Posted by: Kevin G. Parker, D.C.
Written by: DANIEL ENGBER-NY TIMES 3-2014
Standing desks are nothing new.
Nor is their use as therapeutics.
Recent studies may warn that time spent sitting correlates with heart disease and early death, but such worries go back centuries.
“A sedentary life may be injurious,” the Presbyterian minister Job Orton advised in 1797.
“It must therefore be your resolute care to keep your body as upright as possible when you read and write; never stoop your head nor bend your breast. To prevent this, you should get a standing desk.”
The Swiss physician Samuel-Auguste Tissot had earlier outlined some ailments brought on by too much sitting: Deskbound intellectuals, he wrote, suffered from poor circulation and engorgement of their innards.
Bad posture and lack of exercise made them susceptible to dropsy and hemorrhoids.
While Tissot prescribed a regimen of tennis, badminton and croquet to combat these effects, others advocated standing work.
In 1836, the American minister and professor of rhetoric Ebenezer Porter argued that the standing desk was a good remedy for “those who have the animal vigor to sustain the exhaustion it occasions.”
Office life in the 19th century involved much less sitting than it does today.
A self-help book from 1858 suggested that professionals practice penmanship on their feet — since “nearly half” of all business writing was done at standing desks.
Inventors of the era filed patents for bureaus that could be adjusted with cranks.
Yet by the mid-20th century, the practice had grown rare enough to seem an eccentricity.
Upon visiting Ernest Hemingway in the mid-’50s, George Plimpton noted that he kept his typewriter on top of a bookcase and stood while he wrote, even though he had a “perfectly suitable desk in the other alcove.”
Today’s adjustable desks — with counterbalanced, spring-loaded or electric-powered designs — are much easier to elevate than older, hand-cranked models.
But it’s not clear that they will improve our health.
While the dangers of sitting are well documented, says Alan Hedge, professor of human factors and ergonomics at Cornell University, too much time on your feet may cause a different set of health problems, including varicose veins and musculoskeletal injuries. (Many people who use standing desks end up leaning awkwardly as they work, he argues.)
In any case, mobile devices could mitigate the need for better office ergonomics.
“It’s really the Internet that allowed you to get information without moving a muscle,” Hedge says. “But if you’re using your smartphone or tablet, chances are you’re not sitting at your desk.”
Related articles:
SITTING RISK-DISABILITY AFTER 60-Jr of Physical Activity and Health 2014
Stand Up Work Stations-The Real Science-2013
Sitting Is the New Smoking-Things to do to help yourself
Stand Up Work Stations and Treadmill Desks
Your office chair is killing you
Sitting-Is Your Office Chair Killing you? Menshealth 2010
Sitting-The Most Dangerous Thing You’ll Do All Day-Mens Health 2011
Sitting-Can sitting too much kill you? Scientific American Jan 2011
Sitting-Is Sitting a Lethal Activity? The New York Times April 14 2011
Nerve Supply of the lumbar disc-JBJS 2007
Healing Time of Soft Tissue
Back Pain-Insider Secrets revealed-San Fran Gate 2012
A New Gatekeeper for Back Pain
Fish oil-Neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers
Exercise Makes Us Feel Good-NY Times 2011
Gluten Free Diet helped Nerve Pain-Neurology 2010
Inflammation-13 Tips To Fight Inflammation
Laser Therapy in Rehabilitation-Irvine California
Muscle Trigger points vs Acupuncture points
Neck pain-Journal of the American Board of Family Practice 2004
Nerve ingrowth into chronic painful disc-Lancet 1997
Omega 3’s-Molecular Neurobiology-January 2011
Omega 3′s and Nerve pain-Clinical Journal of Pain 2010
Sitting-Can sitting too much kill you? Scientific American Jan 2011
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