Sitting position can lead you to death.

Sitting can lead you to death

The Medical Billing and Coding Organization has recently published a high-impact report on the effects of sitting for too many hours in a row titled “Sitting is killing you,” this study describes the harmful effects on health and performance of the lifestyle that most people have subjected themselves to.

Until not many years ago, when we were farmers or hunters, we spent almost our entire lives standing. With the introduction of TV, computers, and desk jobs…, we now spend more time sitting than ever in history: 9.3 hours a day, even more time than we spend sleeping (7.7 hours).

> Our bodies were not designed for this, and that is why we are starting to pay the price.

Maybe it’s time to act!

Some interesting facts:

• Sitting increases the risk of death by 40%: sitting for more than six hours a day makes us more vulnerable to dying in the next 15 years than someone who sits less than three hours a day. Even if you exercise. Studies show that simply reducing the amount of hours spent sitting solves the problem.
• Sitting makes us gain weight: obese individuals spend more than 2.5 hours a day sitting compared to those who are not.
• Between 1980 and 2000, the amount of exercise remained at the same levels, sitting time increased by 8%, and obesity doubled.
• While we are sitting, we hardly consume energy, walking consumes quite a bit of energy, and climbing stairs consumes even more.
• The effects of sitting too long are not just long-term; the moment we sit down, the body begins a process of alteration.

Some examples of how sitting deteriorates our body; as soon as we sit down, the electrical activity in the leg muscles stops. Caloric consumption plummets to 1 per minute!

The enzymes that facilitate fat breakdown decrease by 90%. In 2 hours, good cholesterol decreases by 20%, in 24 hours the effectiveness of insulin decreases by 24%, and the risk of diabetes increases.

People who work sitting down have double the chances of having cardiovascular problems compared to those who work standing up.

How to survive the problem?

For many people, eight hours a day of sitting work is unavoidable. But it is the sitting time after work that becomes a serious and dangerous problem.

The recommended thirty minutes of daily walking is not enough. Try to cut and get up as often as possible; any reason is good, even for a few moments.

Do some stretching, take a walk around the office (walking burns between 3 and 5 times more calories than sitting), even in critical situations, do a series of small jumps (it also oxygenates the brain).

Away from the couch! People who spend more than 3 hours a day watching TV have a 64% higher chance of dying from a heart attack than those who do not.

Of those people who spend 3 hours a day watching TV, those who exercise are just as overweight as those who do not. For every additional hour spent in front of the TV, the chance of death increases by 11%.

Set that extra conscious movement goal…, the sitting time is inexorable: it adds up throughout the day, whether in the office or in the car. Just walk, take a bike ride, take the stairs instead of the elevator…

Try to interrupt the sitting position as often as possible. And when there’s no other choice, don’t forget to adopt the proper position: leaning forward at 70 degrees (staring at the screen) is not good, even sitting at 90 degrees is not. Lean back to 135 degrees to reduce overload and tension on the back.

In summary, the human body was not designed to sit for long periods of time. A hundred years ago, when we moved around in the fields or factories, obesity was basically nonexistent.

But since we can no longer move freely in the open fields, we must provide our bodies with the necessary strategic movement so that the current lifestyle does not negatively affect our health and performance.

Happy Movement to everyone!

The Medical Billing and Coding Organization