Although most people know how harmful it is to sit for long hours every day, still, sitting remains something unavoidable. Just imagine a pie chart in front of you wherein you’ll list your activities per day. Then you’ll notice that after sleeping for 8 hours and working at the office for 8 hours also, you’ll find yourself sitting again in front of the television, reading or eating. If you’ll put color in your time spent sitting, you’ll probably set colors in 14 hours of it aside from the 8 hours you spend sleeping.
There are very minimal body movements in our daily routine. So it should not be a surprise if we experience such dangerous effects due to excessive sitting. Here are just some of those harmful effects:
Back pain. Sitting for long hours causes too much pressure on your lower back resulting to sudden pain which can last for few days up to weeks. This can be dangerous when not treated immediately. It can result to back bone damages or to some more serious health problems.
Obesity. Since sitting is a sedentary thing, you cannot expect your body to burn fat if you’re not moving a bit. To burn calories, the body must be in constant motion so if you’ll remain sitting the genes in charge of burning those fats will automatically slow down its job.
Improper posture. You might not notice your improper posture when you are too busy with your work. Flipping back and forth of your uncomfortable chair is just one way to refresh yourself and your body of that stressful work so changing your sitting positions once in a while might help stimulate good blood flow but it might not be helpful in your posture. You might find yourself slouching without noticing it.
Heart problem. This is because sitting hampers smooth blood circulation in your body. If the blood does not flow properly, it will result to leap of blood pressure and it will be tougher work for the heart plus the fact that sitting promotes cholesterol in the body.
Weaken immune system. The body needs ample amount of exercise to be healthy. The nutrients cannot smoothly flow in all parts of the body if the body is not at work. Thus resulting to weaken immune system, sickness and ailments.
Blood clots. As what we’ve stated earlier, it requires movement for the blood to flow smoothly in the body. Sitting might cause blood clots in the lower parts of the body which is dangerous when these blood clots reach the heart and lungs. These effects are not just harmful so never take this for granted.
These can be fatal based on studies. After giving you this list of effects, we’ll then give you some remedies for this.
Using heated seats or cushions can be a great help in this situation. This is recommended by health experts because cushions support the lower body from the weight of the upper body. Also the therapeutic heat stimulates smooth blood circulation that penetrates in all parts of the body. Aside from using heated seat cushion, take time to have a walk even after every hour and if possible, avoid sitting after office hours. If your house is just nearby, consider walking than riding home.
