Health Hazards of Prolonged Sitting: In today’s lifestyle, prolonged sitting is very much common because, in today’s scenario, most jobs are based on working on the computer or sitting jobs, so one needs to do prolonged sitting as a requirement of their profession, mostly IT professionals, Physicians, bureaucrats, bankers, etc. have to sit prolonged as per the requirement of their job. There are many Health Hazards of Prolonged Sitting, we will discuss the health hazards of prolonged sitting in this article.

Introduction of Health Hazards of Prolonged Sitting

The comfortable position of sitting is completely unnatural for the human body. Our body contains 640 muscles, 360 joints, 900 ligaments, and 206 bones, all specifically designed for motion and the fact of the matter is that sitting down damages the body in many ways.

Now, a day it is very much popular that “Sitting is the new smoking”, Sitting is the cause of many health hazards. Physical inactivity is the 4th leading cause of global mortality. When we sit down, our arteries, veins, nerves, internal organs, and muscles become compressed negatively impacting many systems in our body. So, let’s talk about the impact on each system beginning with skeletal and muscular system.

Prolonged Sitting Effects on Spine

The spine contains 33 bones and 23 disks. Sitting causes the spine to curve, placing these bones and discs under unequal pressure. This causes them to become inflamed, and the muscles that support them are strained. Sitting also causes rigidity in chronically short muscles, such as the hamstring, calves, and the inner hip, some ligaments and joints also become overloaded meaning they are subject to more force than usual. Together, all these muscle imbalances combined with the wear-n-tear on the spinal discs are the number one cause of lower back pain. 

You have heard many of your friends and colleagues who have been associated with the sitting job profession have a complaint about back pain and other prolonged sitting-related issues.

Many studies have suggested that people who are associated with sitting jobs spend an average of 7 to 8 hours of a working day sitting on chair. The skeletal and muscular system are not the only ones impacted. The respiratory system is affected too. when sitting the chest cavity size is reduced this means that the lungs can’t expand as much during respiration.

Prolonged Sitting Effects on Respiratory System

When sitting chest cavity size is reduced this means that the lungs can’t expand as much during respiration. The result is that the amount of oxygen dispersed into blood stream is reduced as well as sitting increases abdominal pressure, the diaphragm muscle contract against a higher pressure with inefficient complete excursion, therefore less air is inhaled. when sitting, the spine also experiences exacerbated thoracic kyphosis, causing the back to round forward. This rounding further restricts the chest cavity, rendering a portion of the lungs ineffective when both inhaling and exhaling.

You May Also Like It – Top Heart-Healthy Foods to Unclog Arteries Naturally

Prolonged Sitting Effects on Digestive System

Many researchers suggest that due to sitting there is less space to move food through the body. since our internal organs are being compressed. Due to lack of space food passes through our 9-meter-long digestive tract and gets digested more slowly than usual. If digestion slows and abdominal muscles become too weakened from extensive sitting, it may even lead to constipation.

Prolonged Sitting Effects on Circulatory System

Just like the digestive system and respiratory system sedentarism also harms the circulatory system. The various parts of the circulatory system become compressed, smooth muscle in the vessel walls, and the skeletal walls, normally move blood through the body, but due to persistent immobility interferes with the process. Regular sitting on chair for 2 to 3 hours in a chair can lead to reduction in good cholesterol, as well as a drop in lipoprotein lipase, which is an enzyme responsible for breaking down fat in the blood. So, sitting also dramatically slow down the rate at which the body can burn fat. In addition, since arteries and veins become pressurized, after 3 to 4 hours sitting arterial dilation reduces by a large extent up to 50%. This means blood vessel become constricted and the blood flow get reduced, causing limbs and the urinary systems are also disrupted. This is because the sitting leads to the stagnation of blood and lymph in the pelvic area, creating favorable conditions for the development of pathogens.

Prolonged Sitting Effects on Nervous System

As we have discussed, nerves undergo compression when we are sitting. This is physically noticeable in the form of tingling or numbness in the limbs and has the added disadvantage of limiting the signals that can be sent to and from the brain. and the brain itself undergoes some negative effects from prolonged sitting as well. Reduction in blood flow to the brain that we mentioned earlier. The vertebral arteries provide 20% of blood flow to the brain. When sitting, the head tilts forward due to hamstring tightness and lumbar kyphosis, and the vertebral arteries become compressed. This leads to lower levels of oxygen in the brain, negatively affecting concentration level and brain activity. So, if we get “brain fog” after sitting an extended period of time, talk a walk to increase the blood circulation to the brain.

Prolonged Sitting is Responsible for Many Health Issues and Diseases

Extended prolonged sitting can be cause of many other health hazards can lead to Devastating health risks, which includes heart disease, diabetes, kidney problems, liver problems, and even some forms of cancer. In fact, research has shown that the sedentary behavior is consistently linked to more than 30 chronic diseases and conditions.

Increased Risk of Diabetes: Persistently immobile people experience 100% increased risk of contracting type 2 diabetes.

Increased Risk of Heart Diseases: Persistently immobile people experience 147% increased risk of contracting heart disease.

Also Read – Effective Heart Disease Prevention Strategies

Increased Risk of Neuro and Brain Related Issues: Many medical research including UCLA even shows that sedentary behavior is associated with thinning brain regions, critical in memory and information processing.

All these consequences are pretty severe.

wellhealthorganic.com: Health Hazards of Prolonged Sitting

What We Can Do to Mitigate.

As we have discussed the “Health Hazards of Prolonged Sitting”, the question is what we can do to mitigate them.

1. If anyone must sit, do so with the correct posture.

• • Now, you might ask what defines the correct posture, in correct posture, the weight must be symmetrically distributed on the left and right side of your body.
  • Then, weight must be offloaded symmetrically through the soles of the feet and through the additional weight distribution points. on chairs, these additional points are the back and the armrest.

2. You must respect the normal curvature of the spine, if you want to impress your friends with some medical terminology, let them know that lumbar lordosis, thoracic kyphosis, and cervical should only remain with normal ranges.

3. The hip should also create a 90-degree angle with the rest of the body when sitting, and any screen or paper currently in use should be kept at arm’s length, with a viewing angle right-at or just-below eye levels.

4. Next, the ideal alternative is getting a standing desk to help you work in a totally upright position.

5. Aside from sitting properly, one should also take regular breaks and move around ideally every 30 to 45 minutes.

• • Setting a reminder on the phone is a great way to make sure you get it done.

6. Finally, everyone should be incorporating exercise into their everyday routines, ideally in the mornings. Occasional exercise will not counteract the consequences of extended sitting.

• •  Try to Work out regularly.
  •  Avoid sitting for a long period of time.

I hope this article will make you aware about the “Health Hazards of Prolonged Sitting”.

I wish to all the readers a healthy and fit life.