You might have often heard people say “Sitting is Killing Me”. This phrase seems to be spoken lot more these days thanks to the busy schedules that people have. I believe that 75% of working people are in desk jobs which require them to be seated on their chair for at least 8 to 10 hours a day of not more. No wonder that most of these corporate employees complaint of lot of pain issues including one of sitting pain due to sitting all day long.
A sitting job is as dangerous as smoking can be for your body. Most sit at their work stations and have no other activity apart from staring into their computers. On an average 10 hours a day is spent at the work desk as compared to 7 hours of sleeping. Sitting is so prevalent and so pervasive that we don’t even question how much we’re doing it.
Excessive sitting, defined as nine to 10 hours a day, has been called a lethal activity. Dry eyes? (“Your eyes are not designed to keep focusing and moving repetitively across a computer screen,”) Weight gain? (Sitting job mostly stressful and when you are stressed out, your body is flooded with Cortisol, a stress hormone, which makes you crave for carbohydrates, sugar and fatty foods). You might not realize this being parked at a desk but, all this goes into your body.
A sitting Job leads you towards a shorter life. Sitting down the whole day doubles diabetes and heart attacks risk. Some research shows difference in health outcomes between the most and least sedentary workers. Those who spent the most time sitting down had a greater risk of diabetes. Risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks or strokes increased in the most sedentary workers.
You should get to know how uninterrupted sitting hours can be dangerous for your health:-
- Working long hours in a similar sitting position affects the blood circulation of body
- Increased risk of having diabetes and heart diseases
- Causes eye strain
- Causes tiredness in the back and neck muscles
- Reduces efficiency of heart and lungs
- Leads to back and joint pains
- Responsible for digestive problems
Few suggestions to keep you active at workplace:-
- Take small breaks.
- Avoid the elevator, use stairs.
- Go for a short walk during the lunch hour
- Rinse your eyes with water
- Move neck forward or backward
- Change body positions frequently
- Make correct adjustment of chair (height, tilt etc.)
- Carry out some simple exercises
- Sit in a comfortable position
Good to see real expertise on display. Your coitunbrtion is most welcome.
Excellent article. I always take short break of 5 minutes to walk every one hour. It helps me a lot. But I am not finding any solution for dry eye. Splashing water doesn’t work.