Standing longer than sitting does not improve cardiovascular health and may even increase the risk of standing-related circulatory problems, such as varicose veins and deep vein thrombosis, say researchers at the University of Sydney.
It was perhaps a little naive to think that with only small gestures like changing from sitting to standing, without really increasing physical activity, we would reduce or prevent cardiovascular events just with that, emphasizes cardiologist Josep Iglesies-Grau, of the Montreal Heart Institute.
After studying some 83,000 members of a British biobank, the study authors report that they observed a linear association between increased risk of orthostatic circulatory disease and increased time spent standing, with no protective association for risk of cardiovascular disease.
After around ten hours a day, they continue, we observe a deleterious association between the increase in time spent in a sitting position and the increased risk of orthostatic circulatory disease and cardiovascular disease.
They say this challenges current intervention strategies, which focus only on replacing time spent sitting with time spent standing without increasing physical activity.
This is indeed the obvious conclusion, confirms Dr. Iglesies-Grau.
It is not possible to improve your cardiovascular health without moving, even for a few minutes at a time, since a person can be very active and very sedentary at the same time. A quote from Josep Iglesies-Grau, from the Montreal Heart Institute
Nothing replaces physical activity
It is clear that [travailler debout au lieu d’assis] is not a real solution, he continues. The real solution is to change something else.
Sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity are two different things, reminds Dr. Iglesies-Grau. An individual who spends 10 hours a day sitting is sedentary even if he does an hour of physical activity every evening, he illustrates.
The best strategy to combat a sedentary lifestyle therefore consists of interspersing the working day with small active breaks: getting up to stretch, walking while chatting with a colleague, using the stairs rather than the elevator, traveling by bike, going down a stop bus or metro earlier to walk a little… The cumulative effect of all these minutes of activity should not be overlooked, says Dr. Iglesies-Grau.
The best thing is to reduce the time you spend sitting as much as possible. This is a reflection that we must all make personally: how can I change my routine? A quote from Josep Iglesies-Grau, of the Montreal Heart Institute
The findings of this study were published in the journal International Journal of Epidemiology (new window) (in English).
