Sedentariness, a silent killer to your bad health

As is well-known, proper exercise is beneficial to our health. But now, researchers are beginning to suspect that even if you engage in regular exercise daily, it may not be enough to counteract the effects of too much sitting during the rest of the day.

1. Sedentariness will have a influence on the organs

Heart disease

Muscles burn less fat and blood flows more sluggishly during a long sit, allowing fatty acids to more easily clog the heart. Prolonged sitting has been linked to high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, and people with the most sedentary time are more than twice as likely to have cardiovascular disease than those with the least. 

Over-productive pancreas

The pancreas produces insulin, a hormone that carries glucose to cells for energy. But cells in idle muscles don't respond as readily to insulin, so the pancreas produces more and more, which can lead to diabetes and other diseases. A 2011 study found a decline in insulin response after just one day of prolonged sitting.

Colon cancer

Studies have linked sitting to a greater risk for colon, breast and endometrial cancers. The reason is unclear, but one theory is that excess insulin encourages cell growth. Another is that regular movement boosts natural antioxidants that that kill cell-damaging and potentially cancer-causing free radicals.

Pelvic inflammatory disease

The long-term sitting will lead to slack pelvic blood return. As a result, it will gradually cause pelvic congestion, and finally result in the emergence of chronic pelvic inflammatory disease. 

2. Your muscles undergo other metabolic changes while sedentary

The effects of sitting go far beyond fewer calories burned — which explains why research has shown that increased exercise for an hour or so per day can't undo the negative effects of sitting for eight hours, any more than running a mile can erase the damage caused by a smoking habit.

Various metabolic changes that occur in sedentary muscles seem to be the culprit. They're still not well understood, but one likely explanation is that idle muscle cells release much lower amounts of lipase, an enzyme that's important for eliminating fats from the bloodstream and maintaining high levels of "good" cholesterol.

Another likely cause is that our bodies become more resistant to insulin when consistently sedentary. The expression of genes involved in suppressing inflammation is also altered when we sit, and may contribute to the increased cancer rates observed in people who sit a lot.