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Are we underestimating sitting and standing?

J

JayAmerican

Well-Known Member
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This might sound nutty but hear me out, I thought I noticed 1 correlation to deviant blood sugar but now I have 2 correlations.

I posted in another thread how I noticed a correlation with my stress levels and the blood sugar levels, in ways that were irrelevant to my eating times. I am leaving out dawn phenomenon in this observation, that is it's own thing.

Times of day I was at work or just getting home from work, high blood sugar (190-220). Times of stress (usually work induced but sometimes other stuff) also high blood sugar 200+. Times I was most relaxed, working in the garage, or outside for a bit, lower levels 150-160 but still high just not AS HIGH.

Today I got home from work, 199, no surprise there, and I ate a decent keto meal (chicken, veggies, garlic sauce, hummus, water) and between eating and testing my blood again I had a lengthy phone call that was somewhat stressful and drove out some agitations. Shortly after, I tested my levels thinking that between the 199 reading and getting agitated for most of the time between that and eating, I would have expected to see ~225. Nope, it was 160. Wait, what? Then, I sat at the computer to do some work that I find relaxing. Only thing I ate was berries and nuts. 3 hours after doing this I re-checked thinking my levels would be about the same, 160. Nope, had shot up to 236. Wait, what?

I had to think for a bit at this complete opposite expectation and looked through my readings and tried to grasp at some more dominant correlation and it finally hit me. The times at night I work in the garage I'm not being particularly exercised, just standing and moving around. The times I am at work, I m most often sitting. The times at night I test higher than expected I am sitting for the 2-3 hours before and the times I test low I've been standing most of the time. On the weekends, I the average of my testing is lower. On the weekend after some morning stress on Sunday which tested me high, I ate a meal and tested lower AFTER the meal but it wasn't due to de-stressing - the 2 hours before I went around the house to catch up to chores which isn't heavy duty stuff but it is standing most of the time.

Now I need to figure out what I can do at work to stand most of the day and test this more concretely. Can anyone else see if their observations of their own blood testing might match? Especially times when you got a high reading when expecting a lower one & also the reverse - low when you expected high. Was the difference potentially how much before testing you happened to be sitting vs standing?
 
Two things spring to mind @JayAmerican

I try and avoid hummus as it spikes me, so wonder IF it just spikes you much later.

On the standing front.
As I understand it, simply standing and bearng our own weight, is making the muscles work and so they scream out for more glucose to burn, so good for us.

I believe it was the Swedes who first came to the realisation, that standing to work was better than sitting, Google standing desks or tables if you want more ideas.
 
I'm just a passerby who tests their own blood sugar due to hypochondriacism, and after eating an ultra high protein meal like the one you did (in my case it was pulled lean pork that had not been drenched in any sort of fat) my blood sugar got stuck about a mM higher than before (low 5s), and I don't know if it ever decayed into my usual range of high 3s through the entire 4s because I ran out of strips. I do also know that drinking a lot of coffee, tea or chocolate can push my ISF sugar down to the high 2s mM-blood-equivalency, and coffee & tea always give me adrenergic symptoms that I associate with hypoglycemia.
 
Yeah, sitting for too long and levels will be higher.... moving about, walking, cleaning or whatever, just fiddling around the house and they don't go as high. Noticeably lower. I do believe sitting is a bad thing when done for long periods of time. Especially after eating.
 
Hummus can be carbs and the fat can delay absorption. But yes, moving and standing is better than sitting.
 
Thanks, I do get that sitting is worse than standing, I just didn't realize for me how much it made a difference. It seems to impact even more than stresses. I've estimated that sitting increases my post-meal tests by as much as 40 mg/DL - that's a whole 2% of A1C. I plan on getting a standing desk soon and will make my work let me get one for my office - if it makes that much of a difference and I can't exercise while I'm working or need to be in front of the computer, at least I can try to stand as much as possible!
 
Notwithstanding the comments people have made relating to find, if you have a look at the work of Dr Joe Henson (an example is here - https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/1/e014267 ), he has done some fascinating work on the topic, to the extent that many of those working at the Research Centre where he is based, not work with rise and fall desks, to allow for productive standing during the working day.
 
Thanks for the link DCUKMod. I will try to keep notes when testing of what % of the time I was standing for the 2-3 hrs before and what level of stress I was experiencing.
 
Can you go for a walk during your lunch break?
Walking is even better than standing.
 
Watch out for carbs from legumes such as the hummus - it is higher carb than I would eat anyway, but carbs from legumes seem to cause a higher spike than I'd have expected, and numbers can be higher for hours, even into next day.
Not everyone sees this, but others have reported the same effect.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Can you go for a walk during your lunch break?
Walking is even better than standing.
Click to expand...

Given my job it is hard, but I think I will have to force it. I manage the critical operations of my company's IT infrastructure and I will have to simply establish it as an expectation that I need to walk after lunch for 20-25 minutes (about 1.5 miles at my normal pace). I am also considering getting a standing desk (pay for it myself) and make work toss out my current desk setup. That way I can stand while doing work but still be able to sit when that gets tedious. I live in California so the weather helps most of the time if I can do this.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Can you go for a walk during your lunch break?
Walking is even better than standing.
Click to expand...

LittleGreyCat and JayAmerican - I'm not challenging that walking is very good for our health, however, and I do go from memory on Joe Henson's work, that the major benefit from the standing elements considered to be due to the deployment of the major muscle groups, involved in going from sitting to standing. I seem to recall that he found material changes to some subject's blood sugar values from standing 10 minutes a hour.

As a result of that presentation (and because it's really easy, and unobtrusive for me to do), I now ensure when at home, working, if I need to use the loo, I use one upstairs, if I am on the ground floor, and vice versa.

It's also a great excuse for copious cups of tea - all that standing and walking to put the kettle on.

For me, having looked at that work, it's just about incorporating practical steps (yes, intended) to move a tiny bit more in my day-to-day living.
 
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Mine are irrelevant as my autistic son has me stressed whether I'm sitting, standing or in deep sleep. Of which he cannot help. It's for me to cope with and absorb the stress less or disburse the upset asap after his night terror for instance. I still don't get used to being startlingly awoked by his distress. It's work in progress!
In fact if I'm standing my adrenaline is already pumping in anticipation. So sitting reading etc is where I'm less stressed and prepared for him. Although I haven't stopped and tested to prove my theory.
 

The standing I was talking about is nothing to do with stress.

The work done by Dr Joe Henson at Leicester was purely focused on blood sugar readings. As you would expect elements of his study were done in a controlled environment at the Research Centre.

Patients ate and drank in their normal ways on the days leading to and after their attendance.
 
My view is that standing is good and so is walking.
If you can do both then there is the prospect of gaining some BG improvement and also perhaps some stress relief.
Having worked in IT I am well aware that in my particular case going out of the office for a walk over lunch time contributed a great deal to stress reduction.
Fresh air and a different view can work wonders.
 
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