Standing Too Much Might Not Be Great for Your Heart, New Study Suggests

For the previous few years, standing desks have been all the trend. With the shift to distant work, chances are high you both know somebody who has one, you might have one your self, otherwise you’ve been occupied with hitting the “add to cart” button.

This WFH staple ensures you do not spend the vast majority of your day sitting—which we have heard one million occasions can result in situations like poor coronary heart well being down the road. Or so we thought.

A new research¹ revealed yesterday in The Worldwide Journal of Epidemiology suggests standing desks do not truly scale back your threat of ailments like stroke and coronary heart failure.

A better have a look at the brand new research

The research included over 80,000 wholesome adults from the UK. For 2 years, individuals 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 threat of heart problems. Extra shocking? Standing extra (in contrast with sitting) would not scale back the danger of coronary heart situations like coronary heart illness, stroke, and coronary heart failure. Moreover, standing extra may truly improve your threat of varicose veins (enlarged veins) and deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot in your veins).

Standing extra would not scale back the danger of situations 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 price noting that research individuals 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 research, which implies it is displaying correlation—not causation. In different phrases, it discovered a connection between standing an excessive amount of and an elevated threat of poor coronary heart well being. This does not imply you are assured to develop a coronary heart situation sooner or later if you happen to stand an excessive amount of.

Moreover, this research attracts from UK Biobank information. The UK Biobank is a database and analysis useful resource that shops the medical and genetic information of 500,000 UK individuals for analysis identical to this research. Nevertheless, UK Biobank volunteers haven’t any earlier medical points and are not an correct illustration of the vast majority of individuals, in line with a 2017 American Journal of Epidemiology article².

The underside line

“The important thing takeaway is that standing for too lengthy is not going to offset an in any other case sedentary life-style and might be dangerous for some individuals by way of circulatory well being,” mentioned Matthew Ahmadi, a postdoctoral analysis fellow on the College of Sydney and lead research writer, in a press launch.

As a substitute of standing for a majority of your day, Ahmadi and his fellow researchers counsel you must as a substitute schedule common motion all through the day.

“Take common breaks, stroll round, go for a strolling assembly, use the steps, take common breaks when driving lengthy distances, or use that lunch hour to get away from the desk and do some motion,” Ahmadi mentioned.

These are generally known as “train breaks” or “train snacks.” You might even “microdose” health by taking fast stretch breaks, doing brief cardio bursts, busting out a couple of squats whilst you wait to your espresso to brew, and even finishing some family chores (as a result of cleansing the toilet is a critical exercise!).