Sitting on the job can be dangerous for your health

According to a new study by Adrian Bauman and his team from the University of Sydney’s school of public health, the persons whose jobs involve sitting down for long periods of time increases risk of early death. This means the longer people sit each day the greater their chances of death. But what about the exercises and other physical activities? Even if you take exercises and physical activities into account, it would not enough to offset the effects of sitting for several hours.

This study is not a good news, especially for IT professionals who have to spend every day at least 8 hours sitting in front of computer screen. Those who sat for more than 10 hours a day had a 48 per cent increased risk of death compared to more active people who sat for less than four hours a day.  This means that the physically active jobs such as gardeners, builders and childcare workers faced less of a problem than those chained to a desk.

Your lowest risk of death is if you are physically active and don’t sit and highest risk is if you don’t do any physical activity and you sit a lot of the day. What’s happening is when you sit, the meal you have just eaten is broken down into sugar and your blood sugar stays high. Sugar wants to be taken into muscles and the liver to be used but if you’re sitting it’s just circulating so your blood sugar stays high.

Also I would like to add, according to latest research carried out by the American College of Cardiology, prolonged sitting is linked to increased risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and even early death and could be just as dangerous, if not more so, than smoking. So we can conclude Smoking certainly is a major cardiovascular risk factor and sitting can be equivalent in many cases.

Some useful tips to staying more active at the workplace:

• Stand and stretch frequently, after every 2 hour.
• Park your car or bike farther away from your workplace.
• Walk whenever possible.
• Always use stairs. Avoid elevators.
• Take breaks to bend and take deep breaths.
• Don’t smoke to reduce stress or tension.