Will Standing Instead of Sitting Resolve Back Pain?
Researchers and health news outlets have recently made many headlines concerning the health hazards of prolonged sitting.
Sedentary behavior is associated with increased rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and early mortality, just to name a few risks.
This is particularly concerning in light of the fact that many jobs and leisure-time activities involve sitting.
Working toward a solution to this danger, some companies, such as Google, have begun implementing widespread use of the standing desk in their headquarters.
Could the standing desk - or other adjustments to work stations that allow for regular standing - remedy other common problems, such as lower back pain? Lower back pain, one of the most common and disabling chronic pain problems, is believed by some to be one of the consequences of prolonged sitting on the job.
However, research contests that belief.
A systematic review from 2000 (Hartvigsen et al) analyzed several studies into the matter and found no correlation between sitting on the job and lower back pain.
More recently, in 2007, another systematic review by Lis et al found that sitting itself was not correlated with back pain, but awkward posture while sitting was.
What is more, a small study recently published suggests that prolonged standing may be no better for the lower back than prolonged sitting.
Doctoral student Kaitlin Gallagher and her team instructed 20 participants to alternate between 45 minutes of standing and 15 minutes of sitting while working.
They found that 55% of participants developed lower back pain while standing, and that pain decreased while participants sat.
The researchers also measured the amount of movement done by the lower back for each participant; they found that less movement corresponded with reports of pain.
Read more on Gallagher's study at http://www.
humantech.
com/blog/is-a-standing-office-workstation-the-cure-to-sitting-disease/.
Considering this study along with the two systematic reviews above, we can suppose that: 1) sitting alone is not responsible for back pain; 2) poor posture is associated with back pain; and 3) static posture is associated with back pain.
Given these suppositions, a few tentative conclusions are possible.
First, we may suppose that alternating sitting and standing is a good way to relieve pain, but that the above study's 3:1 ratio may not be ideal, i.
e.
, time should be more evenly divided between the two positions.
The study at http://care.
diabetesjournals.
org/content/31/4/661.
full suggests that the frequency of movement more so than the duration of mobility is what matters to your overall health; researchers took a host of measures from patients, including cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and waist circumference, and found that patients who had healthier measurements interrupted sedentary activity more frequently.
The total sedentary vs.
active time mattered less.
Another point to take away from the research is that posture matters.
Whatever your position, it's important to sit, stand and move with proper posture.
Active sitting, which involves the use of a destabilizing device as a seat (such as a special cushion or an exercise ball), can help promote postural awareness and correctness.
Is prolonged sitting bad for you? Yes.
Will standing all day fix your back? Probably not.
Work on your posture and find ways to incorporate more frequent movement throughout your day.
Sedentary behavior is associated with increased rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and early mortality, just to name a few risks.
This is particularly concerning in light of the fact that many jobs and leisure-time activities involve sitting.
Working toward a solution to this danger, some companies, such as Google, have begun implementing widespread use of the standing desk in their headquarters.
Could the standing desk - or other adjustments to work stations that allow for regular standing - remedy other common problems, such as lower back pain? Lower back pain, one of the most common and disabling chronic pain problems, is believed by some to be one of the consequences of prolonged sitting on the job.
However, research contests that belief.
A systematic review from 2000 (Hartvigsen et al) analyzed several studies into the matter and found no correlation between sitting on the job and lower back pain.
More recently, in 2007, another systematic review by Lis et al found that sitting itself was not correlated with back pain, but awkward posture while sitting was.
What is more, a small study recently published suggests that prolonged standing may be no better for the lower back than prolonged sitting.
Doctoral student Kaitlin Gallagher and her team instructed 20 participants to alternate between 45 minutes of standing and 15 minutes of sitting while working.
They found that 55% of participants developed lower back pain while standing, and that pain decreased while participants sat.
The researchers also measured the amount of movement done by the lower back for each participant; they found that less movement corresponded with reports of pain.
Read more on Gallagher's study at http://www.
humantech.
com/blog/is-a-standing-office-workstation-the-cure-to-sitting-disease/.
Considering this study along with the two systematic reviews above, we can suppose that: 1) sitting alone is not responsible for back pain; 2) poor posture is associated with back pain; and 3) static posture is associated with back pain.
Given these suppositions, a few tentative conclusions are possible.
First, we may suppose that alternating sitting and standing is a good way to relieve pain, but that the above study's 3:1 ratio may not be ideal, i.
e.
, time should be more evenly divided between the two positions.
The study at http://care.
diabetesjournals.
org/content/31/4/661.
full suggests that the frequency of movement more so than the duration of mobility is what matters to your overall health; researchers took a host of measures from patients, including cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and waist circumference, and found that patients who had healthier measurements interrupted sedentary activity more frequently.
The total sedentary vs.
active time mattered less.
Another point to take away from the research is that posture matters.
Whatever your position, it's important to sit, stand and move with proper posture.
Active sitting, which involves the use of a destabilizing device as a seat (such as a special cushion or an exercise ball), can help promote postural awareness and correctness.
Is prolonged sitting bad for you? Yes.
Will standing all day fix your back? Probably not.
Work on your posture and find ways to incorporate more frequent movement throughout your day.
Source...