Do you ever feel bad for people who have to stand up all day at work? Waiters and waitresses, retail employees, really any job having to do with manual labor, those people have it rough. They come home from work not just mentally exhausted, but physically exhausted as well. That’s not to mention the sore feet, sore necks, sore backs and the host of other possible problems to deal with after spending 8 hours of your day with nothing to hold your up but your own two feet. Having been one of the many people who have to work jobs where standing is a requirement, I have to admit I am glad to have graduated to an office job with a nice chair for me to sit in while I work.
That is, I was glad, until I read this article.
After tracking over 200 thousand Australian adults for 3 years one study found that spending 11 or more hours a day sitting down increased your chances of death by 40%. Makes you feel less bad for those people forced to stand up, huh?
Now, I have to point out that this study found no direct link between sitting for most of the day and death, just that death and inactivity are very strongly correlated. This could just as well mean that people who are sick, or close to death are a lot more likely to be sitting than healthy people, which seems to be a reasonable assumption. Sitting down obviously isn’t bad for you, it’s just that getting up and getting some exercise can be extremely good for you, and if you don’t do that, you’re missing out. That strong a correlation between inactivity and death certainly makes me want to go out for a jog.
I think the most striking thing about this kind of study is what it means for our society as a whole. More and more of the jobs that require manual labor and activity are disappearing and more and more technology related jobs are being created. The biggest difference between those two types of work is the change from a standing up to a sitting down position. Combine that with the fact that typing on a computer keyboard is the leading cause of carpal tunnel syndrome and I’m almost convinced these desk jobs aren’t such a good idea after all. What’s going to happen when a whole generation of people who never had to work a physically demanding job grows up? Are we going to die younger? Are all of these people typing away at computers all day going to suffer from debilitating pain in their hands? Without jobs that require it, are people going to make the effort to be physically active enough to remain healthy?
It has to make you a little jealous of our baby boomer grandparents, who are likely to live well into their 80’s. Many of them worked jobs that involved hard labor, and many of them are still healthy enough to be living on their own. Especially considering the Medical Alert technology available to them.
