Experts Warn Of Ill Health Effects Of Office Environment, Particularly Prolonged Sitting
(CBS) -- Your cubicle could be making you sick, reports WBBM's John Cody. There's even a word for it: obesogenic, according to Advocate Christ Dr. Teresa Zamojski.
She says prolonged sitting at your cubicle is a problem just by itself. And then she says ad on vending machines full of junk food, co-workers candy bowls, and leftovers from meetings all combine to form an environment for promoting weight gain.
Mark Parsons, exercise physiologist at Advocate Christ Hospital, says there's a fairly simple, doable way to keep the pounds off and heart trouble at bay.He suggests pre-emptive eating: raw veggies like carrots and broccoli and snap peas to fill you up before you dive into the high calorie goodies.
The other thing is to keep moving as much as possible. Parsons recommends standing up in the cubicle as much and as long as possible, and walking, even just around the office as often as possible to keep heart working and the arteries unclogged.
"The biggest difference in the benefit of exercise is not comparing a sedentary person and to a triathlete or a marathon runner, the biggest difference is in health is actually between a sedentary person and a person that just does very, very mild, moderate exercise," Parsons said.
He says the most important thing is to keep moving, even slowly, as often as possible.