In the May 25, 2013
edition of the Los Angeles Times, Anup Kanodia, a physician and researcher at
the Center for Personalized Health Care at Ohio State University’s Wexner
Medical Center said, “Sitting is the new smoking”. He cited an Australian study
published in October 2012 in The British Journal of Sports Medicine that
compared sitting and smoking.
According to the study,
every hour of TV that people watch, presumably sitting, cuts about 22 minutes
from their lifespan, while it is estimated that smokers shorten their lives by
11 minutes per cigarette. (Please don’t use this as support for trading bad
habits!)
This information is
important for all of us to take to heart, in that frequent micro-breaks, i.e.
getting up and moving around is essential for not only burning those five
slices of CiCi’s or Amici’s pizza you consumed during lunch, but also to enable
those neck and hip flexors to lengthen out of their prolonged contracted states
(see previous articles on Upper and Lower Cross Syndromes). One reason that
extended periods of uninterrupted sitting are bad for the lower back is that
progressive tears can develop within the discs that are situated between the
lumbar (predominantly) vertebrae. Once the pain reaches the chronic stage, a
cascading, undesirable ability to perform the necessary activities of daily
living becomes sadly apparent. Then, not only does it become difficult to
impossible to walk or exercise, but the preferred assumed position then becomes
lying down or walking like a descendant of Groucho Marx. Now, with being
horizontal, muscle tone diminishes by as much as 30% in just 10 days! So, the
importance of movement cannot be over emphasized. My clinical observation over
30 plus years has manifested a fairly consistent finding; a patient in pain presents
on a Monday morning and inevitably wants to know ALL the exercises to do N O W
while the symptoms are at their peak, having forgotten (or ignored) all that
they should have been doing all along in order to PREVENT their current
dilemma! Unfortunately, this is the time for crisis or acute care, not
preventative. Thus, prolonged sitting, or inactivity, leads to reduced aerobic
activity, progressive pain expression and not unsurprisingly, time on the DL
(disabled list) for necessary or just recreational activities; unfortunately,
unlike pro athletes who get paid regardless of whether they play, you most
likely will not and will have to suffer through the recuperation process!
With the holiday season
quickly approaching, NOW is the time
to start moving during your work day. NOW
is the time to become intentional. NOW
is the time to show your concern for your loved ones by taking an active,
participating role in your health! Have a truly blessed Thanksgiving.
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