Prolonged sitting killing physicians, researchers

NAIROBI: 2016 has started on a sad note for the medical fraternity. We have lost two highly specialised clinical researchers who were at the peak of their careers. The two had non-communicable conditions contributed by factors related to prolonged sitting due to the nature of their work.

They are representative of the effect prolonged sitting can have on doctors and researchers who spend most of their time sitting either in the clinics or laboratories as they conduct their business.

Spending too much time perched on your posterior could be seriously damaging to your health because these prolonged periods of inactivity increase your risk of obesity and predispose you to other conditions. These include heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, muscular and back issues, deep vein-thrombosis, brittle bones, depression and even dementia.

Experts are now describing sitting as 'the new smoking', a ticking time bomb of ill health just waiting to explode. The World Health Organisation has already identified physical inactivity as the fourth biggest killer on the planet, ahead of obesity.

From the driver's seat to the office chair and then the couch at home, doctors and research officers are spending more time seated than ever, and researchers say it is wreaking havoc on our bodies. Some quotes:

"Sitting is more dangerous than smoking, (it) kills more people than HIV and is more treacherous than parachuting”.

"We are sitting ourselves to death".

"Sitting is the most underrated health-threat of modern time. Research shows inactivity now kills more people than smoking".

"Sitting is so incredibly prevalent that we do not even question how much we are doing it. And because everyone else is doing it, it does not even occur to us that it is not ok."

To departed colleagues, Prof Juma Rashid and Dr George Nakitare, rest in peace. But the lessons are visible, the occupational risks of prolonged sitting are now clear.