1 week Ago By Gretchen Reynolds
Sitting for long hours is bad for our health. Standing up may not be much better, though. A large new study of more than 83,000 adults found standing for more than two hours a day – as many people with standing desks do – didn’t protect against the cardiovascular risks of too much sitting .
Those hours of standing also turned out to have their own downsides, increasing people’s likelihood of developing serious circulatory problems, including varicose veins, abnormally low blood pressure and blood clots, compared with people who rarely stood. “ Standing is generally better than sitting,” said Matthew N. Ahmadi, a research fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia, who led the new study.
But by itself, it’s not enough to make us healthier. To improve your overall health and lower your risk of heart disease , you have to mix in actual movement, he said. In other words, to undo the health risks of sitting, a standing desk alone isn’t enough.
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