Hi,
I’ll tell you what I personally think the answer is ten sentences down. But first, read the intro for some important context:
What’s a health hack?
Let’s define a “health hack” as a simple change that can significantly improve the health of most people, while being relatively low cost and easy to adhere to.
Out of thousands of possible health hacks, most don’t fit the above criteria. For example:
- Drink lemon water in the morning: See detailed explanation here.
- Avoid blue light before bed: Adherence is tough. It’s mighty tempting to be on your phone late or binge one more episode.
- Any diet: No healthy diet is easy-peasy for most people to adhere to in the modern world of unlimited hyperpalatable food availability.
- Supplement protocols: Supplement efficacy is a crapshoot. Costs add up over time, and people often forget to take them.
The Oscar for Best Health Hack goes to …
… the acclaimed half-Chinese half-French actor, Stan Ng-Desque!! (Most often professionally credited as Standing Desk.)
Pan to George Clooney clapping heartily, then pan to Stan’s acceptance speech.
I’d like to thank the Academy. But more importantly, I’d like to thank my homies Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, for advancing our understanding of electricity.
You see, standing desks were used throughout antiquity in the form of lecterns or manually adjusted desks, but only when electronic height controls became cheaper in recent decades did standing desks become really popular.
I’d also like to thank the DIY community. They’ve suggested cheap or free ways to try a standing setup if you’re not sure about buying a premade standing desk yet.
Finally, none of this would be possible without the legions of ergonomists who pushed for standing desks at large companies. Their efforts accelerated public awareness and product development by desk companies.
For years, ergonomists have preached a message of prevention and variation: prevent overuse and imbalance injuries by varying your position throughout the workday. Don’t stand all day, don’t sit all day, and take microbreaks if you can.
And that’s where the magic of electronic controls comes in: switch positions with a tap of a button and unlock potential benefits. Mixing in some standing throughout your day may help prevent cardiovascular disease, plus burn an additional 50-60 calories a day.
Before the announcer forces me off the stage, I want to give a shout out to my favorite health website, Examine. They don’t sell standing desks or any physical product. They just want you to funnel your effort and money toward things that are most likely to help your health, based on the latest evidence and critical thinking.
Thanks for the ringing endorsement Mr. Ng-Desque! You sure seem like a stand-up guy! I do want to add a little note to what he said though.
Not everyone can or should stand for longer periods. Talk to your healthcare providers to get personalized advice.
Some people can’t stand most of the time or at all, and some people use a wheelchair some or most of the time. Adjustable desks could still be helpful in these cases, for example as a way to make wheelchairs fit better with desks. Again, talk to your healthcare provider.
I know this email format was a little silly. Don’t hesitate to reply back to let me know if you liked or hated it. Format aside, I earnestly think many of you without standing desks could benefit health-wise by getting one or trying a free or cheap temporary setup.
Think about how much time you spend sitting in a static and possibly hunched position, every single day for years, then think about whether your body is likely to respond well to that as you age.
Billions of dollars are spent on supplement and diet trials. Our fish oil database alone has 148 trials so far. If I were pulling all the strings, even though it might not be great for Examine’s revenue, I’d move a big part of that money towards investigating cheap and free things like DIY standing desks that (I’d guess) are waaaaaaaay more likely to have body-wide health benefits.
I’ve mentioned in the past that I grew up in a family hovering slightly above the poverty line. So studies on free and cheap interventions in populations who really need them appeal to me more than studies helping biohackers figure out how to optimize even further, even if those are interesting too!
If this email spurs you to mix in more standing and you end up benefiting, do consider replying to me with your story. Sixteen years of joint issues from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome led me to try various work station adaptations, like tented or fully split keyboards, vertical mice, touchscreens, voice dictation, and so on. I love hearing about how alterations help others, and it makes me feel like we’re all in this together. 🙂
Sincerely,
Kamal Patel
Co-founder, Examine