Today is part two of the top 10 dangers of sitting and what you can do about it. So last week we went over the top five. Today we’re going to go through the second five and your natural solutions to start changing this.
How Sitting All Day Makes You Sick
https://youtu.be/ncyiU0dHsUo
Watch the video now!
Prefer to read? Here’s the gist of what else Dr. Tim spoke about in this video clip.
Danger #6: Increased Risk of Obesity
Now the reason why this happens is when you sit too much, you increase what’s called the fat absorption response in your body. The reason why that happens is because of a decrease of the enzyme lipase. Lipase is what breaks down fat and eliminates it from your body. When you’re sitting too oftenthat lipase goes down, it stimulates the fat storage response leading to an increase in obesity.
Danger #7: Postural Stress
Sitting leads to an increase in postural stress to the neck, the shoulders, and the upper back. So a lot of people when they sit, will often get neck pain, they’ll get shoulder pain, they’ll get numbness and tingling in the arms. They’ll get carpal tunnel.
Now, this isn’t a muscle problem. When you’re sitting too often, your posture changes. That puts undue stress on the spine and the nervous system, it shifts your head forward and can increase the amount of pressure on your muscles and tissues by up to four times.
So you want to make sure that standing and moving is a huge part of your day because that postural stress is going to cause a lot of neck, shoulder, and upper extremity problems.
Danger #8: Spinal Degeneration and Disc Damage
So that same stress that causes neck and back pain also weakens the joint itself. It puts pressure on the discs, it causes the discs to degenerate, it can cause spinal arthritis, it decreases spinal movement, which also damages the other tissues of your body.
Danger #9: Brain Degeneration
So all that damage to the spine and to the nervous system decreases cerebral spinal fluid from the brain through your nervous system causing degeneration of the brain. Also, it causes a loss of curve in the neck, which studies have shown to decrease oxygen and blood flow to the brain by up to 200% which leads to dementia, Alzheimer’s and degeneration of the brain.
Danger #10: Muscle Wasting
When you’re not moving, your muscles begin to atrophy. They actually break down and your body weakens. That’s why it’s so important to get up and move at least every 20 to 30 minutes. It’s important to get a sit to stand station. It’s important to do regular exercise, get regular chiropractic care and make sure you’re doing spinal therapeutic exercises on a daily basis. Think of it like brushing your teeth.
One of the things that we give all our patients is something like this. It’s a mobility disk. You can actually sit on this and do different exercises that improves posture, that hydrates your spine, your discs, your ligaments, your tissues. It can help change your posture and eliminate the stresses of sitting.
How To Combat the Dangers of Sitting
So as a review, the top three things you want to do:
- Get up and move every 20 to 30 minutes.
- Try to get a sit to stand station where
you don’t have to sit the entire day. - Get regular corrective chiropractic care.
Doing daily homecare exercises to improve mobility and spinal function, as
well as regular adjustments to improve the alignment, structure and
function of your brain nervous system and your spine.
Have you had the opportunity to join us at one of our community education events yet? During the community education events, Dr. Tim sifts through all of the knowledge out there to bring you key information about how to get healthy and stay that way and shares answers to frequently asked questions on chiropractic care and healthy eating. Enjoy the clips of previous events here.