Too Much Sitting In One Spot Can Literally Kill You

According to a new study, it doesn’t matter whether you’re overweight and never exercise or have 4-percent body fat and train seven days a week: We are all susceptible to deadly venous thromboembolism when we veg out for too long.

You’ve probably heard warnings about how you can get a condition called venous thromboembolism (VTE), commonly known as deep-vein thrombosis, from staying glued to your seat during a long flight.

It turns out you can get VTE from something much closer to home: Watching TV—or any kind of screen—for long periods of time. Yes, that’s right, you can get it from binge watching. Luckily, you’re in such good shape you can stretch out on the sofa and watch the entire first season of Stranger Things without risk, right? Not so much.

Venous thromboembolism is no joke. When a blood clot forms deep in your body, usually in your leg or thigh, from lengthy inactivity, it can cause your legs to swell, feel painful or tender, and turn red. Worst case, the blood clot can break free, travel to your lungs, become a pulmonary embolism, and result in death.

How Sitting Too Long In One Spot Can Literally Kill You

A new study of VTE is based on an analysis of 299,767 “person years”—that’s almost 2-1/2 billion hours—of TV watching.[1] Researchers looked to see how many incidents of VTE showed up after all that time spent immobile in front of a screen. The overall number of VTE events was only 691, and the participants tended to be on the older side, from 45-64 years old.

Even so, the results were surprising. Those who demonstrated some degree of obesity and watched TV “very often” were at almost twice the risk (1.71) to experience thrombosis as those who watched TV “never or seldom.”

But here’s the kicker: Participants who were physically active and watched their weight didn’t lower their risk of VTE. In fact, they raised it from 1.71 to 1.8 times the risk. The determining factor was how long they remain parked in front of the screen.

There are two lessons you can learn from this research. The first is that even if you’re in very good shape, you’re still at risk for a VTE event when you watch a screen—any kind of screen—for hours on end without getting up and moving around.

The second lesson is that, for the sake of your overall health, “getting up and moving around” shouldn’t include heading for the kitchen and loading up on more snacks for the next episode. But you knew that, right?

References
  1. Kubota, Y., Cushman, M., Zakai, N., Rosamond, W. D., & Folsom, A. R. (2017). TV Viewing and Incident Venous Thromboembolism: the Atherosclerotic Risk in Communities Study.

About the author: Hobart Swan formerly wrote and edited for Bodybuilding.com. He also worked as a producer of health content for CBS Radio, and as a health-content specialist at Healthwise

Read more at www.bodybuilding.com

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Comments (8)

  • Avatar

    Aaron Christiansen

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    Principia Clickbaita.

    I thought this site was going to provide food for thought. Apparently panic porn is more the norm.

    A shame.

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Terry Shipman

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      See my comment below. After I composed it I saw your stupid comment. I am someone who nearly died a month ago because of this problem. I went to the doctor for a blood sugar problem, not for a problem that nearly cost me my life! I didn’t think my swollen leg was that serious.

      Reply

  • Avatar

    Terry Shipman

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    Oh, does this hit too close to home. For years I’ve had reoccurring problems with high blood that I’ve been able to control with diet and exercise. I am 69 years of age. Several months ago my annual physical showed my A1c went up after several years of being under control. My doctor put me back on my medication. After a month or so I got another glucose meter since I hadn’t been checking my levels in years. The first time I tested it it was 300. So I called my doctor and made an appointment to come in and see about upping my medication. “Oh by the way. My right leg is swollen,” I told the office.

    So I went to see him and he was concerned enough to have me walk across the street to the hospital for an ultrasound on my right leg. The technician saw a clot then placed a frantic call to my doctor’s nurse and told her I needed a cat scan on my chest right away. Well, they saw clots in my lungs and heart that had traveled from my leg. The emergency room doctor then ordered a injectable blood thinner and he used the word “stat.” I could see the look of concern on all their faces.

    I was then admitted and spent 3 days in the hospital. The hospital doctor told me during my stay that had I not been a jogger, with heart and lungs in great shape, I may not have survived. Crap!

    That was a month ago. I’m back home and my blood sugar is back to normal with an adjustment in my meds. I’m on an oral blood thinner now. I was banned from jogging for a month but was allowed to walk. I’ve slowly built up to walking 3 1/2 miles which is a route around town I run when it threatens rain and I don’t run my longer 5 mile run around the bypass. I was caught in a thunderstorm out on the highway once and I said never again! Walking now requires an exertion that I wouldn’t have experienced last summer. So I’ve got a way to go to get back to running.

    The bottom line is being in good physical shape won’t protect against blood clots. With cold weather this past winter I spent a lot of time watching television. Too much it seems.

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Aaron Christiansen

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      I won’t do you the disservice of calling your personal anecdote, “stupid”, but will point out you have not once mentioned, “watching TV” which was the primary content of the study and the article discussing it. “Literally killing you” was the click bait article title.

      So if you have not mentioned TV, and think my comment is stupid, perhaps you can elucidate how your personal anecdote has a single point of relevance to this article?

      If you persist in stating my “this is clickbait” comment is stupid, please explain how your apparent inability to die after sitting down, is any evidence that the article title is not clickbait.

      You are 69 and sedentary, you got tested and had VTEs.

      Did you die? No, clearly not.
      Did TV watching or sitting down cause the VTEs? You don’t say.
      As you get fitter, you are more likely to get VTEs, so how is that going to solve the probl- oh wait you’re on drugs to solve the VTEs.

      I don’t expect you to actually think about what I am saying or asking. Gosh something happened to you therefore anyone who calls this article clickbait – which it objectively, provably is – is, “stupid”.

      Here’s a question: how long were you sedentary? How long before checkups – ie how long did it take for those VTEs to be created? If it was more than a day, then the claim in this article, “watching TV / sitting down can develop VTEs” is an asbolute crock of utter rubbish unless your existence is wheel chair bound and you do not use your legs at all during any other part of the day AND they are vertical to the ground.

      Reply

      • Avatar

        TerryShipman

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        I repeat, your comment was stupid. Sedentary lifestyles have consequences to a great many people. I jog in warm weather but I don’t like the cold so I don’t run.

        Nothing you said changes the fact that my personal physician and the hospital physician agreed that I was susceptible to blood clots this winter by not being active. Why now I don’t know. People need to be aware of these things, especially the elderly. Do you have a medical degree? The two doctors who treated me do. You are not the one who nearly died a month ago so don’t you presume to lecture me. I am going to have to be on blood thinners for a year now and I’ll have to be aware of this problem for the rest of my life. I knew about this problem years ago but never thought it would apply to me.

        Reply

        • Avatar

          Aaron Christiansen

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          How long between medical checkups?

          You didn’t die.

          The DVTs I had the first time around were literally below my knee joint, ready to break off and head off to the rest of my body and also potentially kill me.

          So perhaps you should take your own advice, stow the lecturing and argue my point: this is a clickbait aritcle.

          You didn’t die, no deaths were recorded in the study mentioned.

          The article is clickbait.

          Reply

  • Avatar

    Aaron Christiansen

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    If it helps (and I doubt it will because you know, personal anecdote trumps critical thinking), I have had 2 episodes of DVTs.

    I know full well that the fitter you are the more likely you are to develop DVTs (VTEs) and the mechanism that makes this true.

    It’s why I am calling this “article”, clickbait.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    tom0mason

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    OH NO!! We’re all gonna die!!!!!!!!!!! !
    WAH!!

    Who know? Sat on your harris for most of the day is not good for you? Oh no!
    Thrombosiseseseses and lumpy blood — Aggghhh!
    And the treatment? A vaccine for lumpy blood and lumpy bum?
    OH NO!! We’re all gonna die!!!!!!!!!!! !
    WAH!!
    ~~~~~~~~~~~
    Some helpful hints on getting mentally and physically fitter during this period.

    If you must watch TV then do not block the ads. Instead at EVERY ad break walk around the room until the program you wish to watch starts — watch NO adverts. And remember they are called programs for a reason — you are being programmed, so during the program see if you can analyse what the real message is in the program.

    So your home is perfect?
    No little jobs you’ve been putting off for a rainy day? Well today is that day! Just do it – the internet is still working and many outlets are still delivering, so get whatever you need — maybe even form a cooperative with others and order all the necessaries in bulk — for there is more than just you that are stuck in this situation.

    Or why not start a garden inside or or preferably outside. No? Why not? Laziness? Start with growing the simplest plants — like cress, bean sprouts, or peas to start with, and progress from there.
    Then learn to make your own food — bake some bread, or cake if that’s your thing. Want some chips (crisps) to eat while in front of the TV? Make them! I ain’t rock science!
    You never know you might be very good at this cooking thing.

    And if you are a democrat or a person of socialist/Marxist/Maoist leaning learn to think rationally and discover how stupid you’ve been. Discover that nowhere in the world has such foolish political theories operated successfully! Then put up a an old cushion and beat the living daylights out of it as you realize you’ve been dupe, conned by rich and powerful puppet-masters. Use your anger for these rich and powerful lefties productively, in aerobic exercise. Resolve never to follow such a$$holes again. And maybe from this lockdown (aka a financial/employment/industrial/medical/social lockout) you will become the better person, a more rational, self reliant, and sane human being.

    Reply

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