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It’s a startling fact that a significant portion of the population, about one-third of individuals aged 15 and above, lead a sedentary lifestyle. This lifestyle, involving up to 8 to 12 hours of sedentary activities, poses numerous health risks. It’s crucial to be aware of this and take steps to avoid the onset of lifestyle diseases. The World Health Organization defines physical activity as any bodily movement that requires energy, and it’s the key to preventing these diseases.
Poor Diet And Physical Inactivity:
A sedentary lifestyle means being inactive and doing primarily sitting activities. This includes watching television, viewing digital screens, doing office work on the computer, or simply sitting. Such a lifestyle results in more calorie intake via fast foods, bakery products, high-calorie foods, soft drinks, etc. Thus, a sedentary lifestyle poses a threat to nutritional health.
Causes of Sedentary Lifestyle:
The leading cause of this increasing sedentary lifestyle tendency in people is modernization. Our world is getting automated. We are equipped with various kinds of electronic gadgets. These gadgets no doubt save our energy and time, but, inversely, are deteriorating our quality of life.
The second major cause of a sedentary lifestyle is our surrounding atmosphere. Urbanization is increasing. This leaves us less room for physical activities. The unavailability of parks, footpaths, pedestrian paths, sports, and other leisure activities forces people to remain indoors or use transport for traveling even short distances.
Health Effects of a Sedentary Lifestyle:
If a person spends most of their day in sedentary activities, they are at a higher risk of developing sedentary lifestyle diseases. However, it’s important to remember that these diseases, such as obesity and increased waist circumference, are preventable. By incorporating regular physical activity into our daily routines, we can take control of our health and reduce these risks.
Other consequences of a sedentary lifestyle are:
1. Weak bones and sedentary lifestyle:
A sedentary lifestyle does not make our muscles work. This means our muscles are in an inactive phase and are not demanding any nutrients from our body. This results in very little or no calcium absorption and deposition in bones. But paradoxically, our bones are releasing calcium to support the reduced levels of calcium in our blood. This makes our bones weak and brittle. In women, osteoporosis occurs mainly in the hip and spine region due to a sedentary lifestyle.
2. Heart disease and sedentary lifestyle:
The risk of heart disease increases due to no energy loss and more fat deposition. It is a simple rule that the more you eat, the more you have to burn to remain fit. Leading a sedentary lifestyle means consuming around 1,800–2,000 kcal while burning very little. Moreover, a sedentary lifestyle increases the tendency to crave fast foods, fried foods, and sugar-laden sweets. Consuming less fat or oil does not mean that you are safe. Also keep a check on your sugar consumption. Because extra sugar is stored as fat in our body. This fat or more appropriately, cholesterol, clogs your heart arteries. All these factors lead us to the deadly trap of heart disease.
3. Diabetes and sedentary lifestyle:
The risk of diabetes increases due to the non-receptivity of body cells to glucose. If your body remains active, your cells will allow glucose to enter. However, if you stay inactive for long hours, your body cells do not require glucose. If this inactivity becomes a daily habit, your cells adapt to not using glucose efficiently. This vicious cycle results in the onset of diabetes mellitus over a long time.
4. Depression and sedentary lifestyle:
Depression results when we feel that the situation is not going as per our wishes. If we tend to avoid social interactions and remain in a sedentary position, then we are on an easy path to depression. Some sedentary activities, however, do not result in depression. Instead, these keep us mentally awake, like sewing, knitting, reading books or newspapers, etc. But some other activities like watching television, viewing phones, listening to music, or using a computer for any work are likely to increase our depression if done for a long time.
5. Exercise intolerance and a sedentary lifestyle:
Most of the work today is of the sitting type, like driving, working on computers, telecalling, etc. Such activities require very little energy. This becomes a habit of the body to spend a bare minimum amount of energy. In turn, the body becomes unable to adapt to any kind of physical activity rapidly. Consequently, the person gets intolerant towards any type of physical activity.
6. Cancer and a Sedentary Lifestyle:
Prolonged periods of sedentary behavior, such as watching television and surfing the internet, are directly linked to cancer. A passive sedentary lifestyle accounts for 20% of the chances of cancer development in individuals, as reported in a study.
Prevention of ill-effects of a sedentary lifestyle:
It is always better to prevent the habit of a sedentary lifestyle. But in case it is not possible to give up on a sedentary lifestyle due to unavoidable reasons, then you must follow the following recommendations:
- How to reduce long sedentary hours during office work: Reduce long stretches of sedentary time. Take small breaks, 5-10 minutes from work, and get up on your heels. Do some light stretching, sit-ups, or a random walk through your room. Drink a glass of water and then come back to your work again.
- How to reduce the ill effects of watching television for long hours: Simply break your time by getting up during ad breaks. Take a stroll in your home and drink some water. Stop snacking while viewing television. Do not view television for long stretches of more than 2 hours.
- How many hours of sedentary time are safe? A study found that people who do moderate physical activity for one hour after every three to four hours of sedentary time are safe. Long sedentary time, more than five hours in a day, leads to heart disease and cancer.
Conclusion:
The impacts of a sedentary lifestyle on our health are enormous. The worst effect is from passive sedentary activities like watching television or surfing the internet. This is the most harmful sedentary behavior, as watching television accompanied by snacking and surfing the internet is a habit-forming activity. It hinders our brain from focusing on the real world and makes us more depressed. It also reduces our sleep quality. It is better to break your sedentary period with small bouts of physical activity like a little bit of stretching, walking, push-ups, or sit-ups. It helps in negating the ill effects of sedentary behavior.
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