To Your Health
October, 2024 (Vol. 18, Issue 10) |
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Sitting Can Be a Real Pain
By Editorial Staff
Sitting too much and moving too little – it's a recipe for health care disaster. Our increasingly sedentary society (remote work, screen time, etc.) isn't getting the movement it needs, and that lack of physical activity translates into a higher risk of acute and chronic pain, illness and disease. One of the most common consequences:
back pain.
Decreasing sitting time is a great way to reduce back pain, suggests research, including a study that evaluated adults (average age: 52) with chronic low back pain and desk jobs. All participants sat at their desk for 20 or more hours per week. Desk time has been associated with low back pain – up to 50% within any given year.
Interventions such as a "sit-stand desk attachment and wrist-worn activity-prompting device" were used to track sitting time; and monthly questionnaires were used to measure variables such as disability attributable to the pain. Over the course of six months, average work sitting time in the intervention group was only 1.5 hours per day, corresponding to lower disability index scores: 50% lower in the intervention group vs. 14% lower in the control group.
Does your job involve sitting? There's a good chance it involves back pain, too. Your chiropractor can evaluate your pain, help resolve it, and provide advice to help prevent it from recurring – including ways to move more and sit less during your workday.
