Let’s Get Up and Get Moving
Let’s Get Up and Get Moving
Editor: A version of this article was published on 10/17/2017
D. S. Mitchell
No News
It’s no news that our society is becoming more sedentary and overweight. Many of us spend hours behind a desk at our jobs and then go home where we spend more hours watching TV and perusing the internet before falling into bed exhausted. We drive our cars to the McDonald’s drive thru, order our food and never even get out of our cars. We use our computers to shop, without ever leaving the house. With decreased activity people are increasingly complaining of posture related aches and pains, weight gain, depression, joint pain, anxiety, and low self-esteem.
Too Much
Just like we enjoy eating and drinking too much, we enjoy sitting and doing nothing too much. We are surrounded by cars, salty snacks, elevators and escalators, sugary drinks and fast foods. The problem has become serious enough that the World Health Organization has an agenda focused on encouraging physical activity. In other words folks, the world is experiencing a crisis in health, created by being inactive and being too fat for our own good.
Try Vigorous Movement
A “Black Dog Institute” of Australia, in a decades old study, found that 1-2 hours of exercise per week can prevent depression and suicide. In addition to improved mental health multiple world-wide studies have shown that vigorous movement can stave off heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, fatigue, diabetes, and even cancer.
“Sitting Disease”
Our country, and most of the industrialized economies are suffering from chronic “sitting”. Physical inactivity is one of the top 10 causes of disease and disability according to a recent UK government study, they in fact have diagnosed 1 in 6 deaths to “sitting disease” which is equal to the number of deaths related to smoking in the UK.
