Sitting all day has been found by some researchers to be as bad for your health as smoking, however new office equipment technologies are seeking to counteract this by changing the way people do business.
Physiologist Michael Joyner, M.D from the leading non-profit research centre the Mayo Clinic, argues that lack of exercise should be regarded as a medical condition in what he has dubbed as 'sitting disease'.
Obesity expert also from the Mayo Clinic, James Levine agrees with his colleague and compares inactivity and sitting in particular, as being as hazardous to your health as smoking.
Dr Levine told American network NBC, "All of a sudden if you take that historical view of this, you realise we're living in a completely different way to how we were designed. I mean it is inconceivable that we were ever going to be a group, a population, a species sitting on our bottoms all day long. We're just not meant to do that. So is it a surprise that the consequences are devastating? No.”
According to Dr Joyner, one way to combat 'sitting disease' is to set a timer to remind workers to stand every hour however a simpler and more long term solution is to look at ways to improve the work environment to encourage activity.
One company which has come up with a solution is Ergomotion with their new Electric Height Adjustable Desks.
Guy Topolansky, managing director of Ergomotion said that the health and economic benefits of standing for part of the day are clear.
"Getting people off their chairs and allowing them to stand for parts of the day have been shown to have many benefits. We would like to think that the workplace would become a more dynamic, healthier and more productive environment, which is good for the user but just as good for Australian business."
Topolansky added that the ease of use with the desk moving at the simple touch of a button is another advantage of the Electric Height Adjustable Desks.
"People could use any desk in any part of the building as they could adjust every desk to suit themselves and not be stuck in one place."
He added, "We have found that if the adjustment is hard or cumbersome to do, the desk does not get adjusted. Being electric our desk are easily adjusted from sitting to standing at the touch of a button."
Inactivity has been found in studies to be a leading contributor of Type Two diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers (breast and colon).
However Dr Joyner said that a small amount of activity built into your day can contribute to greatly reducing risk of disease and shortened lifespan.
