The Negative Effects of Inactivity on Your Nervous System

by Ram

Office at Night by Edward Hopper *

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali describes styana (inactivity, sedentary) as one of the several distractions that serve as obstacles on the journey toward perfect health and enlightenment. Data gathered from 33 countries indicate that sedentary lifestyle accounts for six percent of all cases of coronary heart disease, about 7 percent of type 2 diabetes, and 10 percent of breast and colon cancers. That puts inactivity up there with smoking as a possible barrier to increasing life expectancy (see Inactivity 'killing as many as smoking'). 

A sedentary lifestyle is one in which, among other things, you sit for more than 3 hours, sleep for extended periods of time, watch long hours of TV, or simply idle away the time. But humans are designed for movement and physical inactivity is against the evolutionary norms for humans as the human body simply is not built to be inactive. Go back to history and notice that pre-historic men were always active—often quite strenuously—to get food, find shelter and simply survive. They naturally spent a lot of time outdoors walking, hunting, gathering, and performing various other physically oriented tasks. To them this was not a physical exercise or "working out"; it was just normal life.  In today’s world, however, activity/exercise is primarily an intervention—something we do to guard against the negative impacts of a sedentary lifestyle.

Inactivity is not only having an impact on public health but also seems to decrease the life span of the individual. Studies reported in prestigious medical journals suggest that prolonged inactivity is the cause of one in 10 deaths worldwide. Adults in the U.S. spend an average of 55 percent of their day engaged in some kind of sedentary behavior (see Sedentary behaviour and life expectancy in the USA: a cause-deleted life table analysis). Such prolonged inactivity puts an individual at risk for many chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and high blood cholesterol. It also weakens the musculoskeletal system, increasing the likelihood of osteoporosis and the risk of falls and fractures. Those who maintain a reasonable amount of activity particularly across the middle and later years are twice as likely to avoid early death and serious illness compared to the inactive individuals. 

This reminds me of my earlier post The Power of Mental Exercise, Part 1 where I mentioned that our brain is "plastic," which refers to the brain's capacity to rewire itself through mental activity, learning and experience. When we learn new things, our brains put out new neural branches and form new connections; the brain constantly changes and rewires in response to experience and learning. Plasticity is the reason why stroke patients can relearn skills after sustaining brain damage. Plasticity also explains how a healthy part of the brain might assume the job of a damaged part. Studies have shown that physical and mental exercise rewires and remodels the brain. 

Having realized the ill effects of inactivity on the physical body, researchers took the next and the most obvious step of investigating the effects of inactivity on the brain and cognition. Very little is known about whether inactivity alters the structure of the brain and the subsequent consequences that arise as a result of this alteration. But common sense and our own personal experiences tell us that we feel depressed, dull, or gloomy after prolonged inactivity. Some of us even complain of “fogginess” or “murkiness” after idling away for prolonged periods. 

In order to obtain empirical data on the relation between inactivity and brain health, researchers performed experiments on mice. Scientists gathered two groups of rats and placed one half of them in cages with running wheels to keep the rodents very active. The other group was kept in cages that restricted their total activity so this group would remain sedentary. After three months, the animals were injected with a special dye that colors a specific set of neurons in the rostral ventrolateral medulla, a region of the brain that controls the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activities, including breathing, blood pressure, and other metabolic functions central to our existence. An advantage of monitoring this specific area in mice is that in humans this region of the brain functions similarly. When the ANS functions optimally, information from the neurons travels to the heart in a coordinated and regulated manner. This causes the blood vessels to either widen or contract as demanded by the situation. A disorderly and overly active ANS is problematic as it could turn on the sympathetic part of the system erroneously, which could result in faster heart and breathing rates, and increases in blood pressure. 

When the scientists dissected the brains of rats in the above-mentioned study, they found noticeable structural and functional differences between these two groups. Inactivity not only affected the neurons and brain function but the heart as well. While the neurons in the brains of the active rats were well shaped, had perfect branching, and were functioning normally, inactivity triggered unregulated and unrestricted neuronal branching making them hyper sensitive. This in turn resulted in erratic hyper-activation of the ANS and cardiovascular disease. In effect, these neurons had changed in ways that made them likely to over-stimulate the sympathetic nervous system, potentially increasing blood pressure and contributing to the development of heart disease. The findings are important as they address the mechanism by which inactivity increases the risk of heart disease. Though the study was primarily done in mice, the risks associated with inactivity can be extrapolated to humans as well.

By encouraging you to be physically and mentally active— helpful for preventing a whole host of health problems—we’re doing you a favor. Instead of idling away your time or sitting on the couch watching a TV show, there is no reason you can’t simply get off the couch and do a little bit of yoga, right next to the couch (or anywhere else in your house). This blog has got lots of mini practices that you can do. You could try a practice you find in a yoga book or DVD, or you could just start out with a Reclined Leg Stretch or a Downward-Facing Dog pose and see what happens next.  If you skip just one TV program, you can do a half an hour of yoga without even leaving the house (see Creating a Mini Yoga Practice). On our blog, we’ve got yoga poses you can do at work, at the airport, or anywhere else you can’t roll out a yoga mat. Whatever it is that you do, make sure you are more active and just have fun incorporating a home or office practice. You’ll be surprised at how rewarding it is!

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The Ill Effects of Prolonged Sitting

by Ram

Van Gough's Chair by Vincent van Gough

A quick question: are you sitting while reading my blog post? If you are, then maybe you should stand up to read it! According to a new study, sitting for long periods puts you at a risk of early death. (This sentence definitely made you stand, correct?) Most people in present day society spend the majority of their time sitting. A typical U.S. adult sits for an average of ten hours per day. Too much sitting is associated with numerous problems, including obesity, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer among others. Prolonged sitting does the following:

• decreases the activity of an enzyme which helps burn fat
• reduces bone mineral density and blocks new bone formation, raising the risk of fracture
• increases cholesterol levels and reduces the diameter of arteries putting the individual at risk for heart disease
• decreases insulin sensitivity and triggers type-2 diabetes

For many of us sitting for eight hours a day at our job is inevitable. Compounded with extra sitting outside of work is what makes it hazardous. Most importantly, the ill effects of prolonged sitting occur regardless of the individual’s physical activity. Those who exercise daily may assume that their vigorous training regimen protects them from the harmful effects of prolonged sitting. Unfortunately, it doesn't. Several independent research studies show that even an intense activity will not undo the deleterious effects that come from sitting for 8-10 hours in a day. Thus, too much sitting is harmful even if you're getting enough exercise. This means you could be meeting the recommended guidelines for a daily exercise but you will still be at higher risk of disease if you sit for long periods each day.

Recall that in my earlier posts The Power of Mental Exercise, Part 1 and Part 2, I emphasized incorporating mental exercises as a daily regimen to keep physically and mentally fit.  Now it appears that simply sitting or remaining sedentary changes certain brain cells such that it affects not just the brain but the heart as well, putting the individual at risk of heart disease. Findings from a recent study showed that individuals who sat for more than 11 hours daily were 40 percent more likely to die within the next three years than those who sat for four hours or less daily—even when their physical activity at other times of the day was accounted for. Prolonged sitting has become the norm rather than an exception. In today’s society it is very easy to end up sitting 12-15 hours a day. If you have a commute of 1-2 hours round trip, work in an office that requires you to sit for an average of 8 hours and follow it up by watching TV for a couple of hours of each night, you end up spending the vast majority of hours sitting.

This is against the evolutionary norms for humans as the human body simply is not built to sit for prolonged hours. Go back to history and notice that the cave man was always active—often quite strenuously—to get food, find shelter and simply survive. They naturally spent a lot of time outdoors, walking, hunting, gathering, and performing various other physically oriented tasks. To them this was not a physical exercise or "working out." It was just normal life.  In today’s world, activity/exercise is primarily an intervention; it is something we do to guard against the negative impacts of a sedentary lifestyle.

The question is: how can you avoid the dreaded effects that come from prolonged sitting? The only available option is to drastically change your lifestyle. Standing for long hours by no means is the answer or a panacea. Prolonged standing comes with its own baggage of ill health, especially to the legs, knees and lower back. For optimal health we need to reduce sitting time and increase "non-exercise" physical activity. Most experts recommend a 50:50 sit-stand allowance. Experts also agree that it is beneficial to interrupt sitting time as often as possible. One way to do this is to move or stretch for at least 10 minutes for each hour of sitting time.

Here are a few strategies to lessen the sitting hours and help incorporate more physical activity throughout the day:

1. Do not sit for more than two hours continuously. Take a break to do yoga or walk. Try poses from our office yoga series (see Mini Office Yoga Sequence and Office Yoga Sequence. And remember to bring supplemental yoga with you. Stand up for at least two minutes for each hour of sitting. Short breaks can make a big difference. If you have trouble remembering to take a break from sitting, use an alarm to draw your attention.

2. If your occupation involves sitting for long periods, you can work at a standing desk. The potential benefits from a standing desk are manifold, including, higher productivity, reduced absenteeism and lower health care costs among many. And if you are attending meetings that require long hours of sitting, try standing midway through the meeting. If you're worried about any impending stares from your colleagues or manager, just hand over this article to them.

3. Take every opportunity you can to walk. Use the stairs instead of the elevators to get to your location. Use the bathroom on the ground floor or the basement and take the stairs to go down. In the parking lot, try parking farthest away from the building’s entrance door. If you are in the shopping mall or grocery store, try parking farthest away, not only from the store entrance but also from the parking cart corrals. A yoga trick you can try while you are walking—as long as you’re not carrying anything—is to cross your arms behind your back and hold your elbows or forearms. This will open your chest and stretch the fronts of your shoulders, which become tight from typing, driving, and so on.

4. Walk or bicycle to work. If you live too far away to walk or ride, consider driving part of the way and walking or using the bicycle for the remainder. For people who cycle regularly, you can use your yoga practice to balance your body (see Yoga and Cycling).

5. Instead of sitting on a couch while you are watching TV, reading, listening to music and/or socializing, try sitting on the floor in different seated positions, including Seated Crossed Legs, Cobbler’s pose, Hero pose, Thunderbolt pose, Wide Angle pose (Nina likes to fold laundry in that pose), and so on. Try to change positions every 10 minutes or so. And add activity to your TV time by doing supplemental yoga during commercial breaks.

Notice that all the household furniture from lunch tables to computer desks is designed with sitting in mind. So an upright, activity-centered lifestyle will require modifications to the furniture setting.

There is no doubt that excessive time spent in sedentary behavior is not only having an impact on public health but also has effects on the life span of the individual. Those who maintain a reasonable amount of activity, particularly across the middle and later years, are twice as likely to avoid early death and serious illness. However, it appears that it is never too late to make some changes and experience these positive outcomes. The antidote for these obstacles and their consequences are awareness, focus and determination. So take my advice, get off the couch/chair and seek some enjoyable activity that involves some movement.

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