Everything will kill you, eventually. Pay enough attention to media reports and you’ll discover that consuming just about anything will lead to your early demise. You’ve upgraded your diet and added lots of broccoli? Be careful, because too much will lead to kidney issues. Brown rice is your new staple? Watch out, that stuff can contain a lot of hidden heavy metals. Enjoy a glass of red wine with dinner? That’s great, but don’t let it go beyond that. You’ve switch over to a more Mediterranean-styled diet? Good for you, but don’t overdo it on the pasta. That stuff’ll kill ya!
For a long time I’ve thought that the biggest threat to our health just might be reports about it. It seems like every day there’s a new study published that adds another deadly entry to the list. Ingestion of said food stuff might be an issue, but the stress induced by the report might be worse. Can hand-wringing be fatal?
This rapidly-encroaching health minefield isn’t restricted to food intake. There have been many recent reports talking about how bad it is to sit down for long time periods, basically saying that the entirety of the white collar world is doomed to die of early heart disease, stroke, and general malais. Great, so we slog our way through college, sit through a pile of interviews with self-important twerps, land that job that we think of as the start of our career…and it’s going to lead to an early exit from the planet? Gees, my guidance counselor never told me that!
A couple of days ago I listened to an interview with writer Susan Orlean, who has revitalized her work day by obtaining a “treadmill desk.” This is exactly what it sounds like: a treadmill, but in place of the swank monitoring display there is a nice writing surface, perfect for your laptop computer. Many benefits were touted of this arrangement. It is apparently great for concentration and pushing aside Internet buffoonery, or so says Orlean. A caller came on the line saying that he no longer had the “2 PM lows” since he’d begun to stand during his work day. I always thought this “low” had something to do with a too-heavy lunch, no? In any event, the caller was excited about how his work life had been transformed.
Recently I’ve had the opportunity to work at home for several days per week. All of these reports on the health benefits of standing while working have made me more than a little curious. So…starting today, I will be working while standing up. It will be interesting. I’m not sure that my feet will be up for over eight hours of this, but we’ll see. What I do know is that no matter how comfy the couch may seem, I get up from it and there are aches and pains that didn’t exist previously. Hmmmm…maybe those reports about sitting are onto something!
If it doesn’t work out, I can always just take a seat and have a glass of wine, eh?
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