The health benefits of standing at a desk have been exaggerated and may increase the risk of circulatory diseases, study finds

Standing desks are often touted, especially for office workers, as a panacea for our sedentary lifestyle.

However, a recent study found that standing for long periods of time is not much better than sitting.

Lead author from the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Deputy Director of the Mackenzie Wearables Research Center at the Charles Perkins Centre, Dr Matthew Ahmadi, said: Sunday morning Jim Mora suggested other ways for sedentary people to improve their cardiovascular health.

“Standing is certainly better than sitting, but standing alone will not necessarily reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease,” Ahmadi said.

“To do this, we will need to combine other activities that get the body moving.”

Ahmadi’s team recently published a study involving 100,000 participants who wore a smartwatch-like accelerometer on their wrist for a week, using data from the UK Biobank.

His team followed them for about eight years to document their hospitalizations and risk of mortality due to heart disease and circulatory problems.

Not only have the health benefits of standing at a desk been exaggerated, but their research also found that long periods of standing still may increase the risk of certain types of circulatory problems, such as varicose veins or deep vein thrombosis, due to blood pooling in the lower veins. parts. bodies.

Their results contradict previous studies that touted the benefits of standing over sitting.

Ahmadi said this was because most past studies only looked at short-term changes or “soft endpoints” such as improvements in blood pressure and insulin sensitivity.

However, the Ahmadi team took a long-term view.

“When we looked at the risk of hospitalization, we found that … alone does not reduce the risk of these diseases.”

According to him, to improve cardiovascular health, it is not enough to stand, you need to get the body moving.

“This is usually achieved most effectively through activities that keep us moving, such as locomotion and walking.

“These activities don’t have to be going to the gym and doing 60 minutes of exercise every day.

“We can improve our cardiovascular health simply by doing everyday activities, such as housework or even gardening outdoors.

“Anything that gets us moving gets us out of the house.”

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