Everything is Broken, But You Don’t Have to Be (Part II)

Last month we touched on the relationship between what we wear on our feet and how that influences our sense of touch. More specifically, we talked about how most footwear is broken and doesn’t compliment how our feet are designed to move. This month we will be addressing another important topic, how our jobs intersect with our health. 

Before we begin, take a moment and reflect on how your job influences both your mental and physical health. Do you feel energized after being with people all day or do you feel isolated working from home? What about your body? Are you stiff after sitting at a desk all day, or do you feel sore from exhausting labor? Whatever your job entails, it’s important to consider the externalities.

For those of you who sit at a desk most of the day, your job may be what I consider broken. While your job may sustain you financially, how is it affecting your health span? A recent study from Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons set out to answer this question by investigating the relationship between technology, modern sedentary jobs and our health. An analysis of this study’s results begins by stating that “mounting evidence suggests that prolonged sitting—a staple of modern-day life—is hazardous to your health, even if you exercise regularly.” For those of you who think coming to the gym is enough to check the box on taking care of your health, I’m sorry to say that this alone is not enough.

The study divided participants into three groups. Those who got up and walked for five minutes at 30-, 60- or 120-minute intervals. These movement breaks were referred to as “movement snacks.” The results showed that the most effective prescription for movement was every 30 minutes, which adds up to 10 minutes per hour. For an eight-hour workday, the summation is 1 hour and 20 minutes of movement. Or, across a typical 40-hour work week, that’s 6 hours and 40 minutes total for allotted movement time. I know what you’re thinking, this might be a hard sell to ask your boss. However, I’m sure your boss (or their boss) is also concerned with rising healthcare costs. So, try persuading them by sharing the study’s findings. Walking for 5 minutes every half hour “was the only amount that significantly lowered both blood sugar and blood pressure. In addition, this walking regimen had a dramatic effect on how the participants responded to large meals, reducing blood sugar spikes by 58% compared with sitting all day.”

These metrics are so important because controlling blood sugar spikes can help combat diabetes. Diabetes is the “number one cause of kidney failure, lower-limb amputations, and adult blindness” according to the CDC. Further, the CDC also reports an annual cost of “$413 billion in health care expenses, lost work and lost wages'' due to diabetes. 

Most cases of diabetes are Type II, which is largely preventable by lifestyle modifications. On the other hand, Blood pressure is coined the silent killer for how it affects the heart. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Again, according to the CDC, nearly “700,000 people died of Heart Disease in 2021 alone.” Not to mention, “the annual healthcare cost for Heart Disease was just shy of $240 billion between 2018 and 2019.”  If movement snacks can help prevent these diseases, 10 minutes per hour seems like a reasonable investment in the health of our currently sedentary workforce. 

I hope this arms you with information to share with your boss so real change can happen. On the other hand, if you’re a business owner, please consider how the lack of movement may be harming your employees and costing you more in medical costs downstream.

Lastly, in addition to the physical benefits, it was reported that “the more a participant moved, the better they felt. Exercise Physiologist Keith Diaz, the lead researcher on this study, said that researchers noticed several positive indicators as they unpacked the data. Fatigue was reduced by 25%, feelings of positive emotions increased, and feelings of negative emotions decreased. Diaz and his team found a dose response relationship, meaning the more breaks a person took, the better they felt. But even the groups that moved every two hours reported an improvement. Across the board, it didn't matter, necessarily, how often participants moved, they still received some benefit, but there was more benefit the more often participants moved.” So, is your job slowly killing you or is it promoting a better health span?


WRITTEN BY JAMES PINOLA, MS, CSCS, ACSM-EP

EDITS & PHOTOS BY BRI DAMOUR

july 2024


Sources

  • https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/about/index.html

  • https://www.cdc.gov/heart-disease/data-research/facts-stats/index.html#:~:text=Heart%20disease%20in%20the%20United%20States&text=One%20person%20dies%20every%2033,1%20in%20every%205%20deaths.

  • https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/rx-prolonged-sitting-five-minute-stroll-every-half-hour 

Brianne Damour