sitting

Comprehensive research review identifies most promising interventions to boost workplace mental health

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Image: Ellice Weaver/Wellcome

Why an evi­dence-dri­ven approach is the best way for busi­ness­es to sup­port work­place men­tal health (World Eco­nom­ic Forum):

Men­tal health has nev­er been high­er on the agen­da for busi­ness­es. It is easy to see why, as even pri­or to COVID-19, anx­i­ety and depres­sion were esti­mat­ed to cost the glob­al econ­o­my over $1 tril­lion every year in lost pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. The exo­dus from offices in 2020 has pre­sent­ed fur­ther chal­lenges and raised big ques­tions about future ways of work­ing … The absence of a deep and robust evi­dence base for approach­es to sup­port­ing work­place men­tal health is a prob­lem and can lead to well-inten­tioned busi­ness­es mak­ing crit­i­cal and sen­si­tive deci­sions in the dark. At best, such inter­ven­tions are work­ing and we just don’t know why or, at worst, they could be caus­ing harm to workforces…

[Read more…] about Com­pre­hen­sive research review iden­ti­fies most promis­ing inter­ven­tions to boost work­place men­tal health

The more hours you sit per day, the smaller your medial temporal lobe (MTL) seems to become, brain scans show

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—– In the study, both (A) Total medi­al tem­po­ral lobe (MTL) and (B) parahip­pocam­pal thick­ness cor­re­lat­ed inverse­ly with hours of sitting/day, con­trol­ling for age. Ref­er­ence: Sid­darth P et al (2018), Seden­tary behav­ior asso­ci­at­ed with reduced medi­al tem­po­ral lobe thick­ness in mid­dle-aged and old­er adults. PLOS ONE 13(4): e0195549.

Sit­ting is bad for your brain — not just your metab­o­lism or heart (UCLA release):

“UCLA researchers recruit­ed 35 peo­ple ages 45 to 75 and asked about their phys­i­cal activ­i­ty lev­els and the aver­age num­ber of hours per day they spent sit­ting over the pre­vi­ous week. Each per­son had a high-res­o­lu­tion MRI scan, which pro­vides a detailed look at the medi­al tem­po­ral lobe, or MTL, a brain region involved in the for­ma­tion of new memories.

The researchers found that seden­tary behav­ior is a sig­nif­i­cant pre­dic­tor of thin­ning of the MTL and [Read more…] about The more hours you sit per day, the small­er your medi­al tem­po­ral lobe (MTL) seems to become, brain scans show