Blogging can be fun, as it allows you to express and communicate in your own personal style, where you interact and network with people all over the world.
There are many people who are professional bloggers and earn their living from it.
With all the benefit and freedom of work, blogging brings to one’s life, there is another side effect of being a blogger.
Your health may get hamper if you don’t take care of it well.
Blogging requires one to sit in front of a computer for a longer period of hours without any physical movement.
Unknowingly, you may have bad body posture while working and do not realize it, once it starts hurting you.
Therefore, as a professional or a novice blogger, it is important to take care of your health properly, ensuring your work is not leading you to bad health. Below are 15 common health risk bloggers face.
Health Risks that Most Bloggers Face:
1. Heart diseases:
The heart is an essential organ which pumps blood through your body.
When you are sitting in a place for long hours and working, the muscle movement is drastically reduced and there is a reduction in fat burning. This fat then clogs your heart region which hampers the functioning of the heart.
As per a study, people who sit for more than 10 hours a day and work have higher chances of developing heart diseases than those sitting for 5-6 hours every day.
2. Over functioning of the pancreas:
When you are sitting in a place for long, your muscles tend to get weak, due to which they don’t react well to receive insulin.
Then your pancreas starts releasing extra insulin to compensate for the deficiency. This over functioning of the pancreas leads to diabetes.
As per a study, sitting for more than 8 hours every day can lead to a type of diabetes.
3. Colon cancer:
Lack of physical movement also leads the body to produce less anti-oxidant which is important to fight against cancer-producing radicals.
As per the study, it also leads to other different types of cancer too.
• Increases the chances of lung cancer by 54%
• Increases the chances of uterine cancer by 66%
• Increases the chances of colon cancer by 30%
The weight gained during this time leads to various hormonal imbalance, poor metabolic function, dysfunction of leptin and inflammation. These are the causes which lead to cancer.
4. Weak digestive system:
Many people have the habit of sitting in front of the computer immediately after having their meal.
This hampers the digestion system of your body because when you are sitting for long hours the abdomen gets squeezed which hurts the entire digestive system.
Make sure that after having a meal you go for a walk for some time and then sit down for work.
5. Tightening in hips and glutes:
The less body movement and sitting regularly for ours in a place makes your body inflexible.
Have you tried touching your feet while standing or try bending sideways as much as you can?
This inflexibility is the sign of tightened muscles which means low muscle movement.
Your hips and glutes also become stiff due to this reason and having stronger hips help you in balancing your body while walking or jumping.
6. Softening of bones:
As we grow older, our bones tend to become weak, due to lack of physical activity, this can lead to osteoporosis or soften of bones.
To prevent this, eat calcium rich food as it will strengthen your bones and don’t forget to do some physical exercise.
7. Damage in disc:
When you are standing and walking, your disc in between the vertebrae gets to expand and contract which keeps them flexible and movable.
This allows them to soak nutrients in the body just like a sponge.
When you are sitting for long hours, the flexible movement of a disc is reduced and the upper lumbar spine is pulled forward, which tightens the muscle known as psoas.
As per the study, 40% of people suffering from back pain are the ones spending most of their time in front of a computer.
8. Strained neck and shoulders:
Sitting in front of your computer lead to bad body posture.
The areas which are most affected are neck and shoulder, which gets strained due to sitting in one posture.
You may slouch forward which may add pressure to your shoulders and back muscle.
9. Reduced functioning of a brain:
Our brain is a major and important organ in our body which controls the entire functioning of our body.
When you are sitting and working for a longer period of time, then the oxygen supply is reduced in the body.
Due to this, our brain gets lesser and lesser oxygen which leads to the slower functioning of the brain.
To keep our brain healthy go for jogging or walk in a park. Enjoy the fresh air and take a deep breath, this will keep your brain healthy and functioning.
10. Developing blood clots:
When you are sitting in one position for long, then the blood circulation reduces.
Especially in your legs or hands because they experience the maximum strain this time. You can then develop blood clots due to the lack of blood flow in that specific region.
Blood clots are the sign of weak muscles and poor blood circulation. Frequent developing of blood clots in the body may lead you to a higher risk of heart attack.
11. High cholesterol:
When you are sitting for long hours in a place, the level of cholesterol inside our body increases drastically in the span of a year.
This hampers the entire functioning of our metabolism, which increases the triglyceride plasma and high-density lipoprotein(HDL) is reduced. This leads to an increase in the sensitivity of insulin.
High cholesterol is one of the reasons which brings along with it various diseases. Therefore, ensure to follow a healthy diet, incorporate green vegetables along with a good routine of physical activity.
12. Poor eyesight:
One problem that many people tend to develop is their eyesight getting weaker.
When sitting and staring in front of a computer for long hours, you expose your sensitive eyes to the radiation and strong light from the computer screen.
This also strains your eyes which may lead to the dryness in your eyes leading to the weakening of your eyesight.
13. Obesity:
The human body is designed to move from one place to the other because this keeps us functional and flexible.
When you are sitting in one place, the physical movement is reduced drastically. Hence, our muscular function is reduced, wherein our body does not burn calories.
This leads to gaining excessive body weight which can later make you obese. As it is known obesity leads to furthermore diseases and illnesses.
To prevent this, ensure to move for 5-10 minutes every hour. Also, join some class related to a physical activity which will help your body to be fit.
14. Depression:
Blogging surely is fun and for many, it is a full-time job. The problem with blogging is that you may not move from a place for an entire day.
For example, you are sitting in your home and working for a day and you hardly interact with anyone. This may gradually lead you to depression.
The more you are fixed to a place, chances are you might have multiple thoughts running through your mind.
To prevent this, take breaks and schedule your work and avoid working excessively.
Spend time with your family and friends and go out on weekends.
15. Numbness:
If you are sitting in from of your laptop or desktop for too long, then you can experience numbness in a certain area of your body.
To avoid this, ensure that you allow your body to relax and change your sitting position from time to time. Move your legs, hands and stretch your body.
Precaution for these Health Risks:
Being a blogger, while working continuosly you may forget to take care of your health. Below are a few tips which will make you healthy and will allow you to enjoy your work.
1. Find the right chair:
Before you start taking precaution for a health-related problem, you need to find the right chair to sit in because it is all about having the right ergonomics.
Chairs are important as they help to maintain the right posture for your body and keeps your back comfortable.
Avoid sitting on the edge of your chair, take the back support and prevent from slouching back of the chair too as this will lead to various back injuries.
2. Regular exercise:
Sitting in front of a computer is harmful but not having a good workout routine is dangerous.
Plan to do some form of exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes every day. It could be from morning walk to gymming, dancing or yoga.
Exercises keep your body flexible and the regular movement helps in strengthening the muscles too.
3. Wear anti-reflective glasses:
Eyes are the most sensitive part of the body and it is highly exposed to computer radiation.
Ensure that while working, you wear a zero-powered anti-reflective glass as this prevents your eyes from radiation.
Don’t forget to blink your eyes in between or take a break from looking constantly at the screen. Also, consult a physician to get a good eyedrop as this will prevent your eyes from dryness.
4. Drink a lot of water:
As we now know that sitting for long hours has a major effect on our muscles. Therefore, drink a lot of water or at least 4-6 liters every day to keep your body hydrated.
Water helps in flushing out all the toxins from the body and helps in keeping your muscles in good functioning condition.
5. Set timers:
When you are indulged in your work, the chances are you may end up forgetting the time spent in the work.
This leads to missing your food and water, therefore, it is a good idea to set a timer for every hour where you can take a break for 5 minutes.
In this break, you can drink water, stretch your body or take a 5-minute walk around the place.
6. Relax and have fun:
Plan your day and finish your work on time. Don’t stress too much and allow yourself to have some fun.
Blogging can a tedious and quite a time-consuming task, therefore it is important that you allow yourself to relax and enjoy other activities too.
Find some other leisure activity like going out to movies, attending fun events etc. This will keep you fresh and motivated to work better.
7. Outsource the work:
Doing everything on your own as a blogger can be quite taxing mentally and physically.
One of the best ways to manage is to get some of the work done by someone else.
Find the right person by using various freelance platforms and assign some work to them. This will reduce the major part of your workload and give you more time to relax.
8. Stretch your body:
While sitting in a single posture for long, strains your body making your muscle numb.
Ensure that once in every hour you get up from your chair and stretch all the muscles.
Take your hands up and stretch sideways or bend forward and backward. This allows your body to be flexible and mobile, preventing various health issues that may come up.
Although we have discussed the side effects of being a blogger and measures to prevent, it is equally important that you enjoy your work and that can happen only if you have balance approach towards work and life.
There can be some days which will be stressful and demanding, where you may have to put a lot many hours into your work.
The added benefit of being a blogger is that you can balance this stress with few relaxed moments too.
Hence, follow a schedule which gives you the chance to enjoy and work because health is the most important thing one can have, without which nothing is worth it.