I had some interesting feedbacks from my previous article titled “Fighting Chair disease”. In that article I pointed out that prolonged sitting is bad not only for your spine but your health in general and advised on the need to stand up every 30mins. A remark I received from an avid gym buff prompted me to write this follow up and clarify a few pertinent points that goes beyond spinal problems. This reader stated that he is able to reverse the effect of prolonged sitting not just on his lower back but his general health by exercising. Sadly it is not as simple as that.
The history of hazardous effect of sitting behaviour has its roots in the 1950s when it was shown that they were fewer cases of heart diseases in middle aged men with physically demanding jobs compared to men in physically inactive jobs. Fast forward 50years, the Canadian fitness survey in 2008 showed that even among physically active individuals there is a strong association between sitting and mortality risk from all causes (diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, non alcoholic fatty liver, cancer etc) even if an individual meets the stipulated guideline of 30mins of moderately intensive exercises most days of the week.
When you sit your body starts to shut down at the metabolic level. In sitting the level of the enzyme lipoprotein lipase drops appreciably. This is the enzyme that mops up fat from the blood to be used as body fuel, thus with consistent sitting the level of blood fat starts to soar increasing the risk of heart diseases. Also there is a sharp drop in the good cholesterol HDL with sitting. The less you move the less sugar your body uses: research shows that for every 2 hours spent in sitting your chance of contracting diabetes goes up by 7%.
In contrast standing activates muscles so excess amounts of blood glucose don’t hang around in the blood stream but are instead absorbed. Muscles have been shown to burn about 1 calorie in standing so you get to burn about 120 calories in 2 hours just for standing up. A recent study by Cancer Prevention Center in Australia showed that regardless of how much moderate to vigorous exercise participants did, those who took more breaks from sitting throughout the day had slimmer waist, lower BMI and healthier blood fat and sugar levels than those who sat the most. Little wonder so many people still struggle with weight, blood sugar, and cholesterol woes despite keeping consistent work out regimes.
I must point out though that too much standing has been shown to have its own negative effects. Over standing could predispose one to varicose vein, foot problems and also exacerbate an already lower back problem. The key then is to strike a balance.
Although exercising is strongly encouraged in every individual, the solution to prolonged sitting is to ramp up your non-exercises activity thermogenesis or NEAT. This is the energy or calories you burn doing everything but exercises. So in addition to your structured exercises regime you need to add frequent episodes of spontaneous physical activity throughout the day.
Nkiru Jibuaku
