It’s the cry of a generation of researchers: “Sitting will kill you! Get up! Stop sitting!”
As a result, standing desks have become all the rage, with the belief that this will magically solve the problem.
As it turns out, the answer isn’t that simple. A new study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology found that sitting isn’t responsible for increased mortality—at least, not entirely.
Standing, as it happens, is just as bad as sitting if you don’t move while you’re doing it.
16 years’ worth of health data across 5,132 people was gathered for this study, and accounted for time spent sitting at work, watching TV, leisure time, and non-TV leisure time. They also tracked activity levels.
What they found was that sitting didn’t really seem to influence their mortality at all.
In fact, they argued that the kind of sitting doesn’t matter at all. As study author Melvyn Hillsdon put it, “Our study overturns current thinking on the health risks of sitting and indicates that the problem lies in the absence of movement rather than the time spent sitting itself. Any stationary posture where energy expenditure is low may be detrimental to health, be it sitting or standing.”
It’s any kind of sedentary activity that’s damaging. According to the study authors, standing desks may not even really be a solution.
“Policy makers should be cautious about recommending sitting reductions without also recommending increases in physical activity,” say the authors.
What are better solutions? Some say that the solution is for those with an eight-hour work day to take breaks for activity for two hours total each day.
Whether or not employers agree will be another battle entirely.
