Without a doubt, inactivity is bad for us. Prolonged sitting is consistently linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death. The obvious response to this terrible fate is not to sit down – to move. Even a few moments of exercise can bring benefits, research suggests. However, nowadays it is challenging to avoid sitting, especially in the office. This has led to a number of standing up strategies, including the advent of standing desks. If you have to be tied to a desk, at least you can do it while standing on your feet, it is believed.
However, research on whether standing desks are beneficial has been scant and sometimes inconclusive. In addition, it may have a long-term condition own risk, data on work-related sitting is also mixed. While the final verdict on standing desks is still unclear, two studies conducted this year provide the most detailed evidence on the potential benefits and risks of working on your feet.
Sit down
For years, research has shown that standing desks improve markers cardiovascular health and metabolismsuch as lipid levels, insulin resistance, and blood flow-dependent dilation (the ability of arteries to dilate in response to increased blood flow). However, it is unclear how significant these improvements are in preventing indigent health outcomes such as heart attacks. One analysis from 2018 suggested that the benefits may be small.
There are good reasons to be skeptical of standing desks. First, standing – like sitting – does not cause movement. If your main problem is lack of movement and exercise, standing still won’t be the solution.
Although sitting and standing can probably be lumped together into one “real estate” category, some researchers argue that not all sitting is the same. In the 2018 position paper published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, two health experts argued that the link between indigent health and sitting may come down to the specific populations studied and the “specific contribution” of “time sitting at home, for example on the ‘couch’,” the potato effect “
The two researchers – professors emeritus David Rempel, formerly of the University of California, San Francisco, and Niklas Krause, formerly of the University of California, Los Angeles – pointed to several studies looking specifically at workplace sitting time and poor health outcomes, which have shown mixed results. For example, analysis from 2013 found no relationship between sitting at work and cardiovascular disease. While the study did suggest a link to mortality, this link only applied to women. It was too a 2015 study of approximately 36,500 workers in Japan who were followed for an average of 10 years. This study found that there is no association between mortality and time spent sitting among wage earners, professionals and those working in home-based businesses. However, there was a relationship between mortality and being among people working in agriculture, forestry and fishing.
Still, despite some ambiguity in the details, more recent research continues to show a link between total long-term sitting— wherever you sit — and indigent health effects, especially cardiovascular disease. This maintains interest in standing desks in offices where people don’t always have the luxury of regular breaks to move around. This, in turn, keeps researchers on their toes as they try to answer the question of whether standing desks provide any benefits.