on the couch, watching TV and notice that you have curled more into a C type position. When our posture fails and we get into a more slumped position, this adds more stress to our discs and decreases optimal muscle alignment, therefore making you very prone to injury. This can lead to neck and back pain, among other musculoskeletal issue and injuries. All these reasons are why prolonged sitting and inactivity is being termed the "Sitting Disease".

Now that we have followed the breadcrumbs of why prolonged sitting has now been dubbed the “Sitting Disease”, we need to make some changes. Since 80% of our jobs require prolonged sitting, we need to adapt and overcome! In some places of employment or for even some individuals working from home, they can adapt their workstations to having a sit/stand workstation. These stations are optimally designed to allow people to sit with good alignment, but also have a way to raise up to a functional standing workstation. This allows employees to vary their positions throughout the day, there for decreasing prolonged periods of sitting. These stations range from $250-$2000 and are often an easy install to most desks. Some employers may even provide these for employees upon request. Another, far less expensive option, is to set a timer on your phone and have it go off every hour and just stand up for 5-10 minutes, walk around your chair, go fill your water in the break room, walk to the bathroom and back. Just these small breaks, sporadically throughout the day, can break up those long periods of sitting and add a little muscle activity to your workday. If you are someone who works a mostly sedentary job, it is all the more important for you to add exercise to your daily routine. Whether this is an evening walk with the dog, hitting the gym before going in to the office, or trying a new yoga class a couple nights a week, whatever suits you and gets you moving is a good thing. The key is to not overthink or over tax your day by trying to go big with your movement goals. Start small with a couple walks a week or a couple days at the gym, and if it falls into your schedule nicely maybe add more. It is said that you have to do something 30 days to make it a habit, so stick with it and see what works for you.

One final note to que into with a job that requires a lot of sitting, is that proper posture is the key. Improper posture and poor alignment can lead to achy joints and muscle aches that can get much worse with repetitive and long term sitting. Gravity is no joke, and if we begin to slump, gravity just pulls us down and makes it worse. Make sure that your sitting posture meets the following requirements:

• Sit up straight with spine in neutral. I like to say "sit on the top of your sit bones, so you can feel them dig into the seat underneath you"

• Sit with knees slightly below hips and feet flat on the floor

• Keyboard height should be at a height where your elbows can be bent to 90 and you can reach the keyboard with ease, keeping elbows at sides

• Mouse should be close enough to keep elbows at side and just reach mouse hand slightly out to contact the mouse and use it

• Computer screen should be 20 inches from face and about 20 degrees below eye level

If you currently are in a sedentary job and are experiencing joint or muscle pain, give us a call today and see how we can help. In the meantime, hopefully this blog gives you ideas and motivations to "move" away from the dreaded "Sitting Disease" and into health and wellness. Now Get Moving!