Monday, August 8, 2016

Sitting too Much Taking a Toll on Mental Health


First it was our physical health. Now it’s our mental health.

“It” is how much we sit and the toll it takes on us. Prolonged sitting is linked by research to a long list of chronic illnesses and even premature death. Now the link has not only been made to our mental health but the list of concerns is getting longer.

First it was depression. Then it was self esteem. Now it’s anxiety. And, if you’re sitting on the job, it includes anxiety and depression.

• The more children or adults sat while watching TV, working on a computer or playing electronic games, the more they were at risk for anxiety. This finding by Australian researchers included concern for those whose excessive worry interferes with daily life. “Anxiety is a debilitating illness affecting 14 per cent of Australian adults, but it’s not just the everyday symptoms such as a racing heart and headaches that we get from our busy lives and financial pressures that we need to worry about. … “Anxiety has been linked to chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer, so we need to identify ways to reduce the risk of this serious illness.”
https://www.deakin.edu.au/news/latest-media-releases/2015-media-releases-archives/aussie-research-finds-we-need-to-get-up-for-the-sake-of-our-mental-health

• “… women who sat for more than seven hours a day were at a 47% higher risk for depressive symptoms than women who sat for four hours or less per day. Women who didn’t exercise had a 99 percent higher risk for depression compared with women who exercised for 30 minutes a day on most days.” Researchers reached these results after had tracking for 10 years some 9,000 Australian women whose age at the start of the study ranged from 50 to 55.
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/sitting-feel-depressed-study-article-1.1449990

• “(Children) Watching TV for more than 2 hours per day was associated with unfavourable (sic) body composition, decreased fitness, lowered scores for self-esteem and pro-social behaviour (sic) and decreased academic achievement.” Canadian researchers reviewed 232 studies about children and sitting times including 983,840 participants to reach their conclusions.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3186735/

• “New research demonstrates that sitting for longer than 6 hours a day at work not only carries a physical toll, but may also increase risks of mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression.… “(Researchers) Kilpatrick and colleagues found that there was a significant relationship between rates of psychological distress and sitting. Employees who reported sitting for longer than 6 hours per day had increased prevalence of moderate symptoms of anxiety and depression relative to those who reported sitting for less than 3 hours a day.”
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/minds-business/more-bad-news-about-sitting-it-may-harm-workers-mental-health.html

No comments:

Post a Comment