Sitting is one of the best ways to rest and relax, however, many people spend a large part of the day in this position, especially during work hours or at home watching TV.
The human body is designed to move around frequently and therefore spending more than 6 hours a day sitting can be detrimental to your health over time.
Some of the most common problems include ease to gain weight, diabetes and even cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure or heart failure.
What happens in the body
Some of the changes that arise in the body when you are more than 6 hours sitting per day include:
1. Weakening of muscles
Soon from the first moment of sitting the electric activity in the muscles decreases markedly, because the body enters a mode of relaxation in which the muscles are being little used.
This decrease in activity, in addition to making the muscles weaker, hinders the circulation of blood to the brain, decreasing the amount of well-being hormones that reach the brain cells, contributing to cases of severe fatigue, sadness and depression.
2. Decreased metabolism
Once the muscles are being underused the metabolism slows down, starting to burn only 1 calorie per minute. This increases the ease in gaining weight, especially when sitting and eating.
Also with the reduction of the metabolism happens decrease of the intestinal movements, resulting in constipation and excessive production of gases.
3. Increased risk of cardiovascular disease
When you sit for more than 3 hours the arteries are no longer dilated and therefore the blood has more difficulty circulating throughout the body. Because of this effect, the heart needs to make more force to pump the blood, so over time cardiovascular problems can arise such as high blood pressure or heart failure, for example.
4. Increased bad cholesterol
Lack of physical exercise reduces the production of lipase, an enzyme capable of eliminating excess bad cholesterol from the blood, as well as other fat cells. That way, the amount of cholesterol increases and the risk of heart attack or stroke as well.
Due to the increase in fat cells it is also common to gain weight that can lead to cases of obesity.
5. Risk of developing diabetes
People who sit a long time suffer a decrease in insulin's ability to collect glucose, so the risk of developing diabetes is much higher.
How to combat these risks
To avoid all these damages it is advised that people who work a long time sitting up get up several times a day, preferably hourly, to stimulate blood circulation and do some stretching exercise. Here are some exercises to do at work and improve your quality of life.
In addition, a good tip for those who work in offices and spend more than 3 hours sitting is going to drink water or go to the bathroom every 2 hours to stimulate blood circulation. Other good tips are to change the elevator up the stairs, make healthy meals and leave the work environment at lunch time, taking advantage of this time to "off" work, also having some leisure time, which also improves productivity.
