The human body is a profound system that is innately designed to move—to roam, hunt, gather, and even flee. In the past, humans needed to use their muscles to sustain themselves; but today is a completely different story. Technological advances and labour-saving devices has removed the need for physical activity from almost everything, leading us to live sedentary lives that is having debilitating effects on our health without us even realising.
We are living in a national physical inactivity crisis, which is responsible for an estimated 8000 deaths per year in Australia. Each generation is moving less and continuing the cycle of damaging health effects.
Read on to discover why we should care about this epidemic, what Bluearth are doing to tackle it, and how you can help.
Why we should care
Physical inactivity is diminishing our physical and mental health
The World Health Organisation indicates that physical inactivity has a direct, negative impact on self-esteem and mental wellbeing, which can heighten stress and increase the incidence of depression and suicide.
In 2002, the term Sedentary Death Syndrome was coined by leading scientists to describe the increasing collection of hypokinetic (diminished movement) diseases threatening public health. The major diseases caused or aggravated by physical inactivity include:
- Coronary artery disease
- Breast cancer
- Colon cancer
- Congestive heart failure
- Depression
- Gallstone disease
- High blood triglyceride
- High blood cholesterol
- Hypertension
- Obesity
- Osteoporosis
- Pancreatic cancer
- Peripheral vascular disease
- Prostate cancer
- Stroke
- Type 2 diabetes
Put simply, when our bodies stop moving, they start to break down. Our genetic make-up was formulated when physical activity was essential. So living a life with minimal or no movement inevitably leads to faults in human design. For starters, when our energy output systems (aka lungs, heart, blood, blood vessels, muscles, nerves, and hormones) are not used in the manner that they were intended for, they begin to deteriorate. The same goes for our metabolic systems. Our blood becomes more viscous, our blood vessels weaken, and the risk of diseases such as coronary artery disease increase dramatically.
Our children’s health is suffering
Additionally, and just as alarmingly, Australian kids are now some of the least active in the world and have been graded a D minus for physical activity according to reports from Active Healthy Kids Australia (AHKA).
- Worldwide, Australia ranks 140 out of 146 for sedentary behaviours in 11 to 17 year olds.
- 4 out of 5 Australian kids are not meeting daily activity guidelines.
- 1 in 3 children born in 2006 was diabetic or pre-diabetic.
- Children as young as one are being diagnosed as obese.
If we don’t act now to combat the physical inactivity crisis, this will be the first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
The crisis is costing our economy
Not only is the physical inactivity crisis costing Australians their health and happiness, but the economy billions every year (approximately $13.8 billion). Additionally, the national annual cost to the Australian healthcare system contributable to physical inactivity is more than $377 million per year.
What Bluearth is doing to combat the physical inactivity crisis
Bluearth is on a mission to prevent sedentary living through physical activity behavioural change within society. By instilling a lifelong love of movement in young participants, and the skills to move well, we can change the trajectory of health in our nation—turning an impending sedentary future into an active one, where Australians move regularly to keep their bodies and minds healthy, and prevent the onset of preventable diseases.
How you can help
Although it’s alarming that our nation is not moving enough, it’s important to remember that change is possible and we can all play a part in creating an active nation.
We can integrate more movement into our own lives, get active with our family and friends, advocate for movement in our workplaces and classrooms, and support organisations making a difference to the health and wellbeing of our communities.
Bluearth is one of those organisations. If you’d like to support us on our critical mission, please donate at www.bluearth.org/donate. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.