TAKING A STAND IS GOOD FOR YOU

offices in Sweden, Denmark and Germany, and it’s slowly catching on here. But is sitting down for long periods of time really that bad? Here’s how experts say it can affect different areas of the body and our overall health. A different number and volume of muscles are involved in sitting compared to standing. When we stand, more muscles are engaged and stretched to fight gravity and bear weight. GP Dr Clare Morrison from MedExpress says: “Sitting down for too long can lead to muscle atrophy in the leg and gluteal areas. Essentially, the body is ‘shutting down’ while sitting, and there is little muscle activity. This means muscles become weaker and weaker. Sitting down can also cause hip flexor muscles to shorten, leading to problems with the hip joints.” It’s thought that excessive sitting causes the metabolism to slow down. Which Dr Morrison says “can affect the ability to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure. But sitting could also mean you take in more food than you need as well.

Dr Dimitrios Paschos, consultant psychiatrist at Re:Cognition Health, says: “You’re more likely to eat unhealthy food when you stay at your desk, which can not only affect health in the long term, but also impair your concentration later on in the afternoon, and you might suffer from lethargy. We also tend to eat faster when at our desks, which means the stomach doesn’t have enough time to send signals of fullness to the brain, causing us to overeat.” This won’t come as a surprise, but we were designed to move and sit up straight. “Not many people will have their desk set up correctly