San Francisco Chiropractor Comments:
Most of the patients we treat at Executive Express Chiropractic spend the majority of their day sitting in an office chair in front of a computer. Some for for than 12 hours per day.
Heck...the average American spends 8.9 hour per day sitting.
But the thing is...our body's were not designed to be sitting for long periods. In fact, according to experts, sitting for long periods, especially in the office chairs that most of us use and consider ergonomically correct, can lead to a cascade of bad things, including back pain, neck pain, and even obesity. Check this excerpt out from the article Your Office Chair Is Killing You from the May 3-May 9, 2010 Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine:
In a 2005 article in Science magazine, James A. Levine, an obesity specialist at the Mayo Clinic, pinpointed why, despite similar diets, some people are fat and others aren't. "We found that people with obesity have a natural predisposition to be attracted to the chair, and that's true even after obese people lose weight," he says. "What fascinates me is that humans evolved over 1.5 million years entirely on the ability to walk and move. And literally 150 years ago, 90% of human endeavor was still agricultural. In a tiny speck of time we've become chair-sentenced," Levine says.
Hamilton, like many sitting researchers, doesn't own an office chair. "If you're standing around and puttering, you recruit specialized muscles designed for postural support that never tire," he says. "They're unique in that the nervous system recruits them for low-intensity activity and they're very rich in enzymes." One enzyme, lipoprotein lipase, grabs fat and cholesterol from the blood, burning the fat into energy while shifting the cholesterol from LDL (the bad kind) to HDL (the healthy kind). When you sit, the muscles are relaxed, and enzyme activity drops by 90% to 95%, leaving fat to camp out in the bloodstream. Within a couple hours of sitting, healthy cholesterol plummets by 20%.
The article goes on to talk about how the conventional office chairs...even the really expensive ones put our spine in an unnatural position (a C-curve vs. the natural S-curve) which causes abnormal weight bearing of the pelvis and spine...especially the spinal discs.
So what's the solution?
Well...it's what anyone want's to hear that's for sure. As it turns out sitting is the worst position and standing is the best. The best sitting alternative (according to the article) is perching-a half-standing position at a barstool height that keeps weight on the legs and leaves the S-curve intact.
Chair alternatives include The Swopper, hybrid stool seat. There is also The Walkstationby Steelcase...a $4500 workstation/treadmill combo (photo above).
I told you the best chair is not what you think.
My Take: Most of us are kind of stuck with the desk and chair we have, but there are things we can do to compensate for the fact that we are killing our backs and messing with our body chemistry by sitting for long periods. Here is a partial list of ways to counter sitting for long periods:
- Take frequent micro-breaks of 3-4 minutes every half hour or so. We give our patients spinal warm-up exercises and stretches just for this.
- Get plenty of aerobic exercise such as walking, running, or biking in between office work.
- See a chiropractor on a regular basis...one that specializes in posture.
- Develop a strong core (work with a trainer, therapist, or your chiropractor).
- Stretch the spine in the morning and evening.
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables as they help reduce inflammation that occurs from long hours of sitting.
- Drink a lot of water as this will help keep the spinal discs hydrated.
- Get plenty of rest, because it's possible to do all of the above and still break down if your body does not have time to recover from long hours at the desk.
So there you go. In my opinion you can still keep your spine healthy with the workstation set-up and chair you have...but it takes a little effort and attention.
Dr. Eben Davis is clinic director of Executive Express Chiropractic in downtown San Francisco
San Francisco Chiropractor Comments:
Most of the patients we treat at Executive Express Chiropractic spend the majority of their day sitting in an office chair in front of a computer. Some for for than 12 hours per day.
Heck...the average American spends 8.9 hour per day sitting.
But the thing is...our body's were not designed to be sitting for long periods. In fact, according to experts, sitting for long periods, especially in the office chairs that most of us use and consider ergonomically correct, can lead to a cascade of bad things, including back pain, neck pain, and even obesity. Check this excerpt out from the article Your Office Chair Is Killing You from the May 3-May 9, 2010 Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine:
In a 2005 article in Science magazine, James A. Levine, an obesity specialist at the Mayo Clinic, pinpointed why, despite similar diets, some people are fat and others aren't. "We found that people with obesity have a natural predisposition to be attracted to the chair, and that's true even after obese people lose weight," he says. "What fascinates me is that humans evolved over 1.5 million years entirely on the ability to walk and move. And literally 150 years ago, 90% of human endeavor was still agricultural. In a tiny speck of time we've become chair-sentenced," Levine says.
Hamilton, like many sitting researchers, doesn't own an office chair. "If you're standing around and puttering, you recruit specialized muscles designed for postural support that never tire," he says. "They're unique in that the nervous system recruits them for low-intensity activity and they're very rich in enzymes." One enzyme, lipoprotein lipase, grabs fat and cholesterol from the blood, burning the fat into energy while shifting the cholesterol from LDL (the bad kind) to HDL (the healthy kind). When you sit, the muscles are relaxed, and enzyme activity drops by 90% to 95%, leaving fat to camp out in the bloodstream. Within a couple hours of sitting, healthy cholesterol plummets by 20%.
The article goes on to talk about how the conventional office chairs...even the really expensive ones put our spine in an unnatural position (a C-curve vs. the natural S-curve) which causes abnormal weight bearing of the pelvis and spine...especially the spinal discs.
So what's the solution?
Well...it's what anyone want's to hear that's for sure. As it turns out sitting is the worst position and standing is the best. The best sitting alternative (according to the article) is perching-a half-standing position at a barstool height that keeps weight on the legs and leaves the S-curve intact.
Chair alternatives include The Swopper, hybrid stool seat. There is also The Walkstationby Steelcase...a $4500 workstation/treadmill combo (photo above).
I told you the best chair is not what you think.
My Take: Most of us are kind of stuck with the desk and chair we have, but there are things we can do to compensate for the fact that we are killing our backs and messing with our body chemistry by sitting for long periods. Here is a partial list of ways to counter sitting for long periods:
So there you go. In my opinion you can still keep your spine healthy with the workstation set-up and chair you have...but it takes a little effort and attention.
Dr. Eben Davis is clinic director of Executive Express Chiropractic in downtown San Francisco