4 hidden health risks of spending too much time indoors: doctor

Nearly half of Americans spend less than two hours outdoors in an entire week, according to a new national survey from the Nature & Health Alliance involving researchers at Texas A&M University.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.In his book, “Indoor Epidemic,” he discusses how humans spend about 93% of their lives inside, which comes with a “hidden health tax.” He claims the remedy is a simple 7% outdoor prescription.“Many people don’t realize that they’re inhibited from feeling as good as they can, because they’re exhausted even after a full night’s sleep,” La Puma told Fox News Digital.

“They need coffee to feel normal.They crash at 2 in the afternoon.

They’re wired at night.They can’t go to sleep, but their labs are normal.”“And they come into the office saying, ‘Why do I feel so exhausted?’ It’s the four Bs,” he said.Outdoor light can be many times brighter than typical indoor lighting, La Puma noted, making it a powerful signal for setting the body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm.“If you don’t set your body clock, your body doesn’t know what time it is, and it just goes to sleep whenever you can get to sleep instead of on time,” he told Fox News Digital.Getting bright outdoor light soon after waking can help synchronize the body’s sleep-wake cycle and support the natural rise in melatonin later in the evening, according to La Puma.He recommends spending about 10 minutes outdoors within the first hour of waking, without sunglasses.La Puma uses the term “ultraprocessed time” to describe hours lost to screens, scrolling and other digital distractions.“Ultraprocessed time is kind of like ultraprocessed food,” he said.

“It’s not nutritious.It’s synthetic.

It’s artificial.It’s ubiquitous.”That includes time spent endlessly scrolling, he said, which can seem to simp...