Sitting Down will kill you

Adults spend 7 hours each day sleeping and for the rest of the day, spend it sitting down.

Our bodies are not build for sitting down , God meant for us to be on our feet,plowing, planting , harvesting, hunting wild animals for food, but we humans have grown from being active to and most of us are potato couches.

Technology has taken the menial tasks from us in almost every aspect of our lives, where we get most things done by just pressing a button.More and more, we are sitting down in front of either the computer or TV, or glued to the latest I-pad, I-touch, tablets etc.

We spend 9.3 hours of the waking hours sitting down, only 0.7 hour spend on vigorous exercise or activities.Studies have shown that more hours are spent sitting down as technology advanced, while the rate of exercise remain same and at the same time the number of obesity doubled and increase in affluent diseases such as diabetes, coronary and heart disease, high cholesterol , high blood pressure and many others.

The scary statistics

Sitting down increase the risk of death due to heart problems by a whopping 40%!.Some studies indicate:

·Sitting more 6 hours a day, even with exercise, increase the chances of a person to die within 15 years than one who sits for 3 hours a day by 40%.

·Of the 7.5 waking hours, a person spends 9.3 hours sitting, 6.5 hours on low physical activity and only 0.7 hours a day on vigorous physical activity.

·The way to reduce this risk is to spend more time on activity, reduce the 9.3 sedentary hours.

·Those who sit 3 hours or more each day in front of the television are at the higher risk of dying from heart disease.The sad fact is, even if you exercise if you sit more hours than the person who does not execise, you will be fatter and your risk is higher.

·Each hour of sitting down watching TV is equals to 11% risk of dying from heart disease.

·The moment you sit down, everything slows down.This is obviously seen when after some vigorous activity, you sit down to rest and you can immediately feel everything slowing down.More scary statistics:

·People with sitting jobshave double the rate of cardiovascular diseases than those with standing jobs.

·Sitting down makes a person fat and obese; numbers show that fat people sits more hours than a thin person

·1 in 3 Americans is obese

·Some alarming statistics (1980-2000)- sitting time increased 8%; obesity doubled while exercise rates stay about the same.

Why is sitting down bad?

·Sitting uses zero energy.

·Metabolism rates drops immediately burning 1 calorie per minute

·Enzymes that helps in breaking down fat is reduced by 90%

·Electrical activitiy ceases in the leg muscles

After 2 hours of sitting down:

·Good cholesterol drops by 20%

After 24 hours:

·Insulin effectiveness drops by 24% and diabetes risk increase.

Suggestions and Tips to increase activities

For most people, it is unavaoidable to be sitting 8 hours a day, but steps must be taken to reduce sitting down outside of office hours and at the same find opportunities or create opportunities to intervene your sitting periods with some activities.Walking burns 3-5 times of calories more than sitting down. Some suggestions as follow to increase activities:

1. Do not bring a 1 or 2 liter water container to work. Bring a cup, so you get the chance to walk to the water dispenser or break are every hour or so to replenish or make yourself a cup of tea or coffee.
2. Stand up at your desk and do some stretching exercises at least once in the day.
3. Do not fight for the nearest parking slot nearest the exit.Park further away and this will help increase your activity time by a few extra minutes.
4. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or lift.
5. Do some ironing while you catch your favorite telly movie, or run a treadmill or cycling exerciser.
6. In informal meetings, use the whiteboard whenever possible, so you get to stand up and exercise your hands as well as you write.
7. Stand and pace when presenting.
8. Stand and pace when talking on your phone.

So stand up and fight for your life, sit down and you can bet your health will just go downhill.