The Impact of Sitting All Day – Part 3
In part 1, I looked at the impact of sitting on your muscles, and in part 2 I started to explore the impact on the rest of your body. In this post I continue to explore the impact of sitting on your circulatory system including your heart.
Heart Disease
When sitting for prolonged periods of time, muscles burn less fat and blood flows more sluggishly, allowing fatty acids to more easily clog the heart. In 2012 Ford & Caspersen in their research paper, Sedentary behaviour and cardiovascular disease: a review of prospective studies (International Journal of Epidemiology, Vol 41, No 5 pages 1338 – 1353) showed that the people with the most sedentary time are more than twice as likely to have cardiovascular disease than those with the least.
In 2012 Zedric and Hamilton found that just a few hours sitting suppresses a gene that helps keep your cardiovascular system healthy by controlling inflammation and blood clotting.
T W Zedric & M T Hamilton, 2012 Identification of hemostatic genes expressed in human and rat leg muscles and a novel gene (LPP1/PAP2a) suppressed during prolonged physical inactivity (sitting), Lipids in Health and Disease, Vol 11 see http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1476-511X-11-137.pdf
Cholesterol
Sitting also means that your large postural support muscles are inactive. When active these muscles produce a quite of beneficial molecules. One molecule skeletal muscles produce is an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase – which you can think of as a vacuum cleaner for fats in the blood stream. A study in rats showed that after 24 hours forced inactivity, their lipoprotein lipase acitivity was reduced by 90 – 95%, which led to a 75% drip in the ability of their muscles to remove fats from their bloodstream as will as a significant decrease in “good” (HDL) cholesterol.
L Bay & Mark Hamilton, 2003, Suppression of skeletal muscle lipoprotein lipase activity during physical inactivity: a molecular reason to maintain daily low-intensity activity, Journal of Physiology, Vol 551, No 2 pages 673 – 682.See http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/jphysiol.2003.045591/full
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New insights into MS
Multiple sclerosis, MS is often seen as an immune reaction. However researchers surveyed 1,349 MS sufferers. The respondents were asked to reveal any allergic reaction to food, environmental factors or drugs, only those with a food allergy suffered more frequent relapses and had more severe pathological changes related to MS. It is not yet know whether an allergy can cause the MS in the first place, but researchers do know that sufferers often experience a relapse after a reaction to food. This suggest that MS isn't just an immune reaction but is more closely assocated with gut and inflammatory responses to foods. This discovery by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston ties in with earlier observations that people with MS seem to suffer relapses after an allergic reaction - but nobody has been sure it was a reaction only to food. Researchers concluded there is a strong link between MS and food allergy. The common factor seems to be inflammation in the gut. Reference Fakih R, Diaz-Cruz C, Chua AS, Gonzalez C, Healy BC, Sattarnezhad N, Glanz BI, Weiner HL, Chitnis T. Food allergies are associated with increased disease activity in multiple sclerosis. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2019 Jun;90(6):629-635.
Why do muscles get stiff and painful?
Muscle fibers are designed to tense and relax and go through a natural tense/relax cycle as you use your body. A muscle under sustained tension without a corresponding relaxation phase becomes stiff and eventually spams causing pain. There are three reasons why muscles don’t relax:
- Overuse is for example when you injury yourself in the gym.
- Disuse is when your muscles tense when you are at your desk due to the body’s natural response to the demands and pressure you are under. Muscles are designed to be used which means if you sit still for long periods the muscular tension doesn’t dissipate.
- Misuse for the majority of people this is due to poor habits when walking, standing and sitting. Sedentary lifestyles means the muscles of the legs are often held in contracted positions for long periods of time and which can lead to stiffness. Sitting at computers for long hours keeps the neck and back in fixed positions causing the same muscles to contract which can lead to muscle tension and in some people muscle pain.
- Stretching Often - Stretching is, of course, a valuable way to relieve muscle stiffness.
- Exercise - Exercise in general is extremely good for releasing muscular stiffness, improving your mood and creating good health.
- Yoga -You can also consider yoga, which is a form of both exercise and stretching, and may have a positive effect on your future muscle discomfort.
- General Health - Your muscles are also very sensitive to your general health as well. You need to do anything you can to make sure you're getting enough sleep, eating protein, and drinking water. These small changes are going to improve your muscle health, which should improve the way your muscles deal with demanding lifestyles.
- Massage - Massage is an excellent way to combat muscle stiffness and pain.
The Impact of Sitting All Day – Part 1
For most people know they sit all day as part of their job. Recently there has been a spate of article in the press about the impact of sitting all day, so I wanted to take some time to look at the impact of sitting all day.
Sit up Straight
I want to start this series of articles on a positive note, as most of my clients have to sit to work, the negative impact of sitting is minimised if you sit correctly. As your Mum always said, "Sit up straight", i.e.- Not leaning forward
- Shoulders relaxed
- Arms close to sides
- Elbows bent 90°
- Lower back should be supported
- Feet flat on floor
So what happens if you don't sit up straight?
As you would expect from a masseur I am going to start by looking at the impact on your muscles.
Strained Neck & Sore Shoulders
If most of your sitting occurs at a desk at work, craning your neck forward toward a keyboard or tilting your head to cradle a phone while typing can strain the cervical vertebrae and lead to permanent imbalances. The neck doesn't slouch alone. Slumping forward overextends the shoulder and back muscles as well, particularly the trapezius, which connects the neck and shoulders. Here at Vitality Therapy we offer Seated Acupressure Massage to directly address these issues.Bad back
When we move around, soft discs between vertebrae expand and contract like sponges, soaking up fresh blood and nutrients. But when we sit for a long time, discs are squashed unevenly. Collagen hardens around supporting tendons and ligaments. So people who sit more are at greater risk of slipped disks or herniated disks.I recommend the Yoga position cat-cow for increasing your spinal flexibility. (Click here for guidelines on how to do cat-cow.)
When you sit for a long time, a muscle called the psoas travels through the abdominal cavity and, when it tightens, pulls the upper lumbar spine forward. Upper-body weight rests entirely on the ischial tuberosity (sitting bones) instead of being distributed along the arch of the spine. A sports massage or a deep tissue massage can release a tight psoas muscle.
Mushy abs
When you stand, move or even sit up straight, abdominal muscles keep you upright. But when you slump in a chair, they go unused. Tight back muscles and wimpy abs form a posture-wrecking alliance that can exaggerate the spine's natural arch, a condition called hyperlordosis, or swayback. So sitting up straight is the first step to good abs!Tight hips
Flexible hips help keep you balanced, but chronic sitters so rarely extend the hip flexor muscles in front that they become short and tight, limiting range of motion and stride length. Studies have found that decreased hip mobility is a main reason elderly people tend to fall. So when you are in the gym remember tohttp://vitalitytherapy.co.uk/wp-admin/post-new.php stretch your hip flexors.Limp glutes
Sitting requires your glutes to do absolutely nothing, and they get used to it. Soft glutes hurt your stability, your ability to push off and your ability to maintain a powerful stride when walking. They can impact your performance when you run, as all powerful glutes are the key to increasing your speed and powering you up hills.
