The Dangers of Sitting for Long Periods of Time at Work
September 19th, 2014
Who would have thought that the simple act of sitting could be so dangerous to a person’s health? But more and more medical researchers are releasing information indicating that sitting for long periods of time can cause a variety of physical ailments. Since many Americans sit for hours a day at their jobs, this kind of information can be both enlightening and frightening. There is a lot to be said for getting up out of your chair and stretching every once in a while.
When you sit for hours and hours, your blood flow slows and creates problems for several of your internal organs. Since the blood is not flowing, that means that fats can accumulate in your arteries and lead to issues such as high blood pressure and heart disease. When your muscles are idle from sitting, they tend to ignore the insulin being created by your pancreas. This causes the pancreas to keep pumping out insulin and, over time, can lead to diabetes.
Muscle Atrophy and Distortion
As you would expect, the muscles in your back, legs, and abdomen suffer when you sit for hours and hours. But what you probably did not know is that your hip and thigh muscles are also getting soft and that creates problems for your hip joints. Your glutes also get soft and that can put extra strain on your spine. Read the rest of this entry »
