"Sitting is the new cancer"

“Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting. We are sitting ourselves to death,” says James Levine, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, in an interview in with the LA Times.

Of all things that could be dangerous to your well being, the last thing that could come to your mind would probably be the chair, but Dr. Levine says “The chair is out to kill us.”

I would not hesitate to estimate that in cities we spend almost 60-70% of your productive life sitting, be it sitting for commute (car/bus/airplane), sitting at work, watching television/sitting in front of the screen, or having lunch/dinner or reading a book.

Studies show that exercising regularly in a gym does not completely reverse all the ill effects of prolonged sitting simply because 9 hours of sitting cannot be undone by an hour of exercising.  When you are sitting for prolonged hours, metabolism slows down by over 95% and thus all the chemical and electrical activity of your body comes almost to a standstill.

Prolonged sitting can lead to many things; increased risk of obesity, back pain, spondylitis, increased cardiovascular risk, increased risk of diabetes mellitus (type 2). All of these although life threatening can be easily diagnosed and cured with change in lifestyle, but the most threatening of all the risks of prolonged sitting is cancer, specifically colon cancer.

The exact reason why sitting increases cancer risk is still unknown, but scientists have found a number of biomarkers that are present in higher levels in people who sit for prolonged periods.

"There are several types of cancer that are believed to be caused by inactivity. Christine Friedenreich, an epidemiologist at Alberta Health Services-Cancer Care in Canada, estimates that 173,000 cases of cancer in the U.S. are due to inactivity, with 49,000 cases of breast cancer and 43,000 cases of colon cancer. The other cancers linked to inactivity are lung (37,200), prostate cancer (30,600 cases), endometrial cancer (12,000 cases), and ovarian cancer (1,800 cases) could also be related to excessive sitting."

The above data shows that colon cancer is second only to breast cancer but since breast cancer is easily diagnosed and mostly at a very early stage, it is no more a killer cancer.

Colon cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed killer cancer in both men and women. Colon cancer is an "equal opportunity" disease that does not discriminate against gender, race or geographic location. Colon cancer is slowly gaining epidemic status. Colon cancer is a silent killer as there are no specific symptoms for colon cancer and only way out is prevention (i.e., early detection with regular colonoscopies). When a patient develops symptoms, the cancer in all probability is at an advanced/late stage and by the time the surgeon gets a chance to see the patient, s/he has a few months to live.

The most common no-nonsense approach to this would be standing desks.  Recently many corporations are introducing standing desks in their office to de-risk their staff from cancer but my guess is that this (standing desks) will reduce the ill effects of prolonged sitting only to increase another set of problems, viz., varicose veins, low back pain, muscle stiffness and general muscular fatigue.

As more studies starts coming up we might get a better hold on the effects of sitting and our well being till then one might try to take a stroll every 25-30 minutes during work, if you are commuting by public transport prefer to stand, watch television while walking on a treadmill, walk when you are talking on your mobile.

Sitting or standing per se is not dangerous but it is the duration of sitting/standing which can cause irreversible effects on your well being.