Now that I get up from my chair every 30 minutes and walk about, a new study says standing while at work is equally dangerous.
Our cat sleeping next to my writing table gets startled as I push back the chair and stand up. It complains in his sleep, arches his back, yawns widely, turns round and round, gets back to the original position in his basket and goes back to sleep.
Wonder whether cats get diabetes if they do not exercise and walk, I thought to myself as I walked about the apartment while dodging the maid with her noisy vacuum cleaner.
Incidentally, the maid, who also cooks for us, refuses to make brown rice for me and made a sour face when I told her it is good for her health. Basmati rice, the polished white rice is the grain of choice of many people in the south of the country and for those who love mutton biryani.
“Matta” rice or “red rice”, the healthier non-polished variety, is looked down upon by many Indians. “It’s because of the texture,” said my wife, as this variety of rice does not puff up and the fact that it takes longer to cook and maybe because that would consume more fuel and ruin the monthly budget.
Back to standing and a Canadian study has found that the risk of heart disease was higher among those who mainly stood on the job, compared to those who just sat, such as journalists who sit and stare at their computer screens for hours, and other professionals working in the knowledge economy.
Whatever happened to deep vein thrombosis while sitting in planes and doing those ridiculous exercises, I wondered. I remember doing the tippy toes movements on a long-haul flight like a deranged ballerina while my seat mate, who obviously does not read the health section in airline magazines, looked at me in wonderment as he sipped his beverage.
“It says here your job is dangerous,” I told my wife, who is a teacher and spends long hours on her feet, in class. “Maybe you should get yourself a chaise lounge, like the Romans, who would loll about whenever they were invited to a banquet to dine on quails, partridges and chicken tikka masala,” I said.
“While you are lolling about and teaching, your students should be given treadmill desks and they can work on their assignments while treading,” I said.
“And what will you do? Lie supine on the couch and watch Netflix all night,” my wife retorted.
The other professions that are detrimental to your health are chefs, cashiers and machine tool operators, who stand for four or five hours at a time, said the study.
Leg swelling
I had seen supermarket staff at the check-out counters work horrendous hours while standing, in the Arab Gulf states, before the shift system was introduced. In Bengaluru you can see hordes of sales staff just standing and waiting, for customers.
Why standing for long periods is bad for you is because of things like blood pooling in your legs, the pressure on your body to pump blood back to your heart from the legs. That can increase stress and high chances of a risk of heart disease, the study notes.
An ergonomics researcher in an Australian university, believes that while working from a standing position is good for you as it burns more calories, alleviates neck and shoulder stress and improves concentration, standing for long hours will swell up your legs.
It will also give you ugly varicose veins and she warns that pregnant women should never stand for prolonged periods as it may result in pre-term births.
She believes the ideal office would allow employees to work in both a sitting and standing position and to be able to switch as easily as possible.
Mahmood Saberi is a storyteller and blogger based in Bengaluru, India. You can follow him on Twitter @mahmood_saberi.
