The effects your desk job (and sedentary lifestyle) have on your veins

Do you have the urge to get to the gym because you spend the day at work sitting down working at a computer? There are many Americans spending upwards of 12 hours a day on the computer working. This is what’s known as a sedentary lifestyle. Whether or not your Apple watch is telling you to get up and walk around, it’s not always that easy. How many of us actually are hitting those stand goals on a daily basis?

We all feel pains swelling up in our backs, hips, shoulders, and necks, but vein disease caused by sedentary lifestyle is harder to notice ahead of time. When veins are struggling to work properly, much of the early issues go unnoticed. Unhealthy veins and desk jobs can go hand in hand. Sedentary lifestyle and veins, in general, share a relationship. That desk job can be a bad situation for your veins waiting to happen.

In this quick post, we are going to go over the relationship shared between a sedentary lifestyle or desk job and your veins. You could be at risk, but the good news is that there are great, low-stress ways that you can help get your blood flowing and veins healthy for the long term.

How does a desk job affect vein health?

Well, more than just a desk job, we are talking about the sedentary lifestyle. a Sedentary Lifestyle is one where a person rarely gets any kind of mobility into their routine. So sitting at a desk job for 8-10 hours a day and then going home to simply sit on the couch will definitely be considered one.

What does a sedentary lifestyle mean for blood flow and vein health?

There is a connection between the level of activity we have to “get our blood pumping” and the circulation that we have in our veins. Lack of healthy blood circulation in the legs and feet can be caused this way.

When you have low blood flow in these areas of the body, a person can experience plaque buildup, also known as atherosclerosis. This is the result of excess calcium and cholesterol building up in a patient’s bloodstream. This will restrict the blood that is flowing through the arteries, which now have become more narrow due to buildup. Very similar to the way the heart can become unhealthy when there is a buildup of these materials in the arteries close to the heart.

You can also experience poor blood circulation in the feet and legs because of inflammation in the blood vessels. This is known as vasculitis. 

The relationship between inflammation and your desk job

Research in the past has questioned whether increased time sitting in a chair was associated with increases in four of the key inflammation bio-markers in the body. These four biomarkers are:

• Adiponectin
• Interleukin-6 (IL-6)
• Leptin
• C-reactive protein (CRP)

Without going into full depth on this study, the main takeaway is pretty simple. Get up and move around! This is something that pertains to men and women of all ages. Though the biomarkers seemed to be more prevalent in females, this applies to both sexes. Females, however, do need to keep a closer eye on this kind of issue.

Sitting causes inflammation, which can impact your vein health. When veins become inflamed, passageways for blood become thinner and blood flow is negatively affected.

Summary

If you are someone who has a desk job and finds yourself spending 40 hours or more per week mainly sitting, take some time out and take breaks. It is best to do this once per hour. Stand up and move around. Get a little bit of stretching in or take a quick walk. Your body will thank you in the long run even if it feels a bit silly in the beginning. If you work with many other people, you may even find a group of people to do this with. If you are a lone wolf, you can use this time to reflect and clear your head. We all need that from time to time!

If you work in an office with a water cooler, make it a point to go and take a walk over to it once an hour. Not only is this going to help you get out of that chair and stretch your legs, but it will also help you intake more water. Staying hydrated promotes a healthy body and a healthy body means healthy veins.

If you have any kinds of questions, get in touch with us. We are happy to talk it over. If you are beginning to develop spider veins or varicose veins and you think it is from sitting at your desk all day, every day, we can determine that for you with a quick and simple vein screening.