Standing Healtier than Sitting

[barbitu8]

Marilyn von Savant stated in her column published today that sitting at work is healthier than standing, stating that prolonged standing causes an additional load on the circulatory system, thus increasing the progression of carotid artery disease and the risk of varicose veins.

Huh? I would think a stress to the blood circulation (arising from a stress to your heart) would be beneficial. I’ve read that prolonged sitting is bad for the cardiovascular system. People are advised when flying to get up and walk occasionally. Your cardiovascular system needs some stress.

[Tigers2B1]

@barbitu8

Marilyn von Savant stated in her column published today that sitting at work is healthier than standing, stating that prolonged standing causes an additional load on the circulatory system, thus increasing the progression of carotid artery disease and the risk of varicose veins.

Huh? I would think a stress to the blood circulation (arising from a stress to your heart) would be beneficial. I’ve read that prolonged sitting is bad for the cardiovascular system. People are advised when flying to get up and walk occasionally. Your cardiovascular system needs some stress.

As I recall she didn’t say walking but standing - as in standing at attention. I think walking does have health benefits. Not so sure about standing.

[Stinky_Pete]

It’s not as if you need to choose one or the other. Healthiest is to keep changing it up. If you’ve been sitting for an hour then healthiest thing to do is get up and move around for ten minutes and then resume sitting for another hour.

If you’ve been standing in one spot for an hour then have a seat for ten minutes and then resume standing.

Also there are other parts of your body (feet, back, digestion, eyes, etc…) that will benefit from you changing your position.

[Tigers2B1]

And specifically she was talking about standing while working versus sitting while working.

[Nava]

Wouldn’t it depend on what other things are doing and your general health? My mother for example hurts a lot more after a few minutes of standing still than if she’s either sitting or moving.

Note that AFAIK the lady with the improbable lastname and even more improbable story behind it isn’t any kind of expert in ergonomics.

[DSeid]

@Stinky_Pete

It’s not as if you need to choose one or the other. Healthiest is to keep changing it up. …

Well yeah.

She’s not completely nuts. There’s a good body of research that demonstrates that prolonged standing at work has harmful impacts. (Review here.) But that is in reference to “long periods of time without being able to walk or sit during the work shift” with shifts of 8 hours or more.

Conclusions in that review:

… In reviewing the studies examining the effectiveness of interventions, we concluded that dynamic movement appeared to be the best solution for reducing risk of these health problems due to prolonged standing …

… Workplaces should not be static. Work should be designed so that the worker can adopt various postures during the work. For example, the worker should be able to walk around rather than stand in one place, or a sit-stand chair/workstation should be provided. Also, workers should be encouraged to modify their posture so that they mix sitting, standing, leaning, and use of a foot rail or footrest as much as possible. …

But note that any representation Savant makes that such risks of prolonged standing are overall worse than the risks of prolonged sitting for similar lengths of time, let alone represent head to head matched comparisons, are (to the best I can find) completely unfounded.

[aceplace57]

Standing is healthier at work?

Try telling that to to the sex worker. She slipped and broke her back.

[Hari_Seldon]

All I know is that I can walk for two hours without ill effects, but I can’t just stand for much over 5 minutes without feeling pain (in my back, mainly, but also legs).