Effects Of A Sedentary Lifestyle And Solutions

Sedentism, or leading a sedentary lifestyle, has ingrained itself into our way of life. This is a result of our contemporary epoch. The day when technology didn’t advance is long gone. As a result, individuals were constantly moving around and doing other things. This was due to the lack of Internet, which would have allowed users to do chores on a PC or mobile device. We know that using a computer or a mobile device requires spending a lot of time sitting down. For instance, someone could work as a freelancer while spending a lot of time at a computer.

Sedentism is, therefore, now unavoidable under our current system.

Contrary to earlier eras, when there was no television and people weren’t sitting for hours to watch it, people now spend much time watching television.

However, are you aware that a sedentary lifestyle harms one’s health?

I’ll outline the risks of leading a sedentary lifestyle in this post, along with some tips for avoiding it.

1) Sedentism causes obesity: Sedentism causes obesity. This is because if you sit a lot, you won’t utilize the energy that food provides, and it will be stored as fat in your body.

Wajahat Mehal, the director of Yale Medicine’s Metabolic Health and Weight Loss Program, asserts that a sedentary lifestyle increases your risk of developing obesity. This is because eating while using a computer or watching television causes one to become distracted and eat more than is necessary.

“Today, people eat at their desks or in front of a TV set, where they are distracted while eating their food. This puts them at risk for eating larger portions, and portion control is key to keeping weight down”.

In other words, a sedentary lifestyle results in obesity or weight increase.

2) It promotes cancer: A sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of developing cancer. The question, “How is it possible?” may come up.

A sedentary lifestyle leads to obesity, a significant risk factor for cancer. This is because being overweight causes specific changes in the body, such as chronic inflammation and elevated insulin levels, insulin-like growth factor, and sex hormones.

There it is: cancer is caused by sedentary behavior.

3) It causes cardiac problems and diabetes: Sitting or leading a sedentary lifestyle causes cardiac issues and diabetes. A cardiologist by the name of Rachel Lampert made this discovery. She claims that sitting impacts blood pressure and blood sugar control. As a result, the blood vessel does not operate as generally as they should when someone sits for extended periods. Long-term effects of this include diabetes and heart attacks.

“In addition to decreasing the blood flow to the legs, sitting impacts things like sugar regulation and blood pressure—by altering the normal function of blood vessels, it feeds into diabetes and heart attacks. We know the more you sit, the more likely you will have a heart attack or die from a cardiac cause”.

4) It causes lower back pain and spine issues: Living a sedentary lifestyle contributes to lower back discomfort and spinal problems. The fact was found by Dr. Holder. He asserts that the posture in which we sit at our computers impacts our spine.

“When we sit at our computers, we often slouch, craning our necks forward, which, over time, can lead to persistent postural misalignment. Sitting can also lead to overall deconditioning, early muscle fatigue, weakened core stabilizers, and tightening of the hip flexors, resulting in increased stress on your low back and reduced spine flexibility. It also affects the gluteal buttock muscles over time, leading to deactivation and weakening of these muscles”.

He mentioned gluteal amnesia once more as a syndrome that can result in hip and low back pain. He claimed prolonged sitting without activity could lead to osteoporosis, weakening bones.

He asserts that longer durations of sitting and shorter intervals of exercise alone would still hurt your health.

5) It creates vascular issues: Sedentary behavior also contributes to vascular problems. This is because prolonged sitting can cause blood and fluid to pool in the lower legs and feet, resulting in swelling and pain.

He claims that deep vein thrombosis can affect a person (DVT). A blood clot that starts in a deep leg vein and later moves to the risky lungs is what causes this illness.

Therefore, leading a sedentary lifestyle is risky.

As a result, there are some things you should do and some things you shouldn’t do to prevent suffering from the effects of sedentism.

1) You shouldn’t be distracted when eating: Using your computer while eating will cause you to overeat and thus gain weight. As I mentioned before, eating when seated in front of a computer might lead to obesity.

2) To avoid the issues associated with sedentism, you should avoid sitting for extended periods and get enough exercise each day.

In conclusion, as I have explained, leading a sedentary lifestyle is extremely risky and should be avoided. The best course of action is to extend the period for a walkout.