Sitting’s most damaging impacts, though, are on the cardiovascular system, and while it seems plausible standing would lessen or reverse those effects, there hasn’t been much evidence. So, for the new study, published in October in the International Journal of Epidemiology, scientists at the University of Sydney and elsewhere pulled records of more than 83,000 men and women who had joined the UK Biobank study.

These records included extensive information about everyone’s lifestyles, health and daily habits and how they had moved throughout a typical day, based on a week’s worth of data from a wrist-worn activity tracker.

Using a sophisticated algorithm that analysed these movement patterns, the researchers could then tell whether someone was sitting, standing or in motion during every waking minute of their days.

The researchers next checked medical databases in Britain to see whether these same people had died from or been hospitalised for a cardiovascular problem in the seven years or so after they had joined the biobank. (All participants gave permission for this access.)

Finally, the scientists cross-checked movement patterns against medical outcomes, looking for links between people’s sitting and standing and serious heart conditions, such as heart disease, heart failure and stroke, or circulatory problems, including venous ulcers, varicose veins and blood clots.

Sitting and standing are both a problem

The links were there, especially for sitting. People who sat for more than 10 hours a day – which was, in fact, most people – were at least 13 per cent more likely to have developed serious heart problems in the intervening years than people who sat less. They also had about a 26 per cent higher risk for circulatory disorders.

Standing wasn’t much of a solution, though. If people stood for more than two hours a day, their risks of circulatory problems rose by at least 11 per cent.

Standing for more than two hours a day didn’t increase risks for severe heart problems, compared with people who stood less. But it didn’t lower the risks, either. Perhaps most important, while the study didn’t directly compare the heart impacts of sitting versus standing, “there was no improvement” in heart health associated with standing, Ahmadi says, “and most people probably want their health to get better”.

“What our research and other literature suggest is that both sitting and standing are part of the problem of physical inactivity,” says Emmanuel Stamatakis, a professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at the University of Sydney, who oversaw the study.

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Standing involves few muscular contractions, Stamatakis points out, and “muscular contraction is a necessary condition for any activity to maintain or improve health”.

Otherwise, as you stand still, blood flows through your legs sluggishly at best and often pools there, potentially contributing to circulatory disease. You also barely raise your heart rate, which is necessary to improve cardiovascular health.

Given all this, the supposed health benefits of standing over sitting have been “hugely exaggerated”, Stamatakis says.

Try moving every half hour

The good news is that it’s easy to make things better. Just move, both Stamatakis and Ahmadi say. Stroll around your office for a few minutes every half hour or so. Take a break and hurry up and down the nearest stairs. Or slip in some discreet squats while you remain standing in place at your desk. Sit down, stand up, sit down and stand again. “Transitioning frequently from sitting to standing is a good idea,” Stamatakis says, “as there will be some muscular contractions while doing that.”

This study is unlikely to be the last word on sitting and standing, of course. It’s not an experiment, so it doesn’t show that sitting or standing causes us to develop health problems, only that they’re linked. It also involved mostly white, relatively affluent Brits who chose to join the Biobank.

Still, it’s a useful wake-up call. “Standing, by itself, won’t lower the risk” of heart problems or other conditions associated with sitting, Ahmadi says. “It also won’t increase the risk, which is good.” But to make yourself healthier, you need to move around.

Washington Post

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