Health Risks that come with sedentary lifestyle

We know that our lives have now become sedentary. Especially, people living in cities who spend most part of their day sitting—driving to work, working at your desk for hours together, eating meals in between, commuting back home, everything is done while being seated.  Excessive sitting is what we call sedentary lifestyle. Lifestyle where there’s hardly any activity or physical movements of your body.

We often get lost in the process of keeping our commitments and targets at work, that we forget the commitment that we have to our own bodies. Our work is our priority and it should be. We get that. But, all of it would be for nothing if we don’t take care of our body as much as we take care of our deadlines.

And it really doesn’t take much, just a bit of awareness about how actively you’re spending your time, during the day. Now, that’s manageable right? If your answer is still no, then maybe you should know how continuing in your sedentary way of life might put your body at risk.

  1. Weight Gain

This goes without saying. One is bound to gain weight if you stayed glued to your office chair. Get up often, stretch, take walks, and arrange for walking meetings. Move your body even while you’re at work.

  1. Cardiovascular Disease

The lack of movement creates a lack of blood flow in your body. A healthy blood circulation is necessary for all bodily functions. Take the efforts to do simple neck, arm and led exercises and stretching while at work, to let your blood flow.

  1. Pressure on Back

A person who is always sitting at their desk faces excessive pressure on their back. Especially, at the lower back. This can give rise to severe back problems and also negatively impact a person’s posture in some cases. Standing desks, standing meetings, are great excuses to rescue yourself and your back, from the grips of your chair.

  1. Increase in Blood Sugar Levels

The increase in blood sugar levels is very sharp in a person spending their entire day sitting in one place. Some movement during the day helps bring down the sugar levels in blood that otherwise can become dangerous in the long run. It can also lead to Type 2 diabetes later on in life.

  1. Low Metabolism

Sitting for long hours can decrease your body’s ability to metabolize food that you eat. The energy that your food gives your body is not expended, because there’s hardly any physical activity. Less physical activity also means your body isn’t tired enough by the bed time, which can also affect your quality of sleep.

In addition to these mentioned, sedentary life also brings with it certain additional problems such as heart diseases, high cholesterol, stroke, osteoporosis, certain cancers such as colon, breast and uterine, as well as depression and anxiety.

Most of us think that exercise counterattacks the problems that come with sedentary lifestyle. No, sedentary lifestyle, in fact, diminishes the positive effects of exercise on your body. This means, even if you exercise but spend most of your time sitting, your body will not benefit much from the exercise.

Now, that you know the risks, you may want to take a break and go take a walk? Just be active as much as you can, whether you’re at work or home.




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