The Stone Age meets the future

September 10 2013 by in About Diet Doctor, Health, Paleo diets

Here’s my new home office. I’ve thrown out the chair – instead I just got myself a standing desk. Why?

The Paleo Manifesto

The reason for the standing desk is the inspiring book, seen to the left on the desk: The Paleo Manifesto by John Durant. The book won’t be released until September 17th, but I got a preview copy from the author at the AHS conference recently.

I have previously read Paleo books by Staffan Lindeberg, Loren Cordain, Mark Sisson, Art De Vany and Robb Wolf – but The Paleo Manifesto is different.

The book is not only more fun to read (more eloquent and with more stories), but it’s also packed with thought-provoking ideas. Ideas that feel fresh, even though I thought I had read all about Paleo before. I recommend the book warmly – a review will be coming.

Stone Age and Present Meet

So why stand up and work? It’s not about calorie obsession. The short answer is rather that people are ill-suited to sitting down all day. Not sitting down ten hours per day may potentially provide better posture, better health, better hormonal balance, improved alertness during the day and better sleep at night. Maybe. For the long answer, I will refer to the book.

Do I feel better with a standing desk? Time will tell, but so far I love it. After a week with my standing desk I haven’t lowered it even once.

So to the obvious question: Did people have beautiful internet-connected computers with wireless keyboard and mouse back in the Stone Age? Were there any sound canceling headphones connected to Spotify? No, of course not. And for neither Durant nor me is this about reenacting the Stone Age.

It’s about using all that our modern society offers, but adapting our life to suit the bodies we were born with. To continue evolving into the future – but still being aware of our heritage from the industrial society, the agrarian society, the Stone Age and even further back to where we once came from.

The Book

Order The Paleo Manifesto

Gadget tips

The standing desk is from IKEA and is called Galant. (My desk is 160 x 80 cm).

The wonderful computer is a 27″ iMac, the latest model (don’t order now, there’ll an updated faster version this fall).

The headphones are great for those who often work with a 2-year old in the next room – or if you travel a lot by train and airplane. They effectively suppress ambient noise. If you also have music on, you’ll be totally unaffected by what’s going on around you.

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23 comments

1
Matt
September 10 2013
I switched to a standing desk about a year ago. It has made a world of difference. Never again will I use a sitting desk at work.
2
Vivek
September 10 2013 1
Hmmm. Did Ikea have to produce a special model that gets to Dr Eenfeldt's height ;-)
3
Dez
September 10 2013
I tried a standing desk at work & home but had to switch back to sitting due to concentration issues. However, it was before I lost 100 pounds so maybe it's worth a try again. I just happen to have a galant desk at work anyways and could easily switch it back... but because I'm 6'7" (200cm) I have to use concrete blocks to get the thing even taller.

Reply: #4
4
Reply to comment #3 by Dez
Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt, MD Team Diet Doctor
September 10 2013
I'm 6'7" too (202 cm) and this standing desk is perfect for me at maximum elevation. But everybody else entering my office feel like a hobbit. :)
5
Freddie
September 10 2013
I... am really glad this works for some people, but it sounds like utter torture to me. No thanks.
6
Chris Buck
September 10 2013
Good move! Mike Boyle, a strength and conditioning coach here in the U.S. wrote an article a few years ago called "sitting will be the death of you." As a trainer, one of the most common problems I have with the population I service is shoulder, neck, and lower back health from sitting in front of a computer and desk all day.
7
Greg
September 10 2013 1
So how do you type? with your arms up like a zombie? I couldn't imagine using this without a keyboard tray. Having my arms up at shoulder level just to type or bending my neck downward to see the monitor hurt more than sitting all day.
8
Galina L.
September 10 2013
It is more like a personal opinion, but I believe it is also important to sit for a while on a floor cross-legged. As people age, they loose their ability to sit in a such way and to stand-up after sitting that low. I observe it in my mother who is 76 years old, but over-vise she is in a good physical shape.
I watch TV and read sitting on a floor.
9
MargaretRC
September 10 2013
II can convert my "desk" to a standing desk any time I want (or get tired of sitting.) I'm set up on a breakfast bar in our apartment that is the perfect height for standing and working. When I get tired, I can sit down on the high bar stool that is also the right height. :)
10
Sherry
September 11 2013
Greg, I'm not sure what you think the desk is like, but imagine sitting at your desk and then standing up, and while you're standing up, the height of the top of the desk rises with you so that you're looking at your monitor at the same angle and your arms are at the same angle as when you were sitting down. Does that make sense?
11
Xotli
September 11 2013 1
While I suppose it's good, I can't imagine using it for whole 8 hours in work... I suppose good balance between standing and sitting would be best, but that probably needs pricer desk that you'll be able to rise up whenever you want.
12
murray
September 11 2013
I got my first stand-up desk about 8 years ago. It is great for reading, especially. No problem with keyboards, I just adjust the height. (Mine has an electronic height adjustment.) Even my son (now 14) took to a standup desk and most of his teachers accommodated this for the past several years at school. One of the many benefits of a standup desk is increased blood flow to the brain as compared to sitting.

Note that numerous great writers and thinkers had stand-up desks, including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Virginia Woolf and Winston Churchill. The great American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (coining legal expressions such as "Clear and Present danger" and "the marketplace of ideas') observed that nothing contributes to brevity in writing as much as tired knees. He hand-wrote all his judgments (known to be succinct) at a standup desk. (He lived into his 90s and became the longest serving justice of the US Supreme Court.) I personally find handwriting at a standup desk to be very mentally hygienic. And as Nietzsche observed, never trust a thought that comes to you while sitting.
13
Eric
September 11 2013
I looked up that desk series and the adjustability of the legs was less than I would expect to be sufficient for a true stand up desk. Unless there are other models with greater height variation, they dont look like they can get tall enough. 60-82 cm doesnt seem nearly tall enough, especially for someone of your height.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S19852113/

Reply: #14
14
Reply to comment #13 by Eric
Dez
September 11 2013
I had to add a few boxes and a keyboard stand to it to bring everything up to the right level.
15
Eric
September 11 2013
Also, at work, some of us (my desk wont support it) have raised desks they can stand at, and also tall chairs so they can alternate between standing and sitting.
16
Pedro
September 11 2013
IKEA Sweden (where the doctor is from) has more items in the Galant range. This is probably the base he used.

http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/products/90088946/

There is also this one
http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/products/70088947/
17
JAUS
September 12 2013
Sitting on a chair is not good at all. Standing, squatting and lying down are the three main stationary (natural) positions for humans. I sleep on a japanese futon (not the bloated American sofa variant), much better than any bed I have ever slept on. Modern beds are way to soft and hurt your back, a thin cotton-stuffed mattress on the floor all that's needed.

I also have been thinking about making a standing desk myself, so this is was a reminder for me to to realize that plan.

I would also like to have a Japanese squat toilet but it's hard to find them here, unfortunately. The Squatting position is the optimal position for emptying ones bowels. I have never understood those who like to sit for hours on the toilet seat, i never spend more than 5 minutes doing my business unless i have serious problems with my stomach.
18
Galina L.
September 12 2013
Jaus,
Try to buy a squatting-style toilet from Turkey, I encountered such toilets there a lot, even in airport in Antalia.
19
Tomas Blesa
September 12 2013
Is there any hard science supporting the theory that sitting is a problem? It looks like everybody here has attitude "of coarse it is problem" but where is the science? Show me please. Should I throw out my chair because of "book packed with thought-provoking ideas"? Provoking ideas are good but "high fat will kill you" was once also provoking idea.
Are there any clinical studies referenced in the book?
20
Stipetic
September 12 2013
In order to use a standing desk at work, I have to provide evidence that it is indeed healthier than sitting. Can anyone provide good articles/references to that effect? Thank you.
1 comment removed
22
murray
September 12 2013
Out of interest, I wore a heart rate monitor to work one day. This involved walking to the subway with a heavy briefcase (13 minutes), standing at work (19.5 minutes) and sitting at work (20.83 minutes). From this I calculated calories per minute. The result:

walking with briefcase: 2 kcal per minute
standing: 1.85 kcal per minute
sitting: 1.44 kcal per minute

So standing burns almost as many calories as walking. Little wonder standing jobs have lower rates of diabetes. Presumably the extra burn would help lower blood sugar into normal range, especially after eating a breakfast bagel or muffin upon arriving at work. (It's been many, many years since I did that.)
23
Stormy
September 12 2013
Well, I'm a nurse on a busy medical floor and find that I stand for 10 hours or more but not necessarily by choice. I also walk a LOT in my job peppered with a lot of squatting, stooping, and moving of human bodies (lol). I used to be a sedentary secretary and would have loved to have a standing desk now that I feel so much better in my current, "standing up all the time" career.
24
Michelle
September 15 2013
I have to sit as I am inherently lazy. I walk around 6 miles a day and do some strength training, however; I live to sit.

The Stone Age meets the future

The Paleo Manifesto

Stone Age and Present Meet

The Book

Gadget tips

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23 comments

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