This WFH staple ensures you do not spend the vast majority of your day sitting—which we have heard one million instances can result in circumstances like poor coronary heart well being down the road. Or so we thought.
A new examine1 printed yesterday in The Worldwide Journal of Epidemiology suggests standing desks do not truly scale back your danger of illnesses like stroke and coronary heart failure.
A more in-depth have a look at the brand new examine
The examine included over 80,000 wholesome adults from the UK. For 2 years, contributors wore wrist accelerometers that recorded how a lot time they spent sitting and standing.
When researchers assessed the info and adopted up with them over a six-year interval, they discovered sitting for greater than 10 hours a day was related to an elevated danger of heart problems. Extra shocking? Standing extra (in contrast with sitting) would not scale back the danger of coronary heart circumstances like coronary heart illness, stroke, and coronary heart failure. Moreover, standing extra may truly improve your danger of varicose veins (enlarged veins) and deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot in your veins).
Standing extra would not scale back the danger of circumstances like coronary heart illness, stroke, and coronary heart failure.
Extra particularly, for each half-hour spent standing past two hours, the danger of those well being points elevated by 11 p.c. (It is value noting that examine contributors did not *particularly* use standing desks to measure the well being impacts of elevated standing.)
There are a few caveats to remember. First, that is an observational examine, which implies it is displaying correlation—not causation. In different phrases, it discovered a connection between standing an excessive amount of and an elevated danger of poor coronary heart well being. This doesn’t suggest you are assured to develop a coronary heart situation sooner or later should you stand an excessive amount of.
Moreover, this examine attracts from UK Biobank information. The UK Biobank is a database and analysis useful resource that shops the medical and genetic data of 500,000 UK contributors for analysis identical to this examine. Nevertheless, UK Biobank volunteers don’t have any earlier medical points and are not an correct illustration of the vast majority of folks, in line with a 2017 American Journal of Epidemiology article2.
The underside line
“The key takeaway is that standing for too long will not offset an otherwise sedentary lifestyle and could be risky for some people in terms of circulatory health,” stated Matthew Ahmadi, a postdoctoral analysis fellow on the College of Sydney and lead examine writer, in a press launch.
As a substitute of standing for a majority of your day, Ahmadi and his fellow researchers counsel you need to as a substitute schedule common motion all through the day.
“Take regular breaks, walk around, go for a walking meeting, use the stairs, take regular breaks when driving long distances, or use that lunch hour to get away from the desk and do some movement,” Ahmadi stated.
These are generally known as “exercise breaks” or “exercise snacks.” You possibly can even “microdose” health by taking fast stretch breaks, doing quick cardio bursts, busting out just a few squats when you wait on your espresso to brew, and even finishing some family chores (as a result of cleansing the lavatory is a critical exercise!).
In case you have a bit extra time in your day, a 2024 examine3 within the Worldwide Journal of Behavioral Diet and Bodily Exercise discovered that about six minutes of vigorous-intensity train or half-hour of moderate-to-vigorous train per day may assist decrease your danger of coronary heart illness—even should you’re largely sedentary 11 hours a day or extra.
FYI: Vigorous train is something that is 70 to 85 p.c of your most coronary heart charge and reasonable train is something that will get you to 50 to 70 p.c of your most coronary heart charge, in line with the American Coronary heart Affiliation (AHA). Yow will discover an estimate of your most coronary heart charge by subtracting 220 out of your age, per the AHA.
The takeaway? Do not panic in case you have a desk job that requires a ton of sitting. However do not throw your standing desk to the curb, both. So long as you stand up and transfer a bit all through your day, you might be positive you are doing nice issues on your general well being.
Nicely+Good articles reference scientific, dependable, latest, sturdy research to again up the knowledge we share. You possibly can belief us alongside your wellness journey.
-
Matthew N Ahmadi, Pieter Coenen, Leon Straker, Emmanuel Stamatakis, Machine-measured stationary behaviour and cardiovascular and orthostatic circulatory illness incidence, Worldwide Journal of Epidemiology, Quantity 53, Difficulty 6, December 2024, dyae136, https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyae136 -
Anna Fry, Thomas J Littlejohns, Cathie Sudlow, Nicola Doherty, Ligia Adamska, Tim Sprosen, Rory Collins, Naomi E Allen, Comparability of Sociodemographic and Well being-Associated Traits of UK Biobank Contributors With These of the Basic Inhabitants, American Journal of Epidemiology, Quantity 186, Difficulty 9, 1 November 2017, Pages 1026–1034, https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwx246 -
Rezende LFM, Ahmadi M, Ferrari G, Del Pozo Cruz B, Lee IM, Ekelund U, Stamatakis E. Machine-measured sedentary time and intensity-specific bodily exercise in relation to all-cause and heart problems mortality: the UK Biobank cohort examine. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2024 Jul 3;21(1):68. doi: 10.1186/s12966-024-01615-5. PMID: 38961452; PMCID: PMC11223286.