Why is sitting considered the new smoking?

“Sitting is the new smoking” - we’ve all heard it by now, right? Why are they equating something known to cause so much harm with something we all do every day? It seems an extreme comparison, right? It may be, but the truth is, the number of chronic illnesses that have been linked to a sedentary lifestyle is mind boggling. Everything from heart disease to Type II Diabetes, osteoarthritis to dementia, and many others, all seem to have links to a sedentary lifestyle. Whilst the mechanism of this is not completely understood we know that in the case of arthritis it’s a bit of “use it or lose it” with your spine. Areas of chronic tightness in the spine that don’t move very much tend to be the ones that degenerate and develop arthritis first. In today’s video Dr Matt discusses some things we can do every day to try and counteract the lack of motion that our jobs and lifestyles tend to lead to.