If you work in an office or of the House, you probably know all too well what it feels like to sit for hours on end with no breaks in between. If this is your daily experience, you probably experience pain and stiffness throughout the day. Additionally, research suggests that too much sedentary time could also contribute to additional health complications.
A report published by JAMA Cardiology in June 2022, revealed the impact of sitting for too long on people from 21 different countries. Although this study is one of the largest published on this topic, it is not the first to reveal the difficult truth about the effects of a sedentary lifestyle on your health. This study and others on this topic published over the past decade found that sitting for long periods of time each day without a break can quickly age your body in several ways.
Read on to learn more about how this daily habit is making you age quickly, and for more tips for healthy aging, check out 8 eating habits to slow down brain aging.
How prolonged sitting can accelerate aging and have fatal consequences
Office jobs have always posed a threat to finding movement throughout the day. But with the Work at home Becoming much more common in recent years with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people find themselves sitting at their desks or on their couches for hours on end. Unfortunately, this could have disastrous consequences on the health of several populations.
THE JAMA Cardiology The study found that all populations studied had results proving that more sitting time equated to a greater risk of health complications. By an article in Scientific alert exhibitor on the JAMA Cardiology study, sitting for six to eight hours a day “increases the relative risk of heart disease and premature death by approximately (12 to 13 percent), compared to people who sit for less than four hours a day.” Increase that time to eight hours or more, and the relative risk rises to an astonishing 20 (%).
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Much other research has reached similar conclusions regarding the harmful effects of prolonged sitting for long periods throughout the day. A report published in 2019 in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that longer periods of daily sitting were associated with an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Additionally, another 2017 study from The Journal of Lifestyle Medicine The assessment of office workers’ habits concluded that long daily sitting periods – also between six and eight hours – were associated with symptoms of hypertension and musculoskeletal disorders in the body.
The Mayo Clinic also warns people about the dangers of sitting for hours without taking breaks to move, saying that making the habit a routine can be linked to health complications such as high blood pressure, obesity, high blood sugar and also excess visceral fat, the type of fat that lives around your organs, near your abdomen. In fact, after reviewing 13 studies that looked at time spent sitting versus amount of daily activity, Mayo Clinic researchers concluded that “those who sat for more than eight hours a day without physical activity had a risk of dying similar to that posed by obesity and smoking.
While this is an alarming statistic, fortunately, changing your usual sedentary lifestyle may be easier than you think.
Incorporating more daily movement into your lifestyle
These results may seem bleak, but there is hope in combating the effects of prolonged sitting. Although many of us have to sit for several hours a day to get work done, research shows that even adding just an hour of movement a day can have extremely positive effects. For example, a 2016 study by University of Cambridge found that 60 to 75 minutes of moderate exercise per day, which includes a fast walk or a bike ride, could potentially eliminate the harmful effects of aging as well as the increased risk of premature death linked to sitting for too long.
While this may not be possible every day due to busy schedules or other common factors, it is promising to know that something as simple and low-impact as a walk can potentially do a difference in improving your health, in addition to engaging in other forms of activities. exercise. So, if you work in the office or at home, try a morning walk or an evening walk after dinner. Additionally, when faced with the choice between taking the stairs or taking the elevator, opt for more steps to counter the effects of unavoidable, prolonged periods of time in your seat. Your body will thank you!
Samantha Boesch
Samantha was born and raised in Orlando, Florida, and now works as a writer in Brooklyn, New York. Learn more about Samantha
