A US study has found that women who sat for long times every day had more than twice at risk of deadly blood clot. Women who sat more than forty-one hours a week are particularly at risk. This is the first study to prove that a sedentary lifestyle raises the dangers.
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occurred when the wall of a blood vessel is damaged through injury, such as a broken bone or surgery or if the blood clots more easily than normal due to some medication or genetics. It can also be aroused by the blood flow slowing down considerably such as when someone is immobile for a long time.
According to Prof Beverley Hunt, consultant in haematology at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals in London, If you sit for ninety minutes or more at a desk, the blood flow behind your knees decreases by up to fifty percent, considerably increasing the chance of a DVT. Therefore it is essential to take regular breaks each hour or so.
The people in sedentary works can take regular breaks like getting up, walking about, rotating ankles and stretching their own calf muscles. A number of experts are so persuaded by the specific connection between prolonged periods at a computer and DVT that they have coined a new term for it called e-thrombosis.
Although the incidence of e-thrombosis is not yet known, it is estimated that the average person in Britain spends twelve hours a day immobile, looking at screens. There is worry about a lack of awareness among people about the e-thrombosis and DVTs in general. The study published in the British Medical Journal.
The threat is that if clots in the leg breaks off, it can then travel up the body and wedge blood flow to the lungs. A small pulmonary embolism can cause breathlessness, pain and even the coughing up of blood. A larger one, or many smaller ones, can block the entire blood supply to the lungs, starving them of oxygen and often proving fatal.
Once diagnosed, the clots can be treated easily with anti-coagulant drugs such as warfarin and the use of compression stockings. DVT claimed around twenty-five thousand lives each year in Briton. They are more common people over sixties, though they can affect any age.