Is your Company Promoting or Preventing the Sitting Disease?

In this column, we discuss the Sitting Disease – the disease of our time and an emerging Public Health concern.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 60-85% of the population worldwide does not engage in enough activity, making physical inactivity the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality.    

How many hours each day do your employees sit?  At work?   In the car?  At meals?  In front of the TV?  According to the Mayo Clinic: 50% – 70% of people spend six or more hours sitting a day and 20% – 35% spend four hours or more a day watching TV.  This shows that the sitting disease is spreading between home and work and it can quickly infect your workforce.

Studies conducted by Mayo Clinic, show that sedentary lifestyle is associated with increased risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease certain cancers (breast and colon).  Physical activity seems to reduce risks by increasing insulin sensitivity, reducing body fat, inflammation and certain hormonal imbalances.  So becoming more active also makes life in general healthier and easier: 

Sedentary Lifestyle Effects

In 2005, James Levine, an obesity specialist at Mayo Clinic, published an article in Science Magazine on the negative effects of sedentary lifestyle, which concluded that “any extended sitting – such as behind a desk at work or behind a wheel can be harmful”.  According to an article posted by John Hopkins Medicine, physical inactivity for prolonged period has been shown to 

• Increase the risks of certain cancers
• Contribute to anxiety and depression
• Be a risk factor for certain cardiovascular diseases
• Cause a decrease in skeletal muscle mass
• Be linked to high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol levels.

Worldwide, it is estimated that a sedentary lifestyle is responsible for 6% of coronary heart disease, 7% of type 2 diabetes, 10% of breast cancers and 10% of colon cancer cases.  In fact, it was recently reported that physical inactivity is responsible for more annual deaths than smoking.

The good news is that this does not have to be our fate.  Though the general workplace movement is heading towards a more sedentary setting as machines continue to replace jobs, the easiest way to increase activity levels is doing so at the workplace, in which an average individual spends up to eight or more hours sitting.   Many corporate cultures see employees as only being productive if they are in their seats working and that productivity and department goals could suffer if employees had “moving breaks” during the day.  What these corporates need to consider is that a struggling, unhealthy workforce will have an impact on the overall efficiency of the company and therefore its bottom-line.  

While sedentary lifestyle can seem like a scary, life-threatening condition, it has been shown that simply breaking up the time sitting, and focusing on moving throughout the day can reverse the effects and help improve overall health.  Here are a few simple tips to intentionally rid your workplace of the sitting disease. 

Ways to fight Sitting Disease at Work:

Encourage your teams to:

• Take frequent “Get Moving Breaks”  3-5 min every hour throughout the day.  Set a simple timer on the computer or phone as a reminder to move and do some awesome desk exercises or simply walk around.  
• Take phone calls standing up
• Skip sitting at a meeting and opt for standing or walking meetings
• Take a 15 min walk during lunch break
• Walk or bike to work
• Park farther away to create an opportunity to walk
• Print documents on a printer that is across the office or on another floor
• Take the stairs
• Eat lunch away from desk
• Walk to a colleague’s desk rather than phoning or emailing him/her.
• Turn the workstation into a low cost sit/stand desk to promote movement and reduce sitting.

How about investing in tracking devices such as pedometers or fitbits to track number of steps taken by each member of team as a healthy competition and recognizing the staff with maximum number of steps?  

In addition to helping the body’ s circulatory systems, getting up and moving around also supercharges the brain and you burn 30% more calories when you are standing then when you are sitting and this leads to improved energy levels, productivity and performance.