Real Talk, Sitting at your Desk Job is a Health Hazard

You may not need a hard hat and steel toe boots at work, but there are hazards of having a desk job. At the risk of sounding extreme, sitting all day can lead to fatal and serious health risks.

You may not even realize how much sitting you are doing,
1)  At work     2) In the Car, or Commuting     3) Watching TV, iPad, Video Games, Computer, or Reading

Some health problems that can be caused by sitting for hours every day are: heart disease and organ damage, muscle degeneration and blood clots, disc damage, soft bones, over productive pancreas and diabetes. Further symptoms caused by sitting are high blood pressure, insulin resistance and extra fat around the abdomen.

You may think, “Yes I sit all day at work, but I hit the gym at least 5 times a week”.  
FYI: you are still at risk if you do not move the rest of the day.

It is recommended that you have 30 minutes of physical activity every day.  “Thirty minutes is two percent of your day, what about the other 98 percent?”, asks Mark Tremblay, Director of the Health and Active Living and Obesity Research Group at CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa.

An article in Maclean’s magazine, by Kate Lanau, reports that a team at the University of Leicester and Loughborough University in England conducted 18 studies including 80,000 participants. The results showed that sitting for long periods increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease, including individuals that work out once a day but still spend most of their hours static.

 “After an hour your metabolism starts to sleep. The body becomes less adept at vacuuming sugar and fat from the blood stream, causing them to build up and insulin level to spike.” Peter Katzmaryk, Professor, Pennington Biochemical Research Center

We are in charge of our health, be aware and use simple solutions:
1) Walking/standing meetings 2) Standing desks 3) Walking breaks4)  Desk stretches

Written by: Amy Trachter and Nicole Whitely
Links to Washington Post and Maclean's Magazine

Image from: Washington Post article, The Health Hazards of Sitting