The Stone Age Meets the Future
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.
More
Do You Want Great Teeth? Eat Paleo
The Paleo Movement of a Hundred Years Ago
Top 17 Low-Carb & Paleo Doctors with Blogs
Were Our Ancestors Meat Eaters Millions of Years Ago?
P.S.
*/ Support link. Order via Amazon using this link and I’ll get a referral fee. You’ll pay exactly the same amount.
I have no financial ties to the other companies mentioned above; IKEA, Apple and Spotify.
I watch TV and read sitting on a floor.
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.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S19852113/
http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/products/90088946/
There is also this one
http://www.ikea.com/se/sv/catalog/products/70088947/
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.
Try to buy a squatting-style toilet from Turkey, I encountered such toilets there a lot, even in airport in Antalia.
Are there any clinical studies referenced in the book?
Here is just one example from Dr.Mercola website - http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/23/verniko...
If you don't want to sign to his web-site]
"Research by the NASA scientist responsible for monitoring the astronauts, shows your body declines rapidly when sitting for long periods"
"Dr. Joan Vernikos, former director of NASA’s Life Sciences Division and author of Sitting Kills, Moving Heals, presents a simple yet powerful scientific explanation for why sitting has such a dramatic impact on your health, and how you can simply and easily counteract the ill effects of sitting. -
Simply standing up over 30 times a day is a powerful antidote to long periods of sitting and is more effective than walking"
here is another one - http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/05/14/sitting...
"
Men who were sedentary for more than 23 hours a week had a 64 percent greater risk of dying from heart disease than those who were sedentary less than 11 hours a week, according to a 2010 study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
A study of more than 17,000 Canadians found that the mortality risk from all causes was 1.54 times higher among people who spent most of their day sitting compared to those who sat infrequently.
Sitting time is a predictor of weight gain, according to a study of Australian women, even after accounting for calories consumed and leisure time physical activity, such as exercise time.
The risk of metabolic syndrome rises in a dose-dependent manner depending on your "screen time" (the amount of time you spend watching TV or using a computer). Physical activity had only a minimal impact on the relationship between screen time and metabolic syndrome.
People who use a computer for 11 hours or more a week, or watch TV for 21 hours or more a week, are more likely to be obese than those who use a computer or watch TV for 5 hours a week or less."
Usually his posts are well-referenced.
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.)