VickyC.me

So beer may offer cancer-fighting benefits, but don’t even think about sitting down to enjoy your pint. According to some preliminary research, sitting is deadly.

An article posted in the British Journal of Sports Medicine states that sitting for a prolonged period of time is bad for your health. This applies to everyone –  those who religiously work-out and couch potatoes. Even if you’re a health nut who goes to the gym 8 days a week, but have a sitting-behind-a-desk-for-8-hours, this applies to you!

According toElin Ekblom-Bak, the Swedish researcher behind the study, sitting for over 4 hours causes the body to send out harmful signals. According to her work, the genes that regulate the amount of glucose and fat in the body begin to shut down. And sitting for too long is linked to obesity, individuals being too fat, having heart attacks and even death.

So, health officials in pretty much EVERY country  have been issuing guidelines about how physical activity is beneficial. Even the kids’ channels have ads telling the kiddies to go outside and not just watch Sponge-Bob or play their World of Warcraft and Rock Band. But there is nothing, as yet, that highlights the dangers of sitting.

A study done in Canada last year apparently reported that people who sat more had a higher risk of death – regardless of whether or not they exercised.

Although there is not yet enough evidence to say how harmful sitting actually is, Ekblom-Bak believes that people should keep exercising because of it’s health benefits. She said that people that have 9-5 office jobs should try to not sit for 8 hours straight and should get up as much as possible, for example, instead of emailing a colleague, you should physically go over to talk to them. Hm, I see a lot more “coffee breaks”, maybe some useless faxing and photocopying! Or what if everyone was given those Pilates balls to sit on? Would that help?

It’s not sitting though, I think it’s just a plague of modern life. If we all lived back in the stoneage again, this wouldn’t be an issue. I’m sure the cavemen spent ample amount of time sitting on their animal-fur-clad behinds. So what’s the difference? Well, for starters, they didn’t have imitation, genetically modified dinosaur to snack on, or low calorie half fat and pesticide covered berries.. They didn’t microwave or refrigerate anything. They didn’t have diet pills, soft drinks or jobs. Their job was survival. If they wanted Tyrannosaurus tail for supper, they’d have to go out and catch one.. or settle for crappy leaves and twigs. It’s not like trying to decide between sushi or pizza.

Modern life gives us very little to enjoy. We spend every day working too much, earning too little, not sleeping enough and eating modified garbage. What kind of world is it when sitting is bad for you?! Ugh, I don’t buy it. What do you think?

Just remember that when you’re having your cancer fighting pint, you should stand at the bar, and not sit! Cheers!!

Tags: Bad, British Journal Of Sports Medicine, Cavemen, Elin Ekblom-Bak, Exercise, Sit, Sitting, Unhealthy, VickyC, VickyC.me, Work Out

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.