Prolonged sitting isn’t good for your health – but is prolonged standing any better? Experts think not
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If you’ve read somewhere that sitting down is the new smoking, here’s news: Standing might not be the health booster you hoped for.
According to a new study on over 83,000 participants from the UK, prolonged standing may not improve heart health and could, instead, increase the risk of circulatory issues such as varicose veins.
The study’s aim was to examine the duration of daily sitting and standing with the association of cardiovascular disease (or CVD; including coronary artery disease, heart failure and stroke) as well as orthostatic circulatory disease (OCD), which counts orthostatic hypotension, varicose veins, chronic venous insufficiency and venous ulcers.
WHAT THE STUDY FOUND
To collate data on their daily activity such as identifying their body positions (sitting or standing), the participants – average age of 61 and almost evenly split down the middle in terms of gender – wore tracking devices on their wrists for more than 16 hours a day, every day, for almost seven years.
