Sit and Die: Get Moving or Else

jeannette120

I wanted to share this article I received today. I am not affiliated with Dr. Amen or The Amen Clinics. This entry was written by Dr. Daniel G. Amen, posted on March 20, 2012 at 8:47 am, filed under Blog. http://70.32.73.82/blog http://www.amenclinics.net/


Sit and Die: Get Moving Or Else

Are you spending more than six hours of your day sitting down? If so, your risk of heart disease has increased by up to 64 percent, you’re shaving off seven years of quality life and you’re more at risk for certain types of cancer. Even people that exercise regularly are subject to the negative health effects of prolonged periods of sitting. Why? Simply put, our bodies weren’t made to sit all day. The good news is the negative effects of sitting are not difficult to counteract, but before we get to that let’s take a look at what happens to your body when you sit all day.

As soon as you sit down, the electrical activity in your muscles slows down and your calorie-burning rate drops to one calorie per minute. This is about a third of what it does if you’re walking. If you sit for a full 24-hour period, you experience a 40 percent reduction in glucose uptake in insulin, which can eventually cause type 2 diabetes.

After five days of sitting for more than six hours at a time, your body increases plasma triglycerides (fatty molecules), LDL cholesterol (aka bad cholesterol), and insulin resistance. This means your muscles aren’t taking in fat and your blood sugar levels go up, putting you at risk for weight gain. After just two weeks your muscles start to atrophy and your maximum oxygen consumption drops. This makes stairs harder to climb and walks harder to take. Even if you were working out every day the deterioration starts the second you stop moving.

After a year, the longer term effects of sitting can start to manifest subtly. According to this study by Nature, you might start to experience weight gain and high cholesterol. Studies in woman suggest you can lose up to 1 percent of bone mass a year by sitting for over six hours a day.

Sitting for over six hours a day for a decade or two can cut away about seven quality adjusted life years (the kind you want). It increases your risk of dying of heart disease by 64 percent and your overall risk of prostate or breast cancer increases 30 percent.

Sitting all day is literally shortening your life, but it doesn’t have to. Here are some easy things you can do to counteract the negative effects of sitting all day.

Remember to stand once an hour and get about 30 minutes of moderate activity per day. What exactly is moderate activity? Moderate activity can be anything from a brisk walk to yard work or cleaning your house — anything that gets you moving counts.

Of course, sometimes you don’t always have thirty minutes to spare, but you can break up that thirty minutes throughout the day. A great idea is to break those 30 minutes up into ten minute chunks because you’ll be creating a mini-stress in your body that helps increase your endurance.

Here are a few ideas for how to do it without really trying:

• Park near the back of the parking lot.
• Stand up to visit the file cabinet instead of rolling your chair.
• Walk over and talk to a coworker instead of emailing them.
• Take the scenic route to the bathroom instead of the most direct.

The second part to combating the negative effects of sitting is much simpler and only requires you stand up now and again. If you find yourself forgetting, try setting an alarm every hour to stand up every hour.

It’s up to you how you use these micro-breaks. You don’t even have to move if you don’t want to, but if you want to get a little activity in that minute, here’s a quick way to do it without leaving your desk area:

• Stand up.
• March in place for twenty seconds.
• Reach down and try to touch your toes for twenty seconds.
• Wander around and pick up or reorganize for the last twenty seconds (eventually your desk area may even be clean).

If you find yourself watching TV for hours on end at home consider using the commercial break as a perfect chance to stand and stretch. Most of the activities we sit down for hours on end to enjoy usually have natural breaks in them. Next time don’t just sit there, use those breaks to get up and get moving. It’s a perfect opportunity to help you improve your health and live longer.

Tajdancer

Boy, hasn't affected my MIL. She's been sitting on her *kitten* for 81 years now. But she's made of pure evil, so probably nothing's going to make her cack.