Oct. 17, 2024 – People who use a standing desk for health reasons might have to reevaluate the time spent using it.
New research suggests that using a standing desk doesn't reduce the danger of problems like heart disease or stroke and will even increase the danger of circulatory problems like varicose veins or deep vein thrombosis. Ultimately, time spent stationary and never moving was linked to increased health problems.
The Insights were published on Wednesday within the International Journal of Epidemiology. For the study, researchers didn't specifically examine individuals who used standing desks. Instead, they analyzed data from 83,013 adults who used a wearable device that would track their every day sitting and standing time for every week. The average age of the study participants was 61 years, and around 55% were women.
The researchers then checked out people's health data for the following seven years and linked the time they spent sitting, standing, or each, to the likelihood of somebody having heart disease, a stroke, heart failure, or circulatory problems comparable to a potentially fatal blood clot suffered from leg or enlarged and twisted veins, which could be uncomfortable.
On average, the participants within the study spent almost 13 hours per day stationary, i.e. sitting or standing combined. Approximately 2 hours were spent standing and 11 hours sitting.
People whose combined sitting and standing time was greater than 12 hours per day were at increased risk of circulatory problems, and this risk increased with each additional hour they spent hospitalized. When researchers looked only at time spent sitting or standing, the circulatory health risk increased steadily beyond two hours of standing or ten hours of sitting.
Additional sitting beyond 10 hours per day was also linked to an increased risk of problems with the guts and blood vessels. But the researchers' next finding suggests that simply getting up out of your chair and standing more might not be the answer. Time standing was not related to poor or improved heart and blood vessel health, but it surely was related to a rise in circulatory problems.
“The key finding is that standing for too long does not compensate for an otherwise sedentary lifestyle and could pose a risk to circulatory health for some people,” said lead creator Matthew Ahmadi, PhD, who focuses on wearables research on the University of Australia , in line with a Press release.
A 2017 reportby one other team of researchers on the University of Sydney, suggested that the widespread adoption of standing desks was driven by media reports that ignored the limited evidence for the health advantages of standing desks. The report indicated broad – but not comprehensive – coverage Recommendation in a medical journal to extend the time spent standing and doing light activities within the office. The report also raised concerns that the suggestion was co-authored by someone with business ties to sit-stand desks.
The authors of this latest study suggest that as an alternative of focusing more on standing, people should as an alternative aim to maneuver more throughout the day and schedule structured exercise times to administer risks to their heart and blood vessels.
“Take regular breaks, walk around, go to a meeting, take the stairs, take regular breaks when driving long distances, or use your lunch break to get away from your desk and get some exercise,” said researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis, PhD. MSc, Professor of Physical Activity and Population Health on the University of Sydney.