Be warned: Standing desks may not be good for you after all

A standing desk might seem like the solution to spending more time on your feet if you work in an office, but it might be doing more harm than good, a new study has found.

Not only can they can slow down people’s mental capacity at work but they can also cause lower back and leg pain as a result of swollen veins.

The new research, published in the Ergonomics journal, warns that there is little evidence to support working at a standing desk, and that they can actually have an adverse effect on health.

Carried out by Curtin University in Australia, the study saw 20 people working at standing desks for two hours.

After around an hour and a quarter their ability to respond to tasks slowed down and their lower body began to ache.

However, their “creative” decision making was shown to marginally improve after the period of time.

Professor Alan Taylor, a physiotherapy expert at Nottingham University, told The Telegraph: “The bottom line is that this expansion has been driven more by commercial reasons than scientific evidence.

“But the evidence is catching up and it’s showing there are some drawbacks.”

He suggested that instead of standing and working at a desk, we should make an effort to move around the office more.

“Get up, go and make a cup of tea or coffee – don’t just stand there,” he said.

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