As the title suggests we all have more in common with this saying than we first thought. The general preconception is that those dressed in suits and sitting at their big desk with multi-screen computers 6 inches from their faces for hours a day, are the smarter (book smart) people in our worldly society. I don’t think this coming from a middle class family; I had to work for my pocket money.
But, a new study suggests that your nice big desk is trying to kill you. Other than the obvious lack of physical activity contributing to an unhealthy lifestyle, it might also be making you dumber.
According to the New York Times, scientists discovered that when we sit for extended periods of time, your “electrical activity in the muscles drops…leading to a ‘cascade’ of harmful metabolic effects”. This, I feel, I already knew due to my horrific lack of motor skills when making my morning hot chocolate, of which a ‘cascade’ makes its way to the floor before I reach my ‘big desk’.
Unfortunately these metabolic effects can’t be reset by regular exercise…so are we are all doomed? Apparently all is not lost, we can prevent ourselves from becoming more stupid, and it’s a case of simply doing our normal daily office tasks while walking or standing up. Like walking around on while on the phone, or standing while dictating notes to a colleague. Well for us men, multitasking makes our head hurt at the best of times, so rather than compensating for this in the office, we can spend it at the bar because Beer, apparently, also helps!
