If you truly love yourself you had better read this piece while standing!
It is often common to hear a parent tell a child, “sit quietly and watch television and I will make a quick dash to the market.” Well this harmless and well-meaning statement is now being vilified. That parent may well have said “smoke a few sticks of cigarettes while I dash off to the market.” Yes “sitting is the new smoking.”
Scientists; they keep coming up with many weird findings and unfortunately we realize after much ado that they are right. People with sitting jobs have twice the rate of cardiovascular diseases as those with standing jobs – the bankers are cringing in their seats I bet. It appears that compared to sitting, standing is real hard work. Imagine that you need to engage many muscles to stand upright. The good news is this burns energy. Sitting on the other hand is extremely relaxing.
When we sit, the “physiology of inactivity” kicks in and when we think we are relaxing in a chair made from heaven, our body instead rewards us with many bad things; enzymes that break down fat may drop by about 90%, calorie burning drops to frightening low levels and soon good cholesterol that protects us also drops. If you sit long enough even your insulin effectiveness drops and you will be courting diabetes in the long run.
I sincerely believe in getting a workout during the day but you should not think that it gives you license to sit at your desk for hours on end. We should ensure that we get up from our desk to walk briefly or even stretch. I am not giving you an excuse for loitering around your office or forming a gossip team. After an hour of sitting it will benefit you if you walk for a minute or two.
Why is sitting now being described as smoking of our time? Well a few years ago, it was almost fashionable to be smoking and we were exposed to all the risks it comes with: Heart disease and hypertension, strokes and a gargantuan list. Fast forward to 2013 and many people are spending long hours sitting at their desk either working, studying or pretending to do one of the two and for others they sit to entertain themselves or simply sit because they have nothing else to do. Sitting continuously also brings on many of the challenges that smoking does and their rates of causing harm are similar.
Verdict: you can’t even sit comfortably now and “mind your own business.” In addition to the heart and blood vessel challenges that smoking will heap on you, back, neck and knee pains abound the longer you remain seated.
There should be a simple way to avoid the dangers that sitting brings to the “table” – redo what our ancestors did. I am sure in centuries long gone, sitting and relaxing could mean being devoured by a wild animal so those who get moving; chasing game, running around lived on but development has brought about a pandemic of inactivity and we will cook up every conceivable excuse not to move. We make a phone call to a colleague who sits 10 metres away from us, we will drive to buy kenkey about 50metres from home yet we will eat a huge dinner fit for a sumo wrestler.
Oh, in case you planned to sleep instead to avoid the dangers associated with walking; there is a little hitch here, sleeping for well over 8 hours may not add extra benefits and spending extra hours just to lay in bed or on a couch is as bad to your health as sitting – keep moving please for best results. Standing is a distant second.
Let us try these in our quest to improve our health:
• By all means make time to engage in a structured “exercise” programme.
• At the top of every hour or maximum two, take a break from your chair and walk for a couple of minutes or do some stretching exercises.
• Whenever you have an opportunity use the stairs instead of the elevator (lift)
• Walk to a colleague’s desk to talk instead of using the phone or sending an email or text etc
• If you are willing to dare, you could even organize Walk Meetings. When you have a meeting with a handful of people you could lace your boots and start walking while you talk. Who knows being out of a box (office etc) could help you think “out of the box”. The best aspect of such a meeting is people are more attentive since they are unable to fidget with their smart phones and other gadgets.
• All lectures, classes (children are really suffering in school these days) should have a “Heart Preserving” five minute break after every hour. Spend that time to walk and stretch.
• All long movies should have commercial breaks that should be used to at least stand
• Whenever in doubt at least stand for a while.
Well some people are trying innovative ways of even having small treadmills at their desks (literally moving the work forward) that keeps them moving, others are adopting a new chair design that essentially makes you stand at your desk, a few others sit on exercise balls that forces them to adjust their positions all the time but for the rest of us simply taking breaks and using every opportunity to move is just what the doctor prescribed.
AS ALWAYS LAUGH OFTEN, WALK AND PRAY EVERYDAY AND REMEMBER IT’S A PRICELESS GIFT TO KNOW YOUR NUMBERS (blood sugar, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, BMI)
Dr. Kojo Cobba Essel
Moms’ Health Club
(dressel@healthclubsgh.com)
*Dr Essel is a medical doctor and is ISSA certified in exercise therapy and fitness nutrition.
Thought for the week – For good heart health; exercise often, eat healthy, do not smoke, minimize alcohol and sit less.
