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Health

14th Jun 2019

PSA: Turns out sitting in a chair for too long can damage your memory

Olivia Hayes

Calling all office workers…

If you sit in a chair all day for work then you’ll know it’s surprisingly uncomfortable.

Whether it doesn’t roll all the way under your desk, or it’s too low or too high, there’s a multitude of things that will make you uncomfortable… never mind the aches and pains you get at the end of the day.

Well, now a study has come out to say that sitting for long periods of time can cause damage to your memory.

The study from the University of California carried out its research on 35 people aged between 45-65.

adult, architect, blueprint

All the participants had a brain scan that specifically looked at the area of the brain called the medial temporal lobe. This part of the brain is absolutely crucial for forming memories.

After the brain scans, each was assessed on how long they spend on a chair all day, and the results showed that those who sat for longer ended up having thinner brain structures.

In the researchers conclusion, they said that sedentary behaviour (movements while sitting, or lying down) can have an effect on your cognitive memory however, they could not be entirely sure that sitting is the main lead to bad memory.

coaching, coders, coding

The researchers said: “An important extension of this study would be to explore MTL structures in healthy younger adults, as an example of universal or primary prevention as opposed to our secondary prevention study of those at-risk individuals with minimally detectable symptoms.”

Might be time to do a few laps around the office just in case…