Health: Sitting down for too long causes health problems: Experts



Having a job which requires one to sit at a place for long hours can affect health, experts have claimed.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institute and the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm said that remaining inactive for too long can lead to a range of health problems like diabetes and heart disease, even among those who exercise regularly.

Writing for the British Journal of Sports Medicine, they also warned that “the chemical reactions triggered in the body by being inactive for too long cannot be cancelled out by taking more exercise.”

Suggesting that the only way to minimise the effects was to cut the amount of time that we spend inactive, they said, “Climbing the stairs, rather than using elevators and escalators, five minutes of break during sedentary work, or walking to the store rather than taking the car will be as important as exercise.”

“In the future, the focus in clinical practice and guidelines should not only be to promote and prescribe exercise, but also to encourage people to maintain their intermittent levels of daily activities (that involve movement),” they were quoted as saying by the Telegraph.