Doctor reveals 4 hidden health risks of spending too much time indoors
To combat burnout, he recommends getting up and going to the window and looking outside for a minute every hour.
“It relaxes your eyes, relaxes the muscles around your temples, reduces headache if you have it, improves energy and reduces fatigue,” he said. “That’s the beginning of being able to reverse burnout.”
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Simply going outside during the workday can help to reverse burnout, LaPuma said.
“Your eyes need distance like your lungs need air.”
No. 3: Brain fog
People who spend the day indoors may notice that they feel mentally foggy by the afternoon, La Puma said, particularly in poorly ventilated spaces where carbon dioxide can build up.
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Indoor CO₂ levels can climb above 1,000 parts per million in poorly ventilated spaces, and some research has linked elevated levels with reduced cognitive performance.
“So it’s not that you’re just making bad decisions in the afternoons — there’s a biologic reason for it,” La Puma said.
People who spend the day indoors may notice that they feel mentally foggy by the afternoon, the doctor said. (iStock)
“What you need to do is cross-ventilate, but that’s tough to do in an office or conference room.”
The doctor said that getting outdoors gives the eyes a chance to focus at greater distances while providing a break from potentially stuffy indoor air. The EPA notes that concentrations of some pollutants can be two to five times higher indoors than outdoors.
No. 4: Belly fat
When someone’s body clock is out of sync, it can disrupt the body’s normal cortisol rhythm, La Puma said.
Cortisol, often called the stress hormone, naturally rises and falls throughout the day. Research has linked altered cortisol activity with greater abdominal and visceral fat, although the relationship is complex.
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“Again, the way to improve your metabolism is to get daylight at the right time, in the right place, for the right duration — early in the morning especially,” La Puma advised.
“This will give you a bump in cortisol, which you want early in the morning to feel awake, and then it drops appropriately.”
The 17-minute dose
Most people spend about an hour outdoors each day as they walk from the car to the office, for example — but that’s what La Puma calls “incidental time,” not “biologically active time.”
“Be intentional with your time — look at the sky in the morning when you have your 10 minutes outdoors to reset your body clock and watch the clouds,” the doctor advised. (iStock)
To combat the four Bs, he recommends spending “intentional time” outdoors, “in a blue or green space,” for a minimum effective dose of 17 minutes a day.
“Be intentional with your time — look at the sky in the morning … to reset your body clock and watch the clouds,” the doctor advised.
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For those who live in a big city and can’t see the sky, La Puma recommends looking at a distant rooftop, or looking through an open window when going outside isn’t possible. The goal is to focus beyond the confines of an indoor space.
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“So 17 minutes a day is the minimum effective dose — that’s all it takes to begin to bend the curve on the four Bs,” he said.
“You can turn those minutes into medicine.”
Melissa Rudy is senior health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to melissa.rudy@fox.com.
Article source: https://www.foxnews.com/health/doctor-reveals-4-hidden-health-risks-spending-too-much-time-indoors