Walking Into a Sitting Epidemic

"ET up, stand up, stand up for your rights," sang Jamaican star Bob Marley. But there is a new way to stand up for your rights—for public and personal health, not political awareness. If you are one whose work or habits keep you glued to a chair and involve staring long hours at a computer or mobile screen, there is official confirmation that your health may not be sitting pretty, quite literally.

- MADHAVAN NARAYANAN

Union Health Minister J P Nadda confirmed to the Lok Sabha this month that a sample survey of technology workers in Hyderabad showed an overwhelming majority of them suffered from fatty liver disease, which can lead to various health complications. As much as 84 percent of the 345 employees surveyed had increased liver fat accumulation that indicated metabolic dysfunction, while another 34 percent had what is technically called metabolic syndrome, associated with diabetes and heart problems.

That should give a stand-up call to all sorts of techies and associated new-age knowledge workers, not to speak of the ubiquitous smartphone addict.

Nadda did not talk explicitly about the side effects of chair-bound work, but there is increasing global awareness, government action, and matching fancy expressions to show that there is a link between sitting, junk food, and bad health. There is a series of TED talks on what some call 'The Sitting Addiction', under which experts cover everything from outcomes to postures related to sitting.

Experts from America's National Institutes of Health say higher amounts of sitting time are associated with "greater risk of all-cause mortality." An Australian government advisory titled 'Why sitting is the new smoking' links sitting or lying down for too long to heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers, besides impaired mental health.