More than half of working adults spend more than six hours sitting down each day. A larger waistline and rear end are the only results. Sitting for too long impacts the human body, both immediately and in the long run. The activity might seem benign enough, but it can also be deadly. Just what happens to you when you sit too long?
Regardless of how much you exercise, sitting for a long period of time increases your risk for dying early. That’s according to research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The research focused on almost 8,000 adults. If you sit down for more than a half an hour at a time, your risk of premature death rises. This danger rises once people pass the age of 45, as they might spend over 12 hours of a 16-hour waking day sitting down.
Deep vein thrombosis, also known as DVT is certainly an issue. It’s a kind of blood clot that is commonly found in a person’s legs. If part of such a clot breaks off, it might prevent blood flow to particular body parts. If that happens to your lungs, you might suffer a pulmonary embolism. This medical emergency can create serious complications and even kill you.
The lower half of your body isn’t all that’s affected by sitting too long. Your neck and shoulders will eventually get stiff, particularly if you’re hunched over a computer screen, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.
If you don’t like varicose veins, then don’t sit for long periods of time without breaks. Spider veins are another risk. They’re not usually hurtful to your health, but they’re unsightly when visible and swollen, which doesn’t do much for your self-esteem and confidence. Rare cases can run up your risk of the aforementioned blood clots though.
Your glutes and legs are going to get weaker. This is really a textbook case of use them or lose them. Muscles atrophy when not used, and this doesn’t just put your lower body at risk, because strong glutes and legs keep your entire body stable, so you risk injury from head to toe.
That injury of risk also rises again due to the weight gain inevitable with being very sedentary. When muscles move, they release molecules such as lipoprotein lipase, something your body uses in processing sugars and fats in your diet. That’s not going to help your back which is going bad or your tightening hips.
Spending too much time sitting down also runs up your risk of cancer and diabetes, as well as anxiety and depression. Fortunately, exercise can mitigate the downside on a lot of these. Your current career might not make it possible to be active all the time, but standing up and moving around a little every half hour or so can go a long way in fighting off the risks associated with sitting too long, and a robust workout routine outside of work is always a good idea.