Is Your Chair Killing You?

Meet Jane, a typical American woman. She is an over-worked, over-stressed, slightly over-weight, mother of two whose sedentary lifestyle is draining the life out of her. Jane has frequent headaches, a constant, dull ache in her lower back and she often feels lethargic.

Not surprisingly, a typical day in Jane’s life starts at 6 am. when she wakes up, checks her email, showers and gets ready for work. Like the majority of us Jane spends an average of 45 minutes to 1 hour of the morning driving her kids to school and then commuting to a job that requires her to spend 8+ hours of her day chained to a desk.

Of course Jane does get several breaks and a lunch, all of which she spends behind the wheel of her car, running various errands, or sitting in the company lunchroom with a group of co-workers.

Finally, when 5 pm rolls around Jane climbs back behind the wheel of her car to start her 45 minute commute back home.

Once home, Jane prepares dinner and the family huddles around the television set to eat dinner and spend the rest of the night on the couch watching TV or surfing the Internet. Around 11 pm Jane finally turns off the TV, logs off the Internet and heads for bed in order to wake up the next morning and do it all over again.

• Just how much time does Jane spend sitting?

Jane spends:

• 2 + hours a day sitting behind the wheel of her car.
• 8+ hours chained to a desk
• 4+ hours sitting in front of the TV or surfing the Internet

Grand Total: 14+ hours a day spend sitting (Note: This figure does not take into account the time Jane spends laying in bed.)

• So, what’s wrong with spending the majority of the day sitting?

Office Chairs Pose A Public Health Risks

Well, according to the University of Missouri Microbiologist Marc Hamilton, sitting for prolonged periods of time is a public health risk. Literally speaking, your chair is killing you.

Hamilton, who like many researchers doesn’t own an office chair, explained his findings to Bloomberg Newsweek by saying, “”If you’re standing around and puttering, you recruit specialized muscles designed for postural support that never tire. They’re unique in that the nervous system recruits them for low-intensity activity and they’re very rich in enzymes. One enzyme, lipoprotein lipase, grabs fat and cholesterol from the blood, burning the fat into energy while shifting the cholesterol from LDL, the bad kind, to HDL, the healthy kind. When you sit, the muscles are relaxed, and enzyme activity drops by 90% to 95%, leaving fat to camp out in the bloodstream. Within a couple hours of sitting, healthy cholesterol plummets by 20%.”

Hamilton’s research gives us a glimpse into why Jane, like so many Americans leading sedentary lifestyles is at high risk for a variety of health problems such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension. But, it does not explain why Jane, like so many American women, has been suffering from chronic lower back pain.

The answer to this question comes from Dr. Andrew, C. Hecht, co-chief of spinal surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center who was quoted by Bloomberg Newsweek as saying, “When you’re standing, you’re bearing weight through the hips, knees, and ankles. When you’re sitting, you’re bearing all that weight through the pelvis and spine, and it puts the highest pressure on your back discs. Looking at MRIs, even sitting with perfect posture causes serious pressure on your back” which in turn causes that persistent, dull ache in your lower back.

• What can be done to remedy this situation?

The good news is that regardless of the nature of our jobs and home circumstances, if we choose to dump our sedentary lifestyle and become more active in our everyday lives there are many ways in which we can do that.

For example: For more ideas please see “How To Add 3000 Steps to Your Day”

1. Start your own office wellness program. (Throw out the donuts, stand while on the phone, learn various exercises you can do at your desk and teach them to your co-workers, etc..)
2. Start your own office walking club. (Walk around the building during your lunch period)
3. Start your own office Biggest Loser Club. (Set office weight loss goals and offer weekly prizes for the Biggest Loser)
4. Go for a long walk with your family after dinner and invite any neighbor that you see (and trust) to join you.
5. Turn off the TV and take your family to the park on Saturday mornings. (Let your kids play outdoors and learn how to exercise at the park)

Warning: These fitness trends are highly contagious. They tend to spread like fire from one office to the next and from one family to the next. So, before you know it you could be the reason behind major healthy changes occurring both in your workplace and in your home.

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