Friday, February 24, 2006
Making Work More Work
Filed under: Public Health
Studies show that employees who keep moving are thinner and healthier than those who sit around all day. So, an endocrinologist has developed a system to keep workers on their feet (with nothing but benevolent ideals, of course):
Levine is a leading researcher of NEAT - short for "non-exercise activity thermogenesis" - the calories people burn during everyday activities such as standing, walking or even fidgeting.A recently published study he led showed that thin people are on their feet an average of 152 more minutes a day than couch potatoes. Levine was brainstorming ways to address that 2 1/2-hour NEAT deficit a few months ago when he had the idea for the "ultimate office makeover."
"The response has to be appropriate for the magnitude of the problem," he said. "And so we really thought, 'Is there a completely different way of working?'"
Within four weeks, his team developed an alternative to the traditional cubicle - workstations that combine a computer, desk and treadmill into one unit. It was a refinement of a desk Levine created for himself about six months ago.
Some medgadget editors (namely, the anesthesiologist) may interpret this news differently than others (the intern in the emergency room).
Either way, when people call work "a rat race," we didn't think they had treadmills in mind...
More from the NEAT lab...
(2)
