6 Reasons Why Sitting Is Not Good for You

These days we spend more time sitting than moving around. Our present lifestyle has highly contributed to this. We sit in front of a computer for hours at work, or playing games. And with the pandemic seizing the world; work, education, everything has gone online, further encouraging our sedentary lifestyle.

But Why Is Sitting a Problem?
It is, Because the human body is designed to move! Sitting for brief periods of time definitely help us. But here are some hidden risks that prolonged sitting might affect you.


Pressure On Your Spine

Your Posture is the root cause of this. Your Spine is a long structure which is made of bones and between them sits the cartilage discs. All this is held together by joints, muscles and cartilages attached to the bones.

And when you sit like a bow curving your back and slumping your shoulders, it actually puts an uneven pressure on your spine. This causes wear and tear in your spinal discs overtime.


Limits The Amount of Oxygen in Your Lungs

This is again caused by your posture. When you hunch back and sit, your chest cavity also shrinks which means that, now the lungs have got less space to expand while you breathe, temporarily limiting the oxygen that fills the lungs and filters into your blood.


The Numbness and Swelling In Your Limbs

You might have felt this when you sit for so long. This is because sitting pressurizes and compresses the muscles, nerves, arteries and veins that surround the skeleton.

In the compressed areas, these muscles, nerves, arteries and veins can get blocked limiting the nerve signaling. This causes the numbness, and blood flow to your limbs is reduced resulting in the swelling.


Fats in Your Blood Are Not Broken Down

Lipoprotein Lipase is a special enzyme in the walls of blood capillaries that breaks down fats in the blood.
When you sit for long periods of time this enzyme gets temporarily deactivated.


Effect on Your Brain

Remember when teachers make you do some random sitting standing exercise in the middle of a class? That actually helps!
Sitting for a prolonged time and being stationary reduces blood flow and the amount of oxygen. Your brain needs both to work efficiently. As brain activity slows your concentration levels also most likely decline.


Ill-Effects Are Long Term

This is where the problem comes. Issues caused by prolonged sitting might sound trivial until they become long term.

Recent studies have shown that sitting for too long can contribute to diabetes, kidney and liver problems. And can also be related to certain cancers and heart disease.

Shockingly, researchers have found that almost over 5 million people die each year due to inactivity!

So What’s the solution?

The solutions are pretty simple! In our present day, sitting is indispensable.

- So first thing, is to fix your sitting posture.

- Take breaks in between and move around.

- Do some simple stretches. (they are extremely relaxing!)

- Practice regular exercise.

Source: TED-Ed

Written by - Afra Meera Ahamed
Edited by - Gunika Manchanda