• About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • 2020 Alumnae Achievement Awards Held Virtually; 3 Awardees Honored
      2020 Alumnae Achievement Awards Held Virtually; 3 Awardees Honored
    • Students Remember the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg
      Students Remember the Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg
    • First-Year Students Reflect on Their Expectations for College, One Semester In
      First-Year Students Reflect on Their Expectations for College, One Semester In
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • No image
      You have no valid reasons to oppose raising the minimum wage
    • No image
      Free the pee: cut the hygiene theater and let us use other bathrooms
    • Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
      Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • “Judas and the Black Messiah” subverts, soars as Civil Rights story
      “Judas and the Black Messiah” subverts, soars as Civil Rights story
    • Black Entertainment Without Black Trauma: Recommendations for BHM!
      Black Entertainment Without Black Trauma: Recommendations for BHM!
    • Queer Storylines in “The Prom” Fall Flat
      Queer Storylines in “The Prom” Fall Flat
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
  • Health and Wellness
    • COVID-19: Popping the Wellesley Bubble
      COVID-19: Popping the Wellesley Bubble
    • No image
      Athletic impacts of Covid-19
    • No image
      A new kind of PE
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • Miscellanea
    • No image
      Remote students experience existential crises; change class years in email signatures
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
      Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
    • The Artichoke
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Tanvee Varma Miscellanea, The DoseMay 3, 2016

Undoing the Harms of Prolonged Sitting

Photo courtesy of the Wellesley Magazine

Sitting for long periods of time can be quite harmful to the body. The average person sits for about 9.3 hours per day — more than the average person spends sleeping. The act of sitting can cause many immediate changes to the body. As soon as a person sits down, electrical energy in the legs stops, calorie burning drops to one calorie per minute, and enzymes that break down fat drop to 90 percent. Two hours after sitting, the amount of good cholesterol in the blood drops by 20 percent. After 24 hours, the effectiveness of insulin drops by 24 percent, increasing the risk of diabetes.

Many studies have shown that prolonged sitting can cause organ damage, muscle degeneration, poor circulation, obesity and back pain. In fact, one meta-analysis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that prolonged sitting was associated with higher mortality from all causes of death including cancer, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Although it seems as though regular exercise could reverse some of the damage associated with regular sitting, a study published by the American College of Sports Medicine suggests that sedentary lifestyle is a health risk factor, regardless of whether regular exercise is being done.

What can be done if a person is often required to sit all day? Two studies show that just walking or stretching for a couple of minutes every hour is enough to mitigate the harms of sitting.

The first study analyzed data from 3,626 United States adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. These adults agreed to wear health monitors, which tracked their movement throughout the experiment. After three years, the researchers counted the patients that had died to calculate the risk of dying prematurely and whether time spent sitting had an effect on the outcome.The researchers found that standing was no better than sitting when it came to premature death. However, it was found that two minutes of walking every hour decreased the chance of dying prematurely by 33 percent.

While the data from this study is quite novel, the study itself was observational. As a result,we cannot conclude that walking actually reduces the chance of premature death as there may be other factors at play. For example, it is possible that those that are healthier to begin with walk around more than less healthy individuals.

An additional study published last year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that those who sit for most of the day should aim to stand or walk for about 2 hours per day, and progress to walking about 4 hours per day. In addition, people should break up time spent sitting with a few minutes of standing or walking.  

For every hour that you spent in the library studying, spend a few minutes getting up from your chair and walking around. Any amount of walking is helpful, whether it be just around your table or through the book racks. If it is too cold to go outside, there are indoor wellness trails set up in different buildings around campus. Even just a little bit of stretching at your desk can help undo the harms of prolonged sitting.

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleCollege Government Vice President 2016 End of the Year Report
Next articleEarly Periods Linked to Breast Cancer

You may also like

Remote students experience existential crises; change class years in email signatures

College Government President Tatiana Ivy Moise '21 speaks at commencement. She wears a mask and a graduation robe, and stands at a podium.

President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect

Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

  • Free the pee: cut the hygiene theater and let us use other b...
  • COVID-19: Popping the Wellesley Bubble
  • Queer Storylines in “The Prom” Fall Flat
  • Black Entertainment Without Black Trauma: Recommendations fo...
  • You have no valid reasons to oppose raising the minimum wage

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2021 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top