Today’s technologies and innovations have created a society of sitting. An average college student spends half their day sitting at a desk in class or doing homework. This poses a risk to college students for a multitude of health reasons.
OBESITY, DIABETES, HEART DISEASE
- Prolonged sitting has shown to double the risk of diabetes and heart disease; even those exercise regularly are at risk.
- Sitting tricks the body to go into energy storage mode this leads to insulin resistance.
- Insulin resistance will increase the level of insulin in the blood while increasing the bad cholesterol and reducing the good.
The average person sits for 50-70% of their day; observational data from over 1 million people exposes that the more sedentary you are, the more likely you are to die early. Unfortunately even exercising regularly will not make up for the hours spent sitting, people who exercise for 60 minutes a day but sit for 5 hours a day as well are still at risk of these health concerns. Sedentary behavior has been studied extensively and it has shown to be linked to more than 30 chronic diseases and conditions.
Reducing sedentary time is very important to health, it is just as important as a healthy diet. Luckily, reducing sedentary time can, in fact, be a fun, positive experience! Instead of sitting on the couch to watch Netflix or television after work or school, go for a walk, or a bike ride, or do yoga: anything to get your body moving. While you are at work you can set an alarm every 30 minutes to an hour to remind yourself to get up a take a quick walk or stretch out the legs. On campus, there are sometimes stand up desks or bike desks available in the library. Utilizing those while doing homework will leave you feeling a bit better at the end of the day. You can purchase all sorts of stand up/exercise desks; the market is growing as people are realizing how bad it is to spend more than a couple hours sitting every day.
A sedentary lifestyle will shorten your life, keep you at risk of disease, and deplete your health. Fortunately, there are simple solutions to this; all it takes is being conscious of your sitting time each day and trying to keep your body moving as much as possible.
