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Comment by jalanco | Hacker News Reader

This story keeps popping up on HN and elsewhere. And the common solution I've read is "Please, just get a standup desk!" as if standing up and not moving is healthier than sitting and not moving. I've seen no study that supports that conclusion. I think the message should be: moving is healthier than not moving, which is hardly news.

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http://health.yahoo.net/experts/menshealth/most-dangerous-th...

"British researchers found that (sitting) bus drivers were twice as likely to die of heart attacks as (standing) trolley operators."

The idea is that bus drivers and trolley operators are similar in all the other important respects (e.g. socio-economic backgrounds).

My father was a bus driver and he had a heart attack in his late 50s. The number of men he worked with who also had heart attacks was staggering. When he visits the hospital for his regular check-ups he always meets other bus drivers. It's really quite alarming.

Diesel fumes?

British bus drivers are often overweight.

This study does support that conclusion, which is why it's interesting. The authors explicitly control for physical activity in their analysis, so you have to argue, as I do in another post, why they are doing that wrongly in order to continue to uphold the "it's all activity levels" view.

Even standing still burns 10-50 calories more per hour, depending upon your physiology. That adds up in a full day. Standing up also engages muscles that are important in maintaining good balance and keeping your skeletal structure properly aligned.

Sitting is qualitatively different than standing without moving: http://www.anh-usa.org/too-much-sitting-killing-us/

Standing keeps postural musculature (those you use to keep balance upright) active. So even standing still is way more activity than simply sitting where postural muscles just do nothing.

I wonder whether "active sitting" [e.g., sitting on a ball, or just sitting correctly (upright, instead of leaning on the back of the chair -- imagine sitting upright on a chair without the back)] has the same negative effect.

I sit on a yoga ball when I'm at the computer. It's a dramatic improvement over sitting on a stationary object or using a standing desk. The constant need to balance has strengthened my core and the freedom to make the tiniest adjustment means I'm always comfortable and less likely to experience fatigue. Sitting in any kind of chair feels weird now. It's such a different experience, I can't believe it would have a similar negative effect. I wish I had started years earlier, but like any activity, it's important to take regular breaks and include exercise in your lifestyle.

i personnaly think it's a "standup desk" seller conspiracy

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