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posted by takyon on Monday November 26 2018, @05:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the retirement-is-death dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Are You Sitting Down? Standing Desks Are Overrated

Let's start with what we know about research on sitting, then explain why it can be misleading as it relates to work. A number of studies have found a significant association between prolonged sitting time over a 24-hour period and increased risk for cardiovascular disease. A 2015 study, for instance, followed more than 150,000 older adults — all of whom were healthy at the start of the study — for almost seven years on average. Researchers found that those who sat at least 12 hours a day had significantly higher mortality than those who sat for less than five hours per day.

A 2012 study in JAMA Internal Medicine [open, DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2011.2174] [DX] followed more than 220,000 people for 2.8 years on average and found similar results. Prolonged sitting over the course of a day was associated with increased all-cause mortality across sexes, ages and body mass index. So did a smaller but longer (8.6 years on average) study published in 2015 in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health [DOI: 10.1123/jpah.2013-0364] [DX].

Another study from 2015, which followed more than 50,000 adults for more than three years, also found this relationship. But it found that context mattered. Prolonged sitting in certain situations — including when people were at work — did not have this same effect.

Why might that be? Sitting itself may not be the problem; it may be a marker for other risk factors that would be associated with higher mortality. Unemployed or poorer people, who would also be more likely to have higher mortality, may be more likely to spend large amounts of time sitting at home. For some, sedentary time is a marker, not the cause, of bad outcomes.

Studies looking specifically at work don't find a causal pattern. One 2015 paper focused on workers age 50 to 74 in Japan, for more than 10 years on average per participant. It found that — among salaried workers, professionals and those in home businesses — there was no association between sitting at work and cardiovascular risk. A 2016 study examining Danish workers [open, DOI: 10.5271/sjweh.3540] [DX] also failed to find a link.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday November 26 2018, @04:11PM (3 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Monday November 26 2018, @04:11PM (#766473) Journal

    .... It's about ACTIVITY versus INACTIVITY. An inactive body stagnates - your veins and your lymphatic system depend upon skeletal movement for optimal function. If you sit at your desk but tap your toes, stretch your muscles, do a little shimmy, etc. you're better off than lying motionless on a bed. No work study I'm aware of looks at degree of activity, only raw things like standing and sitting. I'm not sure how you would manage to categorize total activity versus raw things like position. Plus.... Japan.... if it's corporate I recall once upon a time that they had mandatory calisthenics programs for salarymen.

    That aside, yes, it is well known that if you don't get movement in your legs occasionally your veins will start leaking greater amounts of interstitial fluid - it doesn't have the venous pressure to returrn the blood - then your lymphatic system doesn't get to push it back to your vena cava either and you get dependent edema. Your body requires greater volumes of fluid to do what it used to. Eventually if you do start moving that extra fluid has to be disposed of and that happens not just through the kidneys but your lungs as well so your heart works harder....

    So, do you deserve a standing desk? Well, if all you'll do is stand motionless and type it may be marginally better but won't really get you MOVING. Start MOVING and you lower your CV risk. Says the Lawn who's been nothing but sitting typing this whole damn thing up....

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by PocketSizeSUn on Monday November 26 2018, @05:26PM (2 children)

    by PocketSizeSUn (5340) on Monday November 26 2018, @05:26PM (#766508)

    You are correct .. it is all about moving ...

    Well, if all you'll do is stand motionless and type it may be marginally better ..

    WIth a minor correction .. standing all day is worse for your health than sitting all day.
    Both are bad but sitting is statistically less bad.

    • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 26 2018, @10:33PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 26 2018, @10:33PM (#766669)

      The human body is just a piece of garbage. Intelligent design my ass.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 27 2018, @02:12AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 27 2018, @02:12AM (#766763)

        The human body is fairly optimal for long distance running. There are few other animals, if any, that can match a human on land.