Working from home ‘makes people weaker and could damage bones’

Less commuting could take toll (Image: GETTY)This is despite weight-bearing exercise, such as walking, helping to boost bone density. Low levels of this can lead to osteo­porosis and broken bones. Lack of muscle conditioning from less exercise can also lead to falls and breaks.Society CEO Craig Jones said: ‘More people have got more used to being at home, so when we did the research what we found was that not going into the office five times a week is leading to people ­moving a lot less.’Obviously walking is a good weight-bearing exercise so we’re missing out on that a bit more right now.’Perhaps some of the early health kick that the pandemic gave some of us has also now gone and we have settled into a lower baseline of physical activity.’The survey by YouGov for the health charity found that 13 percent of people are spending less time on activity to maintain or improve their health than they were 12 months ago.Mr Jones added: ‘We are worried about people cutting out weight-bearing activities and not getting vitamin D from sunshine.’He said people have lost strength because of lockdown and it will cast a ‘long shadow’ of more falls and fractures.Queen Consort Camilla is president of the society and has revealed both her mother and grandmother died of osteo­porosis.The society has launched a new online risk checker and Mr Jones urges even those in their 20s to use it.He said: ‘There is a real public perception that things such as hunched backs, loss in height, falls and fractures are just part of getting older.”We have got to get rid of that culture of defeatism and get across that if you catch it early, you can avoid pretty bad outcomes.’For information, visit: theros.org.uk