"Sitting for a long time" and "looking down" have so many harmful effects. Here are some tips to relieve the discomfort →

Sitting at work, eating, watching TV, playing games, the first thing you do when you open your eyes is to touch your phone. Watching your phone at work and playing with your phone after get off work, young people suffer from back pain, shoulder and neck pain... "Sitting for a long time" and "looking down" are far more harmful to the body. How long is considered sitting for a long time? What methods can reduce the damage? Let's take a look!

What are the dangers of sitting for a long time?

How long is considered sitting for a long time? Generally speaking, sitting for more than 5 days a week while awake, for more than 8 hours a day, or for 2 hours without getting up or changing sitting position, can be considered sitting for a long time.

So, what are the dangers of sitting for a long time?

Affects the cardiovascular system

Sitting for a long time will weaken blood circulation and cause insufficient blood supply to the brain. Over time, it will even cause decreased heart function, myocardial atrophy, and uncomfortable symptoms such as dizziness, panic, and palpitations.

Due to the slowdown in blood circulation, blood stasis is prone to occur, leading to blood clots. Especially for patients with cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and atherosclerosis, sitting for a long time is an important factor in inducing myocardial infarction and cerebral thrombosis.

Causes decreased cardiopulmonary function

The heart and lungs are connected. If the heart is not supplied with enough blood, the lungs will also be affected, causing a decline in cardiopulmonary function, which can easily aggravate heart disease and lung system diseases.

Affects the musculoskeletal system

"Sitting for a long time will cause blood to stagnate in the muscles of the limbs", which will lead to poor circulation of qi and blood, and muscle relaxation and weakness. Sitting for a long time will cause stiffness in the neck, shoulders, waist and back, soreness and pain, cervical spondylosis, and difficulty in pitching, turning and twisting. And long-term poor sitting posture will cause the spine to continue to bend forward, forming a hunchback.

Due to the long-term weight-bearing of the pelvic and sacral joints, the blood circulation in the abdomen and lower limbs is affected, and it is also easy to induce constipation, hemorrhoids, joint degeneration, and also cause symptoms such as numbness of the lower limbs and varicose veins of the lower limbs.

Affects digestion and metabolism

Sitting for a long time can cause gastrointestinal motility to slow down, the digestive glands to secrete less digestive fluid, and symptoms such as loss of appetite, and aggravate digestive system symptoms such as abdominal distension, constipation, and indigestion.

Sitting for a long time will slow down the body's metabolism, which can easily lead to obesity, high blood lipids, etc., which in turn will slow down the response of the pancreas and even increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

As the saying goes, “Movement keeps you healthy.” If you are a sedentary person, or have the habit of “sitting instead of standing when you can, lying down instead of sitting”, please correct it in time.

This will minimize the harm of sitting for a long time

Head and neck: Relax your shoulders, look straight ahead, and keep your line of sight parallel to the top of the computer or the upper 1/3 of the display.

Arms: When using a keyboard and mouse, your hands, wrists, and forearms should be in a straight line, with your elbows naturally bent and placed on both sides of the body.

Back: Keep your back straight and your buttocks should be touching the back of the chair. You can put a small pillow under the backrest to keep your lower back in a natural "C-shaped" curve.

Legs: Keep your legs at right angles to your waist, avoid crossing your legs, and place your body's center of gravity evenly on your sitting bones. Your thighs should be roughly parallel to the ground, and your knees can be slightly lower than your hips.

Feet: Place your feet flat on the ground. If your feet cannot reach the ground, you can put a shoe box or a few books under your feet to make the ankle joints naturally form a right angle.

How to take care of lumbar muscle strain?

Keeping the same posture is equivalent to continuously bearing weight, which will continuously stretch the waist muscles, fascia and ligaments, compress the small blood vessels in the muscles and cause insufficient oxygen supply, which will produce lactic acid and other substances that cause pain.

Substances such as lactic acid can cause inflammation and adhesion of muscles, fascia and ligaments. Repeatedly, this can cause tissue degeneration and lead to lumbar muscle strain. Young people suffer from lumbar muscle strain mainly due to poor posture.

People who sit or stand for long periods of time are at high risk of this disease. Sitting for long periods of time is more torturous to the waist than standing for long periods of time. For example, if the weight on the waist when a person stands upright is used as the standard, the weight when sitting is equivalent to 1.4 times that of standing; sitting forward is equivalent to 1.85 times that of standing.

How do you know if you have lumbar muscle strain? Remember the five key points of self-diagnosis:

Lower back pain;

The location is on both sides of the waist or the lower part of the waist;

Worsened by prolonged sitting;

Often aggravated by bending over and relieved by stretching or massage;

There was no radiating pain in the lower limbs or numbness in the calves.

If you encounter lumbar muscle strain, there are three ways to relieve pain:

1. Lie down and rest more often. Note: lie on your back, not on your side! The weight on your waist is minimal when you lie on your back. People with back problems are advised to choose a hard bed or a hard mattress.

Second, try not to move. If you really need to move, it is recommended to wear a lumbar support to reduce the weight on the lumbar spine. The lumbar support should generally not be worn for more than 1 month, and should not be worn while lying in bed.

Third, external plasters, hot compresses and massage can improve the blood circulation of the lumbar muscles and relieve pain. Note: Massage must be done by a professionally qualified physiotherapist to be safe, and avoid excessive force.

In addition, to prevent the recurrence of lumbar muscle strain, you should pay attention to the following three points in your daily life:

First, do more functional exercises. First, it can relieve muscle and ligament tension, and second, it can train waist strength.

2. The pain in patients with lumbar muscle strain is often related to weather changes and cold, so they should prevent the waist from getting cold and windy.

Third, try to avoid lifting heavy objects and other actions that may aggravate low back pain.

Sitting for a long time can also easily cause cervical spondylosis

Workers who sit for a long time are prone to back pain, shoulder and neck discomfort. Long-term sitting can easily lead to cervical spondylosis, and looking down at the phone is also an important cause. According to data released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in 2021, there are 986 million mobile Internet users in my country, with an average weekly Internet time of 26.2 hours per person, about 4 hours a day. In other words, we spend about a quarter of the 16 hours we are awake every day immersed in our mobile phones.

Playing with your phone for a long time is slowly changing your appearance and body.

Stiff hand joints

The mobile phone is too large (relative to the size of the palm). When playing with the mobile phone, the thumb needs to be abducted for a long time, and the whole palm will continue to exert force. Over time, it can easily cause wrist strain, induce tenosynovitis, and cause soreness and cramps in the fingers and wrists.

Eyes become dry

Staring at the mobile phone screen for a long time can easily lead to blurred vision and dry eyes.

Straightening of the cervical spine

The neck has a physiological curvature that leans slightly forward. Always lowering your head can easily straighten the cervical spine and cause excessive flexion and extension of the muscles in the front and back of the neck.

When the body is upright, the average weight of an adult's head is 5 kilograms; when playing with a mobile phone, the head is lowered at an angle of about 60 degrees, and the pressure on the cervical intervertebral disc is as high as 27 kilograms, which is equivalent to the weight of a 7-year-old child.

Deepening of neck lines

When you lower your head to play with your phone, the pressure on your neck is greater than usual. The muscles in the neck grow vertically. Lowering your head will shorten the neck muscles and accelerate the aging of epidermal cells.

Massage points to relieve neck pain

Lying down or lying on your stomach for a long time playing with your phone will increase the burden on your lumbar spine and shoulders, and induce shoulder pain, herniated disc, etc. You can relieve the discomfort through proper acupoint massage:

Luozhen acupoint. Luozhen acupoint is located on the back of the hand, between the metacarpal bones of the middle finger and the index finger, starting from the end of the two finger bones and one thumb width outward. Use the tip of the thumb to massage the "Luozhen acupoint" from light to heavy, and keep it for 5-10 minutes. At the same time, move the fingers of the hand being pressed to strengthen the acupressure feeling of the acupoint. The left and right hands can be massaged alternately. Massaging this acupoint can significantly relieve the pain of stiff neck, and can also prevent cervical spondylosis, arm pain, and stomach pain.

Fengchi acupoint. Fengchi acupoint is located on both sides of the big tendon behind the forehead and parallel to the earlobe. Spread your five fingers, place your thumb on the Fengchi acupoint, and support the other four fingers on the pillow. Tilt your head back slightly. When you feel a sore and swollen feeling in the Fengchi acupoint, look up to the left first, keep your right thumb unchanged, and stop for 5 seconds; do it again in the opposite direction. Massaging this acupoint can relieve symptoms such as neck pain, eye fatigue, and insomnia.

In addition, you can also change your posture to reduce the harm, such as trying the "Ultraman gesture". Relax your neck, raise your phone, and put it at the level of your eyes. Then support your right hand with your left hand to hold the phone more comfortably (if you are used to it, switch hands).

Source: Beijing Evening News