by Dr Daniel Lewis, Rheumatologist

Sitting has actually joined smoking and obesity as an important risk factor for chronic disease. There are now 24 different chronic diseases and conditions associated with excess sitting.

Most of us sit for more than 5 hours per day. If you are an office worker, truck driver, web surfer or a doctor it could be 12 hours per day! It is long hours of sitting that cause molecular changes in the body and what is disturbing is that these changes are not reversed by short bouts of exercise. Going to the gym a few times per week does not reverse these metabolic changes. This fact will come as a surprise to many.

Research is now showing that people who sit for the longest periods of time are twice as likely to have diabetes or heart disease, compared to those who sit fewer hours. Sitting time is a predictor of weight gain among women and probably for men as well.

Extended sitting slows your body’s metabolism. To counter balance this retarded metobilic state, standing and movement burns more calories and contributes to weight control. This starts within 90 seconds of standing up.

The evidence is now very strong that standing ticks many of the “good healthy choice” boxes. The scientist who has done most of the research is Dr. James Levine, who has written the book Get Up!: Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It. He’s also co-director of the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Obesity Initiative and the inventor of the treadmill desk. How much a person moves is a good indicator of the risk of being overweight.

So give it a go for 3 months.

Start by increasing your standing time gradually. It is important to maintain good posture while standing as this increases the core abdominal muscle tone. The goal is 10 minutes every hour.

Stand up wherever possible.

Here are my top tips

  1. Do what the Italians do and stand up for your morning cup of tea or coffee.
  2. If you travel to work by public transport, train or tram….. stand up.
  3. When making phone calls, stand up.
  4. Switch from typing while sitting to using voice activated software and stand up while doing all your e-mailing and word processing documents.
  5. While waiting for anything…. stand up.
  6. Stand to read a newspaper or a magazine.
  7. When having a casual conversation with anyone…. do it standing
  8. Convert your desk to a standing desk or do as I have done, purchase a custome made desk. See photo.

As of Jan 2016 I have been standing for all my office work for 12 months. This has reducrd my risk of heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and all-cause mortality.
There has been an improvement in my biomarkers ( triglyceride, cholesterol levels and waist circumference.)