Episode 26 – Is sitting bad for our health?

Is sitting bad for our health?

Debbie: Hello and welcome to Inflammatory with Debbie

Katy: and Katy

Debbie: It’s been a long time, Katy. How was your summer?

Katy: My summer actually this year was absolutely bloody brilliant. I’ve got to say, because we went away for 10 days, but I had about two weeks off work due to the August bank holiday. And the summer holidays always like my son’s just going into year three this week. I always used to kind of panic about all the juggling of childcare and holiday clubs. But for some reason this year, I don’t know whether it was the period we went away. So, it was kind of slap bang in the middle. It just seemed to go pretty well. Work was a little bit quieter. The juggle was a little bit easier. Had a great holiday. And now it’s back to everything, isn’t it? How was yours, Debbie?

Debbie: Yeah, no mine was really good. We did the last episode was when I was away and I had a cold and unfortunately, I do have another cold today. I think it’s the weather that has changed. It got really quite cold. I did actually have to put a jumper on the other day. But no, my daughters both picked up their results for their A levels in GCSEs. They both absolutely smashed them. So, it was very…It was quite emotional because I had to go and pick up my eldest daughter’s ones for her A levels because she was abroad, she was travelling Europe. So, I had to go in and I had no one at home either because my husband took my youngest away. So just me the dog at home and I had to run to the school because she said, I’ve got into uni but I need to know the actual results. So mum, can you run? I ran into the school and this head teacher saw me. And it was like, you’re right. And I just like, just cried because I like, I missed her so much and I wanted her to be there. And so was like, just emotional mother, fine. So, I went and got her results. And then she goes, I need to see mum, but you can’t see. So, she video called me and, in the envelope, there was about six pieces of paper. And so, was like, is it this one? I’m trying not to look. And then, and then eventually, yeah, the right paper came along. No, she absolutely smashed them. She aced them. So very, very proud.

And then my youngest, yeah, for the next week after that was her GCSEs. And so, yeah, so no, it’s been a good summer. For me, I’ll probably it’s been a long summer because my youngest has actually just gone back and she’s gone to start her sixth form today. She’s slightly nervous and anxious about it. But I can’t remember the last day that they were properly in school and doing the school day because of the exams and then study leave. it’s been a long time coming. But no, apart from that. It’s all been good. But I did have COVID when I got back from holiday though. We had a board meeting and I had such a temperature and I had a temperature of 40 degrees for over four days and I felt really my sense of smell and taste for like four weeks. So it wasn’t the best, but at least it was a summer and it was a bit quieter.

But it is back to routine now. And what we’re gonna be discussing today is, is that back to routine? Is that sitting and we know it’s not good for our health and but what do we do about it? Some updates from the JIA side and the vaccines and just a bit of an update from the charity as well. But Katy, being back in routine.

What is it like for you? Because we know that sitting is bad for people, especially with those with inflammatory arthritis. What do you do throughout the day to kind of ease yourself back into the routine of sitting at a desk?

Katy: Yeah, so I mean, guess because I’ve been working through the summer, have been, it doesn’t change that much because I only had sort of two weeks off. But I sometimes find it easier when we are back to routine because I walk or cycle for the school run. And then if I’m working from home, normally once I’ve dropped the sun off, I will go for a run or a walk. or I’ll go to the gym before I sit down at my desk for the day. I’m not very good at sitting anyway, so I’ll tend to kind of just get up, potter about, go make myself a cup of tea. And then I do try to break the day up by again, maybe I didn’t go for a run or to the gym before I sat down at my desk, so I’ll try and do something like that on my lunch break. And then if I’m in the office, because I commute on the train, commuting on the train also means at either end, I’ve got a 10 minute walk. And when you’re in the office as well, our office is quite big. our toilets, it’s a good kind of one-to-two-minute walks to the toilet. The kitchen’s a bit of a walk away. Or I’ll always try and pop out for lunch. Even if I’ve brought my lunch into the office, I’ll try and go for a little walk, weather permitting. Because actually, having said that, yes, on Wednesday I was in the office and it was awful. It was raining. It was disgusting. now it was terrible. So again, I think it could be quite hard in this country because if it’s cold, you haven’t really got the motivation. It gets dark in the evenings. I never like leaving it to the evening. But then I do think because of the school run, I’ve always got to go and do that and our school’s too close really to drive and the parking, I wouldn’t really drive. So, I’ll always walk or cycle to do school drop off and pick up. it sort of, I always find it naturally happens, but obviously then there’s days you don’t really want to. So, it’s about not forcing yourself, but just trying to do those little bits I think. And because you’ve got a dog Debbie, does that make it easier for you do you think?

Debbie: It does, but if I sit down, she will happily just fall asleep and she’s asleep on the beanbag in the office here with me now. And she’s not generally that fussed about going out for a walk. She rather have human company, but it does make me take her out for a walk once a day. And I use that time because I then have this thing, I then feel guilty that I’m not working, but I’m now using that time as a reflection and working and just going through in my mind what we need to be doing, what I could be doing, what the priorities and that’s coming. So, I’m using that as a more structured mental time for me. And obviously it’s good for my joints as well, but there can be times when I am so guilty of just sitting and just carrying on and not realizing how my, I’ve got like, oh God, I’ve sat here for two hours, my back and my joints, no.

Katy: See, I can’t sit for two hours because I need the toilet. So, a good tip I’d say is just drink tons of water and you’ve got no excuse. You have to go for a wee.

Debbie:  That’s very true. But I do have a standing desk. So, I try to make sure on the afternoon that I’m standing. And I always try to move my legs and my ankles even just under the desk, just to keep them moving, to keep them lubricated because otherwise they can get quite stiff. But I must admit it is my back. And when we were talking to Rachel and Adam, because they have axial SpA, it is vital that they move because of their back. And after my back operation, did get a Fitbit. It was only like a 10 pound one, it wasn’t expensive. And I put an alarm on that, so every half an hour, because that’s when I had to get up and do some walking, that my wrist was obviously vibrating and making noise, and then I did get up. And so, I think sometimes that might be useful for people. I think you can have it on your phones or on your laptop. It might be slightly annoying if you’re in the office and alarms go off, but you can have it on vibrate. And it’s just making sure that you do. And I think it’s that 1% going back to our favourite episode, the 1% one as well. is, even if you are at home and you’re not doing that much walking, just as we’ve said before, it’s just moving your tea and your coffee that slightly further away, just so you are adding those steps in. And I think that’s vital when the weather is terrible, you don’t want to go outside. Just do what you can and adapt the way that you work and the way you live.

Katy: Yeah. Yeah. And do you measure your steps to see how much movement you’re getting in the day? I know some people love it, some people hate it.

Debbie:  I do when I have my phone. It’s only on my phone. When I was typing away, my watch would always make a noise. It would always bang and it felt quite heavy on my wrist. So, I think it’s just how I type. And so I don’t have a watch or anything. So, I don’t have anything on me all the time to calculate my steps. But do you?

Katy: yeah. I really do. So, I normally have, I’ve got a watch and I also have got a fitness ring, which actually I realised I haven’t got on So I took it off for tennis because you can’t really hold the racket properly.

Debbie: No, I used to get blisters when I had my rings on and forget to take them off. I always ended up with blisters on my hands.

Katy: I use that to of, guess, monitor a little bit about roughly what movement I’m doing in the day. So, I always think that’s quite helpful for me, just to see kind of whether I’ve moved much. But I think you know yourself, don’t you?

Debbie: think you do. Yeah, I did.

Katy: Cause my husband’s like, that’s the way I would never want to do that. Who cares?

Debbie: Well, that’s the thing, whether you want to know or whether you don’t want to know, but I think within you, you know how much exercise you’ve done or haven’t done because to be fair, my body actually tells me and it’s a safe, I’m a bit stiff. is because I haven’t moved so much and I need to. And I suppose that then leads us on to, know, kids going back to school and you were saying that you walk your kids to school. And I used to do that all the time and I think it was good for them. And I moved to an area so I could walk my kids to school because I didn’t want and that, the traffic around schools is horrendous. I think it is so dangerous, I really do. And I did end up shouting at a few cars.

Katy: I once picked my son up from school because I think we’d got, I think he’d got a doctor’s appointment or something, so we needed to sort of get there quickly. But I could, I found the parking around school so stressful, I ended up going and parking in the local park, which actually, the walk was pretty much like going home then.

Debbie: I know, it is. I’m exactly the same. I don’t have to do the school runs anymore. She’s 16, she won’t let me. I did kind of slightly walk up to school this morning for the first day of sixth form, but other than that, she’s like, mum, you can go now, please, people might see you. ⁓ But I do think that is, especially for children with inflammatory arthritis and also parents as well, and just for general health, it is so good just to walk to school. Obviously, if you can, obviously, if you live miles away from the school, it can’t happen.

But for me, I felt that that was so good. And then go and picking them up as well. So, I knew that I had some exercise that day. And weirdly, I always knew, my body always then knew when it was the holidays, because I didn’t do that walk in the morning. We also had lays in.

Katy: Well, no, that’s what I always find quite different because the holiday camp we use, it’s like a few miles away, so you wouldn’t really walk, well, it’d take too long to walk there. So, we drive to drop him off to that. And you do, you just notice the difference that you’re not doing that kind of small bit of, I mean, it’s not very far, my son’s school, it’s not even a mile away. So, it’s not like very far, but it just sets you up for the start of the day.

Debbie: It does, it is getting back to that routine. And I think for children, because I know when my daughter went back into school and for when I did obviously many, many years ago, it is being generally so active during the summer holidays and then going back into school and sitting for so long. And this is why it is imperative for children with any health condition and especially with juvenile idiopathic arthritis or other types of inflammatory arthritis.

Debbie: Please do fill in the individual healthcare plan that is for any child with a health condition. And it actually helps the school understand what the disease is, the medications, whether it needs to be self-administered or taken in school, but what the side effects are and what the long-term, just general day-to-day management of the diseases can impact on your child. For example, like sitting cross-legged, that always used to kill me and for my daughter as well. But then it’s also important that the child is involved in doing that form as well. So, they know and they know what to say to the teacher. But then you get the kids that I don’t wanna be different. I don’t wanna ask for a chair. I’m gonna sit there and suffer, but I did that. And I really don’t want any child to do that at all. If you are in pain, it’s not good. And it’s not good for your joints. So, the best thing is look after yourself. And if something isn’t right in school, please talk to your teachers. They should then go back to this healthcare plan and actually work out how they can help you get the best out of the school for you So I think that’s my top tip for any parents. We’ll put the link on our website as well, but also on the show notes too so you can actually see what that document should really entail.

Katy: Again, my friend’s daughters was diagnosed with a long-term condition, not JIA, but something different. following you talking about this in one of our other episodes. I said, you probably know about this, but do you know about this and make sure you get it done?

Debbie: Did she know?  

Katy: She knew, so she’d already set it up with the after-school club, because that’s the same organization that runs the holiday camp. But this week she’s setting it up with our school. So it was, you know, this podcast can also help with other sort of just general awareness about things that can help people’s long-term health.

Debbie: Well, exactly. then, you know, for people that may be going into university, there is the disability student allowance, which I must admit, I hate the word the disability because you don’t want to be pigeonholed for it. But it does cover the costs of study related costs for university. I used it back in the day. It got me a laptop. It got me a dictaphone for when my hands were flaring, I couldn’t write. I just asked my lecturer if I could put it there to record so I could listen back to it and write the notes from it when I got home and my hands were better. But please do look into that as well. think, you know, there is no, there’s no benefits at all to having inflammatory arthritis or any condition. But if there are things that can help your life that little bit easier, make the most of it.

Katy: some AI tools now that people can use for dictating and not having to type.

Debbie: Yeah, they could be. I think you’d have to check with your university what their rules and policies are on AI now. Because obviously you won’t be able to use that in your essays and your work. But I think for notes, yeah, yeah.

Katy: But in terms of dictating and note taking, because you can just get everything summarised as well from lectures.

Debbie: Yeah, completely. that’s a good tip. just ask your lecturers when you go. so that’s the updates from kind of school, university. And obviously, if you are working, did have the redundancy to routine episode as well. And that’s where we talk about what is there for employers and employees as well, and what is there to kind of help you and so you can adapt into the workplace as well.

But just to give you another update over the summer, I’m now a part of the British Society for Rheumatology are doing a first time ever a guideline on juvenile idiopathic arthritis and it’s including all ages. So, it’s life course from babies, children, teenagers, young adults and adults as well. And what we need is your input in this as well. We need to know what is important to you. So, we include that in the recommendations for this guideline. A clinical guideline for those who aren’t aware, it’s an evidence-based set of recommendations designed to help healthcare professionals to make informed decisions about patient care for specific diseases. In this case, it’s juvenile idiopathic arthritis to ensure high quality and efficient practice. So, as I said, I am part of that working group as someone with lived experience. And we do want your input as well. It’s the first time BSR have ever done this to cover in the life course. And we really, really will need your input to know what is important, what needs to be included. And then maybe what doesn’t need to be included as well. Again, the link on this will be in our show notes and on our social media platforms as well. The deadline is the 16th of September. So please do put your input into the survey before that. But then there’s also been updates on vaccines, Katy.

Katy: Yeah, there’s been quite a few, hasn’t there?

Debbie: Yep. There has, it seems to quite busy. There’s obviously the chickenpox vaccine for children. It’s coming out in January, 2026,

Katy: 12 months I think you can have it.

Debbie: again, this will be in our show notes as well. But did you have chicken pox when you were a child?

Katy: So, I did, but my mum wasn’t aware that I’d had it because I got shingles when I was four and you can’t get shingles unless you’ve had the chicken pox virus. So, I’d had chicken pox, my mum thinks, probably when I was about six months because she remembers seeing like a spot, but that was all that came up. So, my brother and think it was the time when my brother and sister caught it. She thought I’d not caught it, but I had to have because I got shingles at four and it was hot. Shingles is awful. I don’t know if you’ve ever had shingles, but it’s horrid and the scars from shingles remained on my stomach until I was about 15, 16. So I hated like showing my stomach area. I mean, I’ve always hated showing my stomach area, but you know, that’s the age when you may be,

Debbie: You wear your crop tops. Yep.

Katy: And I had like a, yeah, all the scarring from it for ages, but it was horrible. mean, I didn’t remember that much from being four, but I was like wearing sundresses and it was winter, because everything that touched it just itched and was awful. no.

Debbie: Hey, wow. not good. No. Because I think I was back in the day, I think I went to a chicken pox party because my friends had it and I think my parents were like, you can go and have it as well. Yeah, we don’t recommend them.

Katy: Yeah. Just get it out of the way. Yeah, because a few of my friends have had it as adults and it’s not nice to get chicken pots as an adult.

Debbie: It’s not nice, but actually my youngest had it probably about the same age you were. was six months. Her sister had it two weeks before and it was literally that two, two weeks on the date that she came up with the spots, but she had it. She was literally covered in spots. It was horrendous. And then it wasn’t long after that she caught another virus, and the GP said it was because the chickenpox had really weakened her immune system. So, she was very vulnerable to catching this virus and she was so ill. I had to nurse her at home because I thought if she then went into the hospital somewhere else, she might pick up something else, which obviously can happen in hospital. It was obviously being a very protective mom, I was like, that can’t happen. And so, I sent my eldest to her grandparents and I just nursed her for weeks and she was so ill. And she started crawling by then, but because she was just that weak, and if she was sick during the night, obviously she would have choked because she couldn’t move. And so, I just slept on a chair in her room. Well, didn’t really sleep, I think rested. But obviously that really impacted on my IA as well. And it was, it was horrendous. And thankfully eventually she picked up, but she was very, very weak and it was horrendous to see her.

Katy: That’s really sad.

Debbie: It was, it was really horrendous. And I don’t know how you get through things, but you just do. And we did, and she’s fine now. But it’s just to highlight that chickenpox can actually be quite a nasty virus for some children. And I know that for children who have JIA and IA, if they start conventional DMARDs, they’re generally offered a blood test and that picks up whether you’ve had chickenpox or not. And if you haven’t, they offer you the vaccine because you don’t want your child, if they are on DMARDs, especially conventional DMARs to have chickenpox. So, for my daughter had chickenpox, but if she hadn’t, I would have got her the vaccine for it.

Katy: I got son vaccinated. So, I paid for the chickenpox vaccine for him because as an adult with a weakened immune system, you can catch chickenpox again. I mean, it’s not very common, but you can. So, I got him vaccinated, A, for the not having to take like two weeks off work if he got chickenpox and B, to protect myself from potentially catching chickenpox again.

Debbie: Yeah, because actually one of my friends here, her son has diabetes type one and he’s caught chicken pox quite a few times. Yeah, because obviously that’s autoimmune, that’s his immune system as well. So, it is very, very rare for it to happen, but I do know some people have happened. And there’s also those shingles as you were talking about chicken pox, it’s a shingles vaccine as well.

Katy: Yeah, and I think I can’t remember. You have so many vaccines, don’t you. So, I think I had the shingles vaccine.

Debbie: Okay. Yeah, I’d have to check, because my doctors have now sort of merged, my NHS app hasn’t updated, and I’ve then lost some of my data. It should be.

Katy: It should be on there, shouldn’t it? Yeah, that’s a good point. I’ve not actually thought about that.

Debbie: Yeah, but check it and see.

Katy: I look on there for how many COVID vaccines I’ve had. I have a 10. Yeah.

Debbie: But that’s interesting you’ve had 10.

Katy: I was just picking up my prescription this morning in the pharmacy and they’re booking people in for their flu and Covid vaccines now.

Debbie: Yes, I had an email come through to say I need to book mine. And yeah, and just having COVID, and I’ve had the flu before and it’s really nasty. You really don’t want it because it just knocks me out completely. So I will be having both of those vaccines. So yes, but anyway, this is us, Katy, back now.

Katy: Yeah. I know it’s great.

Debbie: It has, and it’s gone so quick.

Katy: It has gone really fast actually.

Debbie: But it has, think we’ve got so much more to talk about, but we have put together a survey. We want your feedback on what you like and what you maybe dislike about the podcast, how they’ve helped you, how they may not have helped you. We want to know what you feel. And so, we can develop and improve this podcast, whether it’s having more guests, more people with consultants, nurses on, please do let us know.

So again, this link could be in our show notes, and it will also be all over our social media and on our website. We really do appreciate your feedback and actually how we can really improve and develop the podcast. And it also will help with grant funding as well. So, thank you so much for listening. Please do rate and follow the podcast wherever you get your podcast from.

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Katy: Goodbye.

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🎙️ Episode 26: Is Sitting Bad for Our Health?

This week Debbie and Katy are back after the summer break to tackle a big question: how bad is sitting for our health, especially with inflammatory arthritis?

They first discuss their summers, exam results, holidays and having a bout of Covid thrown into the mix. They then cover:   

• Why sitting for long periods can harm joints
• Simple hacks to move more: school runs, dog walks, standing desks, fitness trackers
• Supporting children with JIA at school: healthcare plans & small adjustments
• Uni & work: Disability Student Allowance, workplace support, and useful tools
• Health updates: new JIA guideline consultation + vaccine news (chickenpox, shingles, flu, COVID)

Resources & Links

• Healthcare Plan template
• Disability Student Allowance
• BSR JIA guideline survey deadline 16 Sept
• Vaccine updates
  • chicken pox
  • Shingles

Stay Connected

Follow Inflammatory Arthritis UK on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook & LinkedIn.
Sign up for the newsletter at InflammatoryArthritis.org.

Disclaimer: The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to replace professional medical advice. We talk about our personal health journeys and the podcast is not intended to provide professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. We are not medical professionals and in no way claim to be medically trained. The podcast does not take responsibility for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of the podcast. The podcast does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of third-party content.

For more information, head to https://inflammatoryarthritis.org/