If I ask you how long you spend sitting everyday, there is a possibility you might say not too long but if you are to put into consideration when you go out for a date and you have to sit, when you are at work sitting all through, when you are watching the television, when you are shopping online, or when in are in a bus, car, or truck either as the driver or passenger, then you will realize that we spend tremendous time online.
When we are talking about our health, there are a lot of factors that come together to make up how healthy we are but then when it comes to being immobile, it affects our fitness which then directly affects our health. With health, we have different factors like food, supplements, sleep, and fitness among others. Fitness has to do with movement, mobility, and exercise. It helps to buffer our capacity to survive in our environment. With exercise, it can affect how a person feel, and also help with stress.
When a person is sedentary, it can come with a number of disease which is refered to as Hypokinetic syndrome. The lymphatic system needs motion to push things including oxygen level, and circulation through it and this can lead to stress. The truth is for me, I spend most of my free time behind the computer and it can be a lot of time and sitting for a very long time isn't good for the lower back as sitting puts more stress on the lumbar discs. With little alteration in the lower back, there can be pains in other part of the body including the shoulder, the neck, and other part of the body. The Gluteus Maximus is not excluded with prolonged sitting leading to atrophy, as well as tightening the hamstrings, the Psoas Muscle which connects the lower part of the body to the upper part.
When we sit, the electrical activity in the muscles drop significantly and the body doesn't burn as much calories as it would when walking. When the sitting becomes prolonged, there is a drop in artery dilation leading to a decrease in blood flow around the body. This prolonge sitting can also affect the insulin ability to take up glucose leading to an increased risk in type 2 diabetes. When this sitting goes for days, it can lead to LDL cholesterol to deposit in the body leading to an increased risk of gaining weight. Soon, the muscles in the body begins to break down and contraction becomes weaker and this can affect the ability for the body to pump blood back to the heart.
In the course of a year, bone masses begin to decrease and since there is little blood being pumped to the brain, the brain functioning begin to deteriorate leading to being depressed. With prolonged sitting for years, the risk of having health issues such as heart disease increases by 64%, and the risk for prostate and/or breast cancer increases by 30%.
Our body isn't designed to be sedentary, as it is made up of 640 muscles, 360 joints, 900 ligaments, and 206 bones which are specifically designed to aid motion, and this said, what can be done to safe oneself from prolonged sitting which can degenerate to become different health issues? The first thing I will recommend is having frequent breaks when sitting. This breaks are to help stretch the body and other parts of the body so they do not become sedentary.
Post Reference
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535418/
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17sitting-t.html?_r=0
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14034940701271908
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19996993/
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/625747
https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/colorect.html
Reference
Image 1 || Deviant Art || Anatomy Study - Sitting Human - Muscles
Image 2 || Wikimedia Commons ||Psoas major muscle
Image 3 || Wikimedia Commons || Sit spine