Neuro news: "too much sitting damages memory" -- I'm doomed. :---(

[leashedForLife]

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bummer.

Too Much Sitting May Shrink the Part of Your Brain Tied to Memory

As a PCA assisting 3 ppl currently, a couple [both wheelchair-users] & a quadraplegic man, i spend a lot of time in-between tasks, SITTING & waiting whilst on-call.
This is an inevitable part of the job; i can't go jogging & be within voice-distance, i can't lift free-wts & hear my client's soft, breathy voice from the other room.

I'm going to have early-Alzheimer's, at this rate.
- terry

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[JudyN]

Then again, maybe thinning of the medial temporal mode leads to more sitting

 

[leashedForLife]

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IMO & IME, the act of sitting leads to more sitting. Which universal law is it? - the one that says an object at rest remains at rest!
The greatest known force in the universe isn't atomic attraction, it's human inertia.

The worst aspect of that research is that activity at other times doesn't offset "the sitting effect". Even highly-aerobic activity didn't compensate for prolonged time on one's butt. So being a sedentary office-dweeb M to Fr & a weekend-warrior on Sat & Sun apparently doesn't save any brain-tissue.
- t

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[JoanneF]

The greatest known force in the universe isn't atomic attraction, it's human inertia.

Then why are we not extinct?

 

[leashedForLife]

Then why are we not extinct?

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'cuz it took us so long to evolve to the point where we could SPEND all that time sitting on our gluteal muscles, which only began to affect large numbers of the human-popn starting in the Industrial Era -
in the Information Age, those humans privileged to live in highly-developed nations are rapidly putting not only our own species, but all of Gaia, at risk of extinction - IMO.

When we were primarily gatherers & nomadic, shifting from place to place with the seasons or with the availability of food, we lived in small bands & didn't affect the world, much. When we developed agriculture & began to domesticate other species for meat, milk, fiber, & work, we began to build villages, then towns, then cities.
By the time we'd built our 1st city of 5-million inhabitants, we were affecting the water table, water quality, soil fertility, species diversity, & more - but it was a local or regional effect, not a global one.
When we developed engines to take the place of human & nonhuman labor, we began to swell into megacities, & by that time, altho we didn't know it, humans were already affecting global weather patterns in far-reaching & potentially-catastrophic ways.

Humans have now occupied most of the livable land-mass; areas that can grow crops are largely already cultivated. Areas not in production & not yet occupied are marginal, in one way or another - too wet, too dry, too cold, too hot, too far from any employment or markets, either for selling one's products or for buying manufactured goods.
We are now a cash-or-credit economy; we don't barter, & few of us produce our own food, energy, fiber for clothing, etc. // To survive, let alone thrive, U need a source of income.

the fastest-growing areas of our megacities are slums, unpermitted high-density occupation without utilities - no sewage, running H2O, electricity grid.
Per a 2003 study, 1 in 3 humans will be a shanty resident by 2033. // That's just 35-years from now.
Every third person will be a slum dweller within 30 years, UN agency warns

shanty & slum dwellers, currently -
how many people currently live in shanties & slums - Google Search

Right now, 1 in 3 bird species around the world is threatened. The status of many species is worrying.
Amphibians are teetering on collapse; 90% of commercial fish-species have lost 90% of their popn.
Species List | Endangered, Vulnerable, and Threatened Animals | WWF

It took us millions of years, but with our big brains & clever hands, we're really getting close, now.
- t

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[arealhuman]

I sit for far too long, and my memory is definitely not what it was. I'm doomed

 

[Flobo]

I'm on my feet and moving pretty much from 6am - 7pm, I don't spend an awful lot of time on my butt...umm, forgot what I was gonna say then, oh yes my memory is really rubbish!!

 

[JudyN]

Maybe all the people in the study with memory loss just sat for longer because they couldn't remember what it was they were about to do

Wouldn't it have been better if rather than reporting that sitting for a long time makes your memory worse, they said that getting up and doing stuff improved your memory, or slowed its decline? Let's have some positivity!

 

[Biker John]

Just a thought, it is well known that London Taxi drivers have better than average memory yet they sit most of the time. So perhaps the key is to exercise your brain / memory.

 

[arealhuman]

So perhaps the key is to exercise your brain / memory.

I think this is the case, there seem to be studies that show that an active mind can help stave off reduction in brain function due to age.