Since January 21st, 2011, I’ve been opting to stand at work instead of sitting in my usual cubical.

Why? Don’t the new generation sit too much these days? We sit at work, we sit when we eat, we sit watching our TVs, we sit in the car, we sit during social events, etc.

Prolonged sitting is bad for your health. Scientist and medical experts believed that sitting is not great for you and your brain. I’m not saying that sitting will kill us but research shows that long bouts of sitting causes serious physiological responses related to chronic disease and a shortened life span. The University of Queensland found that people who stood up frequently had lower levels of C-reactive protein (a marker for blood fat). They also had smaller waistlines. It was the frequency of standing not the duration that counted.

One study found that a woman’s risk of developing metabolic syndrome increased 26% for every extra hour of sitting. Prolonged sitting in an upright position can strain your back resulting in chronic pain. Blood clots are another risk of being inactive. None of this is good for your brain.

Periods of standing throughout the day can improve circulation, muscle tone, and vitality. Standing up benefits the lean and overweight alike. Standing up frequently keeps blood flowing free to your head. So the better the heart functions, the better your brain works.

I’ll leave you with a video that shows you how bad sitting does to our health and also an infographic recently created by http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org/

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX4EaslPW0w]