Standing desks may be bad for your health, study suggests. Being on your feet for more than two hours a day may increase the risk of developing problems such as deep vein thrombosis and varicose veins, and standing for too long does not offset an otherwise sedentary lifestyle.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/16/standing-desks-may-be-bad-for-your-health-study-suggests
13 Comments
I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/53/6/dyae136/7822310
From the linked article:
Standing desks may be bad for your health, study suggests
Researchers say stand-up working could increase chance of developing swollen veins and blood clots
They have been billed as the ultimate antidote to sitting in front of a screen all day at the office. But a study suggests standing desks, which have soared in popularity in recent years, do not compensate for being inactive and may even increase the risk of conditions such as swollen veins and blood clots in the legs.
Research involving more than 80,000 adults in the UK has also discovered that standing does not reduce the risk of diseases such as stroke and heart failure, despite the widely held belief that it does.
The study, led by the University of Sydney, found that being on your feet for more than two hours a day may increase the risk of developing problems such as deep vein thrombosis and varicose veins. The findings were published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.
Dr Matthew Ahmadi, of the University of Sydney’s faculty of medicine and health, said people who sat or stood for long periods should schedule regular movement throughout the day.
“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. We found that standing more does not improve cardiovascular health over the long-term and increases the risk of circulatory issues,” Ahmadi said.
makes sense, we were meant to be in motion, not just standing.
Can’t sit, can’t stand
It’s almost as though being alive will kill you
I have a standing desk in my office. I don’t just stand there. I pace around a bit. It’s natural, to me anyway, to move around some once I’m stsnding.
Most standing desk….also double as regular desks though. They have dual purpose from the crowd that sit all day long. I really don’t think the majority of people who have the ability to turn their desk into a standing desk are doing it full time.
The only negative this study found is “The team found that for every extra 30 minutes spent standing beyond two hours, the risk of circulatory disease increased by 11%.”
The idea is that you sit up, stand up, move around for a bit. Not just stand still for a whole day. The issue that holding any one position for too long is unhealthy, it’s not sitting _specifically_ that’s a problem.
Guess ill learn to float?
Presumably people who stand all day at a checkout or on a sales floor have the same risks as users of standing desks. Nothing is good for you if you do it 40-60 hours a week.
To me, any fitness benefits were always secondary to saving my back from office chairs and poor ergonomic setups. Vericose veins are pretty minor compared to a bulging or ruptured lumbar disk.
With a good standing desk you have the option to change levels and positions as you work, while a sitting desk locks you into one configuration.
It’s almost as if we’re not meant to be working on computers the whole damn day.
Phew! Glad I don’t need to use a standing desk. I tried and hated it
Bruh you all just told me not to sit. Now I’m not supposed to stand. But I’m also not supposed to lay down.
Standing causes DVTs but also sitting. But also laying down.
As someone with a history of DVT, can these foos make up their mind already?!?!
Can’t sit and now can’t stand. Guess I’ll just die.
Standing desk + treadmill on slow walk speed is the way to go.