Health Zone: Watch out, prolonged sitting kills – Experts

Sitting comes naturally with living. Most daily tasks,from watching the television, eating, driving and performing official duties, are done in a comfortable sitting position. But there is overwhelming evidence associating prolonged sitting with mortality, with a few studies even insisting that a sedentary lifestyle is more lethal than obesity.

Experts say an inactive lifestyle is a certain recipe for a complete degeneration of several parts of the body. According to them, sitting for long periods of time does not only lead to a strained neck and sore shoulders. They posit that an individual with a sedentary lifestyle has a greater risk of developing heart disease, a decrease in insulin production as well as colon, breast and endometrial cancer.

A health practitioner, Dr. Ayo Falade, says it is important that people strike a balance when it comes to sitting for long periods. According to him, winning the war against a sedentary lifestyle comes with making conscious choices.

‘’There have been drastic interventions in foreign countries where manufacturers are pushing standing work stations or special desks into the market. They come in various designs and are configured to remind the user that it is time to stand. We may not have that yet in Nigeria but there is room to improvise. For instance, you can make it a habit to stand up each time you receive or make calls. We all use our mobile phones a lot and that can be the starting block, ’’he says.