Sedentary Work Links to Specific Ailments
A study presented at the American College of Cardiology's Annual Scientific Session showed a correlation between the time spent sitting and coronary artery disease. The study also found evidence that the amount of exercising an individual does offers little, if any, benefit when it comes to preventing or counteracting the cardiovascular damage caused by sitting.
The study, "Sedentary Behavior is Associated with Coronary Artery Calcification in the Dallas Heart Study," analyzed heart scans and physical activity records of more than 2,000 adults living in Dallas. The research found that each hour of sedentary time per day on average was associated with a 14 percent increase in coronary artery calcification. Coronary artery calcification is a marker of subclinical heart disease that can increase the risk of a heart attack.
The data found no association between coronary artery calcification and the amount of exercise a person gets. Regular exercisers who sat for extended periods exhibited just as much calcification as non-exercisers. The study's lead author, Dr. Jacquelyn Kulinski, assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, acknowledged the value of exercise but added, "…this study suggests that reducing how much you sit every day may represent a more novel, companion strategy (in addition to exercise) to help reduce your cardiovascular risk."
Prolonged periods of sitting also can lead to back and hip issues. In July 2015, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) sponsored a webinar on the implications of sedentary work, Dr. Jennifer Hess discussed how extended sitting negatively can impact functional fitness. Functional fitness basically is the body's ability to efficiently perform real world activities.
According to Hess, an associate research professor in occupational injury prevention and outreach at the University of Oregon, prolonged sitting can lead to muscle asymmetries. She said that in those individuals who are sitting for 40 hours a week, their buttock muscles become weakened which in turn forces other muscles to overcompensate. The muscles of the back often are forced to work overtime to make up for the weak buttock muscles, resulting in back injuries that manifest themselves while doing normal, everyday tasks.
Hess also noted that weakened buttock muscles can create inefficient muscle control at the top of the front of the leg leading to an increased likelihood for hip injuries. To this end, she shared a startling statistic from the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS). She noted that between 2000 and 2009, the AAOS reported a 123 percent increase in hip replacements in individuals between 45-64 years old. Hess said that sedentary work is a factor in this dramatic increase.