standing at your desk vs. sitting

[Chumly]

Jeff,

Do you know of any studies regarding standing at your desk vs. sitting? It's becoming more common to have workstations modified so one can stand or even walk at a slow pace rather than sit. I would be interested to hear your views.

Michael

[JeffN]

Jeff,

Do you know of any studies regarding standing at your desk vs. sitting? It's becoming more common to have workstations modified so one can stand or even walk at a slow pace rather than sit. I would be interested to hear your views.

Michael

The data supporting the benefits of being more active, including standing vs sitting, is very good, and I think a standing desks is fine, as long as it works for someone.

However, I am very leery of how well these treadmill desks (as opposed to standing desks) will work out and there are already some small preliminary studies showing concerns. It's one thing to stand & work. It's another to try and be walking on a treadmill & work.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 35048.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19953838

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20415158

In the end, these are all just attempts to find ways to be more active, which for many, is also a way to compensate for their excess calories and unhealthy food choices. However, until we learn to adopt a truly healthy diet, I don't see these as true solutions.

In addition, the amount of activity that is really required to achieve all the health benefits we get from exercise is not that much and could be accomplished in ~30 (- 45) minutes, 5-6 days/wk. I think we really need to re-evaluate our lives and our priorities if we can't make the time for that.

http://www.jeffnovick.com/RD/Q_%26_As/E ... ences.html

As an alternative, I think the above mentioned concept of intermittent walking/activity, is a much more viable, safer & healthier option then a treadmill desk to increase active non-sitting time, if needed. See below for more info


In Health
Jeff

Intermittent Walking

Here is some more information you may find helpful on Intermittent Walking.

Over the last few years, there have been several studies done on what I call, Intermittent Walking, which I have spoken about in a few discussions in this forum and elsewhere.

This is the practice of getting up and going for a brief period of walking (or other activity/exercise) throughout the day. I mentioned that when I worked a desk job, I used to get up every hour and go walking around the location for about 5-10 minutes. (It also helped me to think clearer)


1) Breaking Up Prolonged Sitting Reduces Postprandial Glucose and Insulin Responses

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... df/976.pdf

"Overweight/obese adults (n = 19), aged 45–65 years, were recruited for a randomized three-period, three-treatment acute crossover trial: 1) uninterrupted sitting; 2) seated with 2-min bouts of light-intensity walking every 20 min; and 3) seated with 2-min bouts of moderate-intensity walking every 20 min. A standardized test drink was provided after an initial 2-h period of uninterrupted sitting. The positive incremental area under curves (iAUC) for glucose and insulin (mean [95% CI]) for the 5 h after the test drink (75 g glucose, 50 g fat) were calculated for the respective treatments.

"Interrupting sitting time with short bouts of light- or moderate-intensity walking lowers postprandial glucose and insulin levels in overweight/obese adults. This may improve glucose metabolism and potentially be an important public health and clinical inter- vention strategy for reducing cardiovascular risk."

The walking speed for the light intensity was 2 mph and for the moderate-intensity was about 3.7 mph.

2) Postmeal Walking Significantly Improves 24-h Glycemic Control in Older People at Risk for Impaired Glucose Tolerance

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/conten ... 4.abstract

Inactive older (≥60 years of age) participants (N = 10) were recruited from the community and were nonsmoking, with a BMI <35 kg m−2 and a fasting blood glucose concentration between 105 and 125 mg dL−1. Participants completed three randomly ordered exercise protocols spaced 4 weeks apart. Each protocol comprised a 48-h stay in a whole-room calorimeter, with the first day serving as the control day. On the second day, participants engaged in either 1) postmeal walking for 15 min or 45 min of sustained walking performed at 2) 10:30 a.m. or 3) 4:30 p.m.. All walking was on a treadmill at an absolute intensity of 3 METs."

(NOTE: This is about 2.5 mph)

"Moreover, postmeal walking was significantly (P < 0.01) more effective than 45 min of sustained morning or afternoon walking in lowering 3-h postdinner glucose between the control and experimental day."

3) Breaking prolonged sitting reduces postprandial glycemia in healthy, normal-weight adults: a randomized crossover trial

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early ... 3.abstract

"Seventy adults participated in a randomized crossover study. The prolonged sitting intervention involved sitting for 9 h, the physical activity intervention involved walking for 30 min and then sitting, and the regular-activity-break intervention involved walking for 1 min 40 s every 30 min."

"Regular activity breaks were more effective than continuous physical activity at decreasing postprandial glycemia and insulinemia in healthy, normal-weight adults."

So,

While they all looked at different protocols and different end points, the main message is the same, and that is that Intermittent Walking (getting up and walking either once or a few times every hour for a few minutes) and getting up and walking after a meal for 15 minutes are both helpful in controlling daily and post prandial blood sugars without requiring great effort.

In Health
Jeff

[JeffN]

ABSTRACT
Sitting Time, Fidgeting, and All-Cause Mortality in the UK Women’s Cohort Study
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2015.06.025

Abstract

Introduction
Sedentary behaviors (including sitting) may increase mortality risk independently of physical activity level. Little is known about how fidgeting behaviors might modify the association.

Methods
Data were from the United Kingdom (UK) Women’s Cohort Study. In 1999–2002, a total of 12,778 women (aged 37–78 years) provided data on average daily sitting time, overall fidgeting (irrespective of posture), and a range of relevant covariates including physical activity, diet, smoking status, and alcohol consumption. Participants were followed for mortality over a mean of 12 years. Proportional hazards Cox regression models estimated the relative risk of mortality in high (versus low) and medium (versus low) sitting time groups.

Results
Fidgeting modified the risk associated with sitting time (p=0.04 for interaction), leading us to separate groups for analysis. Adjusting for covariates, sitting for ≥7 hours/day (versus <5 hours/day) was associated with 30% increased all-cause mortality risk (hazard ratio [HR]=1.30, 95% CI=1.02, 1.66) only among women in the low fidgeting group. Among women in the high fidgeting group, sitting for 5–6 hours/day (versus <5 hours/day) was associated with decreased mortality risk (HR=0.63, 95% CI=0.43, 0.91), adjusting for a range of covariates. There was no increased mortality risk from longer sitting time in the middle and high fidgeting groups.

Conclusions
Fidgeting may reduce the risk of all-cause mortality associated with excessive sitting time. More detailed and better-validated measures of fidgeting should be identified in other studies to replicate these findings and identity mechanisms, particularly measures that distinguish fidgeting in a seated from standing posture.


MASS MEDIA ARTICLE

If you're sitting down, don't sit still, new research suggests
September 23, 2015

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-09-youre-dont.html

New research suggests that the movements involved in fidgeting may counteract the adverse health impacts of sitting for long periods.

In a study published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a team of researchers, co-led by the University of Leeds and UCL, report that an increased risk of mortality from sitting for long periods was only found in those who consider themselves very occasional fidgeters.

They found no increased risk of mortality from longer sitting times, compared to more active women, in those who considered themselves as moderately or very fidgety.

The study examined data from the University of Leeds' UK Women's Cohort Study, which is one of the largest cohort studies of diet and health of women in the UK.

Study co-lead author Professor Janet Cade, from the School of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Leeds said: "While further research is needed, the findings raise questions about whether the negative associations with fidgeting, such as rudeness or lack of concentration, should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health."
Even among adults who meet recommended physical activity levels and who sleep for eight hours per night, it is possible to spend the vast majority of the day (up to 15 hours) sitting down.

The study builds on growing evidence suggesting that a sedentary lifestyle is bad for your health, even if you are physically active outside work.

Breaks in sitting time have previously been shown to improve markers of good health, such as body mass index and your body's glucose and insulin responses. But until now, no study has ever examined whether fidgeting might modify an association between sitting time and death rates.

The University of Leeds' UK Women's Cohort Study gathered information on a wide range of eating patterns of more than 35,000 women aged 35 to 69 who are living in the UK.

The new study analyses data from a follow-up survey sent to the same women, which included questions on health behaviours, chronic disease, physical activity levels and fidgeting. More than 14,000 responses were received.
Study co-lead author Dr Gareth Hagger-Johnson from UCL, who conducted the data analysis, said: "Our results support the suggestion that it's best to avoid sitting still for long periods of time, and even fidgeting may offer enough of a break to make a difference."