Frequent standing may boost heart health after menopause

Study suggests that taking short standing breaks can improve health even if total sitting time stays the same

The simple daily habit of standing up more often may impact heart health for postmenopausal women who are overweight or have obesity, according to a new study published in the journal Circulation. The researchers found that women who increased daily sit-to-stand movements saw measurable improvements in blood pressure.

 “These are exciting findings because they provide evidence for a specific, real-world approach to improve cardiovascular health by changing sitting habits,” said senior author Dori Rosenberg, PhD, MPH, an investigator with Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI). “This helps fill an important gap in the research.”

Public health messaging urges people to sit less but doesn’t specify the best ways to do this, explained first author Sheri Hartman, PhD, a professor with the University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. “Our findings suggest that while sitting less was helpful, interrupting sitting with brief standing breaks — even if you don't sit less — can support healthy blood pressure and improve health,” she said.

The Rise for Health Study, a randomized controlled trial, evaluated approaches for changing sitting behaviors and examined the physiologic impacts on blood pressure and blood sugar levels among 388 postmenopausal women whose body mass index (BMI) indicated they were above a healthy weight. Postmenopausal women often spend their waking time sitting, putting them at higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, and premature death.

To compare the different approaches, researchers randomly assigned study participants into 3 groups:

• Sit less group: Try to sit less during the day by standing more.
• Sit-to-stand group: Focus on rising from a sitting position more frequently.
• Control group: Not asked to change their sitting habits but received general health tips.

Interestingly, after 3 months, neither sitting less nor standing up more often was associated with a significant improvement in blood sugar, though few study participants (less than 9%) had diabetes. And, while the “sit less” group cut sitting time by 75 minutes per day and showed some improvements in blood pressure compared with the control group, these improvements did not meet statistical significance.

Women in the “sit-to-stand” group increased the number of times they stood up by an average of 25 times per day and lowered their diastolic blood pressure by 2.24 mmHg more than the control group. While not reaching a clinically meaningful change (3 to 5 mmHg), this measurable decrease demonstrates that, within just 3 months, increasing sit-to-stand behavior can lower diastolic blood pressure.

The researchers suggest that additional improvements may require more than 3 months to take effect, so they have now submitted a new grant to evaluate both behaviors over a longer period in older men and women.

“What excites me most about this study is that women set their own goals and made a real difference in their sitting behaviors. With a little coaching, we can teach ourselves to sit less and it makes a tangible difference to our short- and long-term health,” said coauthor Andrea LaCroix, PhD, distinguished professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and affiliate investigator with KPWHRI. “Adapting real-world interventions that are easy, realistic, and aligned with our personal goals — such as stand up from sitting 25 extra times per day, like 2 times per hour over 12 hours — may be doable for so many of us.”

Adapted from a press release by Yadira Galindo with the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science.​​​​​