You would think that sitting at an office desk and doing your work every day would be a pretty safe job, right?
In terms of dangerous situations, of course an office is a relatively safe space. However, if you delve underneath the surface a little, you’ll find that office work has a whole range of potential health concerns caused by sitting for too long in an office chair.
It sounds like nothing, but when you learn about the dangers of sitting for too long, it really opens your eyes to just how dangerous office work really can be.
For instance, did you know that office workers are twice as likely to develop a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) as a result of sitting down for too long over a period of time? This isn’t going to happen by sitting for just one or two days, of course, but when you do so every single day for a year or more, you are doing a lot to increase your risk.
Check out this video which talks a little more about how a DVT is formed.
This is all down to something called sitting disease. When you sit at your desk for hours, you don’t get up and move around and you sit and eat your lunch at your desk, then you go home and sit on your sofa and watch TV, you’re doing a lot to raise your risk of serious health concerns, with DVT one of those problems.
Of course, there is an answer to all of this and it’s a pretty simple one – get up and move around more!
Walk to work or at least some of the way, take the stairs instead of the lift, do some stretches at your desk, use a stand height desk or a height adjustable desk to stand a little and then sit for a little, or use active seating to get some exercise whilst you’re sitting down. Use walking or standing meetings rather than sitting around the boardroom furniture, and when you finish work, make sure that you do something that constitutes exercise, be it a gym session, a swim, or just a walk around the block with the dog.
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All of this will help to drastically reduce your chances of developing serious health problems associated with sitting for too long, including reducing your risk of developing a DVT.