Is sitting the new smoking?

Tobacco smoking was arguably the largest health hazard to effect the developed world in the 20th century. It has been directly linked to a number of health conditions, such as heart disease and lung cancer, leading to compulsory health warnings on every cigarette packet sold in the UK. Increased awareness of the health risks associated with smoking has lead to a dramatic reduction in the number of smokers in the UK with a quit rate of over 50% (1).

Looking back, it’s easy to see how smoking has caused many early deaths around the world and leads me to wonder whether we’ll one day look back on sitting in the same way. Sitting is a very popular past-time. A Weight Watcher survey of British workers found that 67% of people spend over 20 hours a day sitting or lying down. So what is this doing to us all? Like smoking, increased sitting has been linked to various health conditions including heart disease (2) and diabetes (3), and is responsible for 9% of premature deaths worldwide (4). Furthermore, those of us who sit for more than 8 hours a day have a 62% greater risk of becoming obese than those who don’t (5).

Despite all of this, we’re sitting more and more each year and that’s because it’s so damn easy. Technology makes it simple for us to do almost everything at the touch of a button. From shopping to ordering takeaway food, it can all be done from a chair. Leaving you with plenty of time to sit and catch up on the latest series on Netflix. In the workplace, gone are the days when you needed to walk to the post-office or even the fax machine to send a letter. You simply email from the comfort of your office chair.

As a physiotherapist, I speak to most of my patients about their lifestyle – including their job and exercise habits. People often tell me that they simply can’t avoid sitting because they have an office job. Well there’s hope for such people. A recent study in Norway showed that people who sit for 8+ hours a day, but exercise for an hour each day, have no greater risk of dying early compared to those who sit for less than four hours and exercise a lot (6). This means that, alongside the many other health benefits of exercise, you can offset the deadly effects of sitting with just an hour of exercise each day.

I would encourage absolutely everyone to exercise as much as they can. To find types of exercise that they enjoy so that they can feel better about themselves, increase their energy levels, improve their mental well-being and get better sleep. But if you’re someone who has to sit for long periods each day at work, I strongly recommend that you factor in some exercise into your day. By any means necessary, whether it be running, cycling, gym, Zumba, yoga, dance, climbing, anything. Move more, increase your heart rate, work your body, and it might just save your life.

 

Joseph Korge

Physiotherapist at Spires Physiotherapy

 

1.        Adult smoking habits in the UK: Office for National Statistics. Available online: https://www.ons.gov.uk/

2.        Morris et al (1953). Coronary heart-disease and physical activity of work. Lancet. Nov 21;265(6795):1053-7.

3.        George, E. S., Rosenkranz, R. R., & Kolt, G. S. (2013). Chronic disease and sitting time in middle-aged Australian males: findings from the 45 and Up Study. The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 10, 20. doi:10.1186/1479-5868-10-20.

4.        Lee, I.M., Shiroma E.J., Lobelo F., et al. 2012). Effect of physical inactivity on major non-communicable diseases worldwide: an analysis of burden of disease and life expectancy. Lancet. 380(9838):219–229.

5.        Bullock V. E., Griffiths P., et. Al. (2017). Sitting time and obesity in a sample of adults from Europe and the USA. Ann Hum Biol. May; 44(3):230-236.

6.        Ekelund U., Steene-Johanessen J., Brown W. J., et. al. (2016). Does physical activity attenuate, or even eliminate, the detrimental association of sitting time with mortality? Lancet. 388;10051: 1302-1310.

Testimonials

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Jamal

Jamal
Ofori-Adu

BSc MCSP HCPC
West Hampstead Clinic.

Jamal is a Chartered Physiotherapist with a specialist clinical interest in musculoskeletal and sports injuries. He has worked in various clinics and led teams within the NHS and private practice. Along the way, he has honed his skills in the assessment and management of back pain, shoulder injuries and lower limb injuries. He combines his extensive experience with a passion for strength and conditioning, along with current research evidence, to inform his clinical decision making. He has a wealth of physiotherapy knowledge and he’s able to impart this in a pragmatic and honest fashion. He enjoys being active, plays football at semi-professional level and also enjoys creative arts, music and travelling. Jamal currently works in our West Hampstead clinic.

Dr Gurhan

Dr Gurhan
Kayihan

BSc MSc PhD MCSP HCPC
Didcot and Oxford clinics

Gurhan is a Chartered Physiotherapist and Sport Scientist with extensive experience in elite sport, the NHS and within the academic sector. After qualifying as a physiotherapist in 2003, he went on to obtain a masters degree before completing his PhD in Sport and Health Science in 2012. Alongside working within musculoskeletal clinics, he has worked internationally with the Turkish National Amputee Football team, lectured within universities and has conducted numerous research studies looking into exercise and lower back pain among other subjects. Gurhan’s research background enables him to utilise current scientific evidence as well his broad clinical knowledge to help people manage persistent pain and recover from acute injuries. When he isn’t working in the clinics or consulting for scientific journals, he likes to spend time with his family, hiking, doing martial arts and collecting old coins. Gurhan currently works in our Didcot and Oxford clinics.
Andreas

Andreas
Georgoulas

BSc MSc MCSP HCPC
Oxford Clinic

Andreas is a Chartered Physiotherapist and Kinesiotherapy specialist with extensive experience in private practice and elite sport. He has over a decade of experience working with professional athletes including track athletes, basketball players and the Olympic Rhythmic Gymnastics Ensemble. He is particularly proud of his work with the Greece National Athletics Elite Marathon Team. As a result, Andreas has developed expert sports injury rehabilitation skills alongside a wide range of treatment modalities. Outside of elite sports, he also has experience in post-operative rehabilitation, musculoskeletal disorders and elderly rehabilitation. Having completed his undergraduate training at Queen Margaret University, he then completed a masters degree in Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation in 2022. In his spare time, he enjoys athletics, basketball, cross fit and paint balling. Andreas currently works in our Oxford clinic.

Adelina Florea

Adelina
Florea

BSc MSc MCSP HCPC
Oxford Clinic

Adelina is a Chartered Physiotherapist with a wealth of private practice experience covering a range of specialties including musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and post-operative recovery. Alongside her rehabilitation knowledge, she deploys an array of manual therapy techniques. Adelina likes to combine her passion for scientific research with a person centred approach and draws upon her elite sports experience when devising exercise programmes for patients. To build on her undergraduate physiotherapy degree, she completed a masters degree in Implants, Prostheses and Biomechanics in 2016. Adelina has become a very popular member of our team among our patients and the other team members and her diary is often booked up a week in advance. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, writing, hiking and gardening. Adelina currently works at our Oxford clinic.

Goals

Once you have a working diagnosis for your injury, we’ll guide you through a staged rehabilitation plan which is targeted towards your exercise goals. Whether you want to return to running, weight-lifting or gardening, your rehabilitation plan will reflect this and your physiotherapist will always keep your goals in mind when treating you. Rather than just treating your symptoms, our holistic approach will get you back to your best, but even fitter and more resilient than before. That’s how we keep you doing what you love doing without re-injuring yourself.

Time

You won’t be in and out of the door within half an hour. We allocate 65 minutes for every appointment. Most initial appointments last 55-60 minutes and follow-up sessions tend to take-up 45-50 minutes. This allows your physiotherapist plenty of time to focus on you, build a tailor made plan and write-up your notes without encroaching on your face-to-face time.

Ethos

We are committed to providing evidence based physiotherapy with the aim of demystifying the world of sports injuries and therapy. We understand that you’ve probably been through the mill with multiple therapists using all sorts of electrical gadgets and gizmos, so we won’t overcomplicate your recovery with modalities that aren’t proven to work. What we will do is take a pragmatic approach, using our extensive clinical experience alongside the best available scientific evidence to treat you effectively and get you back to your favourite sports or activities.

Evidence

We are committed to providing evidence based physiotherapy with the aim of demystifying the world of sports injuries and therapy. We understand that you’ve probably been through the mill with multiple therapists using all sorts of electrical gadgets and gizmos, so we won’t overcomplicate your recovery with modalities that aren’t proven to work. What we will do is take a pragmatic approach, using our extensive clinical experience alongside the best available scientific evidence to treat you effectively and get you back to your favourite sports or activities.