{"id":875893,"date":"2026-10-09T03:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875893\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T03:50:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T03:50:15","slug":"4-hidden-health-risks-of-spending-too-much-time-indoors-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875893\/","title":{"rendered":"4 hidden health risks of spending too much time indoors: doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly half of Americans spend less than two hours outdoors<\/a> in an entire week, according to a new national survey from the Nature & Health Alliance involving researchers at Texas A&M University.<\/p>\n

Dr. John La Puma, a California physician and expert in nature-based medicine<\/a>, has focused on the potential health impacts of spending less time outdoors.<\/p>\n

In his book, \u201cIndoor Epidemic<\/a>,\u201d he discusses how humans spend about 93% of their lives inside, which comes with a \u201chidden health tax.\u201d He claims the remedy is a simple 7% outdoor prescription.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people don\u2019t realize that they\u2019re inhibited from feeling as good as they can, because they\u2019re exhausted<\/a> even after a full night\u2019s sleep<\/a>,\u201d La Puma told Fox News Digital. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey need coffee<\/a> to feel normal. They crash at 2 in the afternoon. They\u2019re wired at night. They can\u2019t go to sleep<\/a>, but their labs are normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. John La Puma, a California physician and expert in nature-based medicine, has focused on the potential health impacts of spending less time outdoors. Fox News Digital<\/p>\n

In his book, \u201cIndoor Epidemic,\u201d La Puma discusses how humans spend about 93% of their lives inside, which comes with a \u201chidden health tax.\u201d Nuria Gonzalez Sanch \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they come into the office saying, \u2018Why do I feel so exhausted?\u2019 It\u2019s the four Bs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The \u20184 Bs\u2019 caused by too much indoor time<\/p>\n

No. 1: Bad sleep<\/p>\n

Outdoor light can be many times brighter than typical indoor lighting, La Puma noted, making it a powerful signal for setting the body\u2019s internal clock, or circadian rhythm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t set your body clock, your body doesn\u2019t know what time it is, and it just goes to sleep whenever you can get to sleep<\/a> instead of on time,\u201d he told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t set your body clock, your body doesn\u2019t know what time it is, and it just goes to sleep whenever you can get to sleep instead of on time,\u201d La Puma told Fox News Digital. kieferpix \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Getting bright outdoor light soon after waking can help synchronize the body\u2019s sleep-wake cycle<\/a> and support the natural rise in melatonin later in the evening, according to La Puma.<\/p>\n

He recommends spending about 10 minutes outdoors within the first hour of waking, without sunglasses.<\/p>\n

No. 2: Burnout<\/p>\n

La Puma uses the term \u201cultraprocessed time\u201d to describe hours lost to screens<\/a>, scrolling and other digital distractions.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltraprocessed time is kind of like ultraprocessed food,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not nutritious. It\u2019s synthetic. It\u2019s artificial. It\u2019s ubiquitous.\u201d<\/p>\n

That includes time spent endlessly scrolling, he said, which can seem to simply \u201cevaporate.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Puma uses the term \u201cultraprocessed time\u201d to describe hours lost to screens, scrolling and other digital distractions. Kirsten Davis\/peopleimages.com \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

La Puma argues that a person\u2019s environment can contribute to burnout<\/a>, rather than viewing it solely as a matter of willpower.<\/p>\n

Spending excessive time indoors can lead to an overload of screen exposure<\/a>, he said, as people often turn to the same devices for work, entertainment and relaxation. He noted that the body may not interpret screen time as true rest or escape.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd equally important, no horizon. We are horizon-deprived as a species because indoors, we can\u2019t see more than 20 feet in front of us,\u201d La Puma said.<\/p>\n

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To combat burnout, he recommends getting up and going to the window and looking outside for a minute every hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt relaxes your eyes, relaxes the muscles around your temples, reduces headache if you have it, improves energy and reduces fatigue,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the beginning of being able to reverse burnout.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simply going outside during the workday can help to reverse burnout, LaPuma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour eyes need distance like your lungs need air.\u201d<\/p>\n

No. 3: Brain fog<\/p>\n

People who spend the day indoors may notice that they feel mentally foggy<\/a> by the afternoon, La Puma said, particularly in poorly ventilated spaces where carbon dioxide can build up.<\/p>\n

Indoor CO\u2082 levels can climb above 1,000 parts per million in poorly ventilated spaces, and some research has linked elevated levels with reduced cognitive performance.<\/p>\n

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. WavebreakMediaMicro \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s not that you\u2019re just making bad decisions in the afternoons \u2014 there\u2019s a biologic reason for it,\u201d La Puma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you need to do is cross-ventilate, but that\u2019s tough to do in an office or conference room.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

No. 4: Belly fat<\/p>\n

When someone\u2019s body clock is out of sync, it can disrupt the body\u2019s normal cortisol rhythm, La Puma said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Research has linked altered cortisol activity with greater abdominal and visceral fat, although the relationship is complex. Dmytro Flisak \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cAgain, the way to improve your metabolism<\/a> is to get daylight at the right time, in the right place, for the right duration \u2014 early in the morning especially,\u201d La Puma advised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will give you a bump in cortisol, which you want early in the morning to feel awake, and then it drops appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 17-minute dose<\/p>\n

Most people spend about an hour outdoors each day as they walk from the car to the office, for example \u2014 but that\u2019s what La Puma calls \u201cincidental time,\u201d not \u201cbiologically active time.\u201d<\/p>\n

To combat the four Bs, he recommends spending \u201cintentional time\u201d outdoors, \u201cin a blue or green space,\u201d for a minimum effective dose of 17 minutes a day.<\/p>\n

To combat the four Bs, La Puma recommends spending \u201cintentional time\u201d outdoors, \u201cin a blue or green space,\u201d for a minimum effective dose of 17 minutes a day. fotoduets \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cBe intentional with your time \u2014 look at the sky in the morning \u2026 to reset your body clock and watch the clouds,\u201d the doctor advised.<\/p>\n

For those who live in a big city and can\u2019t see the sky, La Puma recommends looking at a distant rooftop, or looking through an open window when going outside isn\u2019t possible. The goal is to focus beyond the confines of an indoor space.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo 17 minutes a day is the minimum effective dose \u2014 that\u2019s all it takes to begin to bend the curve on the four Bs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can turn those minutes into medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly half of Americans spend less than two hours outdoors in an entire week, according to a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[3281,97,252,253,42129,8115],"class_list":["post-875893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-doctors","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-outdoor-activity","tag-sleep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}