Don’t Sit On It: The Negative Health Effects Of Prolonged Sitting

So, how many hours would you guess you sit each day? Beyond some obligatory sitting while in the bathroom or eating a meal, are you sitting for much of the rest of the day? Do you plop down to watch your television or sit at your computer for hours at a time? Do your daily routines involve a lot of sitting, or are you up and about? If you think about it, the hours you sit each day can quickly add up (some estimates are that older adults sit as much as 10 hours a day of their waking time), so that by the time you head to bed, you may have sat for a significant portion of the day- and that’s a real problem for both your body and brain. Various studies have linked excessive sitting with a shorter lifespan and putting you at greater risk for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, osteoporosis, and even cognitive impairment. Sitting for prolonged periods of time and being sedentary means you are expending very little energy, and this can have significant health consequences. 

When you sit for prolonged periods, your fat metabolism slows, and your muscles are not working, which means it’s harder for your body to absorb glucose from your blood, raising your risk for insulin resistance. With reduced blood flow, your blood pressure will rise along with your increased blood sugar and higher cholesterol levels. This cascade of negative health effects puts you at risk for many harmful conditions. Muscles are of critical importance in regulating blood sugar, something that doesn’t happen when you’re too sedentary. As well, with little energy expenditure, your blood vessels will become stiffer, working harder to maintain appropriate blood pressure and putting you at increased risk for stroke and heart disease. There are also aches and pains in your back and neck from sitting. Sitting likely leads to poor posture and slouching, which means you’ll experience musculoskeletal imbalance and strain and pain in your neck, shoulders, and lower back. There is, however, some evidence that floor sitting, especially with your back against the wall or a pillow, can lead to better posture and better engagement of the muscles in your core and back.

Some of us, either because of mobility limitations or our daily obligations, cannot get up and around as often as would be ideal. Experts advise that even if you have no choice but to sit for long stretches of the day, you’re best off taking small, regular breaks, even just 2 or 3 minutes, to improve your glucose metabolism and reduce your cardiovascular risk. Schedule regular movement breaks and tie those movements into habits you already undertake, such as calf raises while you’re warming your meal or standing/walking calls to check in on a loved one. If you must stay seated for extended periods, there are stretches you can do to counteract the effects of prolonged sitting, including glute bridges, cat cows, and seated twists (take a look here to find more in-depth descriptions of these stretches). You can also try to protect your heart from prolonged sitting by adding some high-flavonol foods into your diet, including berries, leafy greens, and tea, which can help support and protect blood vessels (though perhaps not as effectively as physical activity to counteract your prolonged sitting). And if standing and moving is physically challenging, you can even try (in consultation with your physician) to include some chair yoga movements in your daily routine, to increase your strength and flexibility and keep your muscles moving.

But the scientific evidence still supports active movement to counteract the negative health impact of sitting, though there is some debate as to whether you can ever fully undo the effects of sitting with physical movement. In a study published in Nature Communications, over 15,000 participants were tracked using Fitbits to determine whether higher step counts could counteract the negative health and heart consequences of too much sedentary time. Participants were monitored for an average of 3 ½ years, with a median sedentary time of 11.6 hours per day. While higher step counts did lower the risks associated with chronic conditions caused by sitting, such as obesity, sleep apnea, and diabetes, they weren’t completely able to undo some of the risks associated with certain heart conditions. In essence, stepping up your step count can definitely help counteract the poor health conditions associated with excessive sitting, but it doesn’t appear to completely wipe them away. So while it’s valuable to increase your physical movement to compensate for prolonged sitting, it’s also just as important to cut back on the amount of sitting you do if possible.

Bottom line? Prolonged sitting poses serious health risks, no matter how much regular exercise you engage in. But the more active you are, the better your ability to lower the risks associated with excessive sedentary behavior. So if you can, stay alert to whatever possibilities you can to get up and move during the course of a day. Less sitting, more movement, better health!