The price of sitting too much
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Chances are, you are reading this article while perched in a chair. The strangest thing in the world is that people spend all day scrunched in a chair. It is a form of physical entrapment.
Human body is designed to move, but less moving can easily get diseases to the body. Many of us sit for 15 hours a day. Consider how much you sit in a day: driving during your morning commute to an 8-hour-a-day desk job, and then unwinding on the couch in front of the television all evening. What's more, do you depend on email, cell phone, and online shopping etc.? If so, then you may have "sitting disease," a catchy phrase for a sedentary lifestyle that might be putting your health at risk.
Long periods of physical inactivity raise your risk of developing heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, obesity, Alzheimers, joints or muscles pain, arthritis etc. and overall low quality of lifestyle.
Exercise makes your heart and bones strong, relieves stress and improves blood circulation. It also lowers your risk for type 2 diabetes, lose weight, reduce heart disease and stroke by keeping your blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels on target.
If you still see exercise as an optional extra, not a health essential, science is finding more reasons to change your mind.
One of the most compelling findings of recent years is that muscles are actually a huge secretory organ and when we exercise them they release hormone-like chemicals that have a major influence on every system of the body.
Some studies have found that extracting blood from exercising humans and adding it to cancer cells in test tubes slows the rate of cell reproduction. This may be one reason why exercise appears to help reduce the risk of some cancers and improve survival in people with cancer. Some types of exercise, including strength training, also produce a surge of the hormone testosterone which helps sharpen thinking and memory.
A complete physical activity routine includes four kinds of activity:
1. Activity — walking, using the stairs, moving around — throughout the day
2. Aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, swimming, or dancing
3. Strength training, like lifting light weights
4. Flexibility exercises, such as stretching
If you want to reduce the risk of inactivity driven diseases, you need a regular dose of exercises all the way from childhood to old age. Get moving well and stay well, but it is very important to follow exercise prescription before starting any form of exercise, A chartered physiotherapist is the right professional who can properly assess your overall fitness and prescribe proper exercises whatever aerobic or strength or endurance as your body demand.
The write-up is compiled by Dolilur Rahman, Senior Consultant of Physiotherapy at Bangladesh Physiotherapy Hospital, Gulshan, Dhaka. E-mail: [email protected]
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