What happens when you keep sitting for too long? The question becomes all the more important in times like these when work from home and pandemic literally has us grounded for the past 11 months now. If this study is to be believed, with too much sitting our brain will start looking like the ones that suffer from dementia, memory loss.
The increased risks of heart diseases, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, remain high too.
According to WebMD, too much sitting hurts the heart, shortens the life (that is a debatable topic though), damage your memory and trigger conditions like dementia, chances of getting diabetes rise and worst of all, it will literally undo all the exercise that you might have done to compensate the sedentary lifestyle.
That is not all, you may also develop Deep vein thrombosis or DVT. WebMD explains it as a clot that forms in your leg because of sitting still for too long. "It can be serious if the clot breaks free and lodges in your lung. You might notice swelling and pain, but some people have no symptoms. That’s why it’s a good idea to break up long sitting sessions," it says.
Another side effect of sitting for too long is an easy guess, weight gain. When you don't move around much, you’re more likely to be overweight or obese. No rocket science there. "If you exercise every day, that’s good, but it won’t make a huge dent in extra weight you gain as a result of too much screen time," WebMD says.
It also says that anxiety may spike with all that sitting in one place. Does that partly explain the uneasiness that we experienced in the past one year of being cooped up. "It could be that you’re often by yourself and engaged in a screen-based activity. If this disrupts your sleep, you can get even more anxious. Plus, too much alone time can make you withdraw from friends and loved ones, which is linked to social anxiety. Scientists are still trying to figure out the exact cause."
Back pain, varicose veins, osteoporosis, spiked risk of cancer are other side effects of sitting for too long. The only solution to keep these serious problems at bay is to GET UP and MOVE AROUND!