By Richard Tardif
I hope you’re reading this while standing. If you’re not, stand up.
Studies are showing the average adult spends anywhere from 50 to 70 percent each working day sitting or slouching behind a desk. It’s a sedentary lifestyle Doctors warn may be contributing to overall obesity, diabetes, some types of cancer and premature death.
The outbreak of sitting studies in the last five years suggest we need to get up for better health, and while these studies are observational and they do not account for other factors (alcohol, smoking, unhealthy eating and lack of exercise) they are worth considering.
In a nutshell, the theory is the body is ‘shutting down’ while sitting and there is little muscle activity, slowing our the metabolism, which affects our ability to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure, and metabolize fat, leading to weaker muscles and bones.
The theory is not new.
Current theory is based on a link between London bus drivers being more likely to have heart attacks as their more active bus conductor colleagues, and years later research on astronauts, which found life in zero gravity, or weightlessness, was linked with accelerated bone and muscle loss and ageing.
Just how much do we sit?
The Healthy Active Living and Obesity (HALO) Research Group at the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa reported in 2013 that Canadian adults spend, on average, three-quarters of their waking hours each day sitting or reclining. This includes during the daily commute. Our children are getting the message, too. On average, Canadian children spend two-thirds of their daytime hours sitting at school, and behind computer screens in the evening.
Dr. James Levine, co-director of the Mayo Clinic and the Arizona State University Obesity Initiative, and author of the book Get Up! Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It, writes the impact of movement can be profound.
You’ll burn more calories. While it’s not the same calories as 30 minutes on a treadmill this could increase your energy levels.
His investigations, and multiple studies, show that when you’ve been sitting for a long period and then get up, a number of molecular tides occur. Within 90 seconds of standing up, carrying your own bodyweight, the muscular and cellular systems that process blood sugar, triglycerides, and cholesterol, which are mediated by insulin, are activated, pushing fuel into your cells
But a 16-year, long-term British study is casting doubt on the health consequences of the recent butt-to-chair research, reporting in 2015 that sitting is no worse for you than standing up as long as you take regular exercise.
“Any stationary posture where energy expenditure is low may be detrimental to health, be it sitting or standing,” the study concluded.
Richard is a certified individual fitness coach, a tai chi teacher, a journalist and the Executive Director of the Quebec Community Newspapers Association. You can reach him at tardifrichardg@videotron.ca, or at www.richardtardif.com
