Two recent studies have provided nuanced evidence on the benefits and risks of working on standing desks. While prolonged sitting is linked to higher cardiovascular disease and death risks, standing desks do not improve heart health but also do not harm it. However, excessive stationary time (sitting or standing) can increase the risk of orthostatic circulatory disease and cardiovascular disease. To maintain good health, it is recommended to balance total stationary time under 12 hours.
Two recent studies offer some of the most nuanced evidence yet about the potential benefits and risks of working on your feet.
Without question, inactivity is bad for us. Prolonged sitting is consistently linked to higher risks of cardiovascular disease and death. The obvious response to this frightful fate is to not sit—move. Even a few moments of exercise can have benefits, studies suggest. But in our modern times, sitting is hard to avoid, especially at the office. This has led to a range of strategies to get ourselves up, including the rise of standing desks.
A study published last month in the International Journal of Epidemiology offers a clearer picture of how standing desks may relate to cardiovascular health risks.
The authors, an international team of researchers led by Matthew Ahmadi at the University of Sydney in Australia, found that standing desks don’t improve heart health—but they don’t harm it, either, whereas sitting desks do. For the study, the researchers tracked the health data of a little more than 83,000 people in the UK over an average of about seven years.
Mitigating Risks
The researchers focused on two categories of health outcomes: cardiovascular, covering coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke; and orthostatic circulatory disease events, including orthostatic hypotension (blood pressure drops upon standing or sitting), varicose veins, chronic venous insufficiency (veins in your legs don’t move blood back up to your heart), and venous ulcers.
The researchers found that when participants’ total stationary time (sitting and standing) was more than 12 hours per day, risk of orthostatic circulatory disease increased 22 percent per additional hour, while risk of cardiovascular disease went up 13 percent per hour. For just sitting, risks increased every hour after 10 hours: For orthostatic circulatory disease, risk went up 26 percent every hour after 10 hours, and cardiovascular disease risk went up 15 percent.
A Study Published in January in JAMA Network Open
This study looked at the link between occupational sitting time, leisure physical activity, and death rates—both deaths from all causes and those specifically caused by cardiovascular disease. Researchers used a group of more than 480,000 workers in Taiwan, who were followed for an average of nearly 13 years.
Takeaways
-
Prolonged sitting is consistently linked to higher risks of cardiovascular disease and death.
-
The benefits of standing desks are still unclear, and more research is needed.
-
A study found that prolonged standing can have its own risks, including increased risk of orthostatic circulatory disease.
-
Another study found a link between total prolonged sitting (wherever that sitting occurs) and poor health outcomes, particularly cardiovascular disease.
Key Takeaway: Balance Stationary Time Under 12 Hours
According to the data, as long as you can keep your total stationary time under 12 hours, you can use a little standing time to help you keep your sitting time under 10 hours and avoid increasing both cardiovascular and orthostatic risks.
