![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/photo-1515378791036-0648a3ef77b2_1763914314328_1763914324755.jpg\" "\\"The")
The doctor said that the damage begins long before people lace up their shoes for an evening walk. (Unsplash\/Representative image) <\/p>\nA doctor\u2019s Instagram post about the hidden dangers of prolonged sitting is gaining attention online after he explained why even 10,000 steps a day cannot undo the damage caused by 10 hours of immobility.<\/p>\n
The doctor said that the damage begins long before people lace up their shoes for an evening walk. (Unsplash\/Representative image) <\/p>\n
Taking to Instagram, Dr Sumit Kapadia, who, according to his bio, is a vascular surgeon and varicose vein specialist, wrote that most people assume that hitting their step goal in the evening cancels out a sedentary workday, but he explained that the body doesn\u2019t work that way. Dr Kapadia said that even if someone achieves their daily 10,000 steps, spending the entire day desk-bound from 9 am to 7 pm still harms circulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something I tell my patients almost every day. You can hit your step goal in the evening\u2026but if you\u2019ve been desk-bound from 9 AM to 7 PM, your veins have already taken the damage,\u201d he wrote in the caption of his Instagram post.<\/p>\n
Dr Kapadia explained that vein health depends less on the total distance walked and more on how often a person moves throughout the day. \u201cCirculation doesn\u2019t depend on how much you walk. It depends on how often you move,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to the doctor, prolonged sitting leads to blood stagnation, weakening of vein valves, swelling, and a higher risk of varicose veins and even blood clots. The damage, he said, begins long before people lace up their shoes for an evening walk.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven a healthy step count cannot reverse 10 hours of immobility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dr Kapadia urged people to break long sedentary stretches by standing up every hour, stretching, walking briefly and engaging the calf muscles, which he described as the body\u2019s \u201cperipheral heart\u201d due to their key role in supporting blood flow.<\/p>\n
\u201cTiny breaks. Huge difference. Your veins don\u2019t need marathons. They need movement,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
Social media reactions<\/p>\n
Reacting to the post, one user wrote, \u201cI think I\u2019m already facing the consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn average, how long should you be sitting and standing per day to achieve the best health?\u201d asked another.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sitting for almost 10-11 hours and my side hips, lower back pains alot also i cant walk and stand for longer time. thankfully i have left the job,\u201d shared a third user, urging others to prioritise health before it’s too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A doctor\u2019s Instagram post about the hidden dangers of prolonged sitting is gaining attention online after he explained…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[100326,134,99100,111,139,69,100325,99103,100324],"class_list":{"0":"post-149870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-blood-circulation","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-immobility","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-prolonged-sitting","15":"tag-varicose-veins","16":"tag-vein-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}