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Comment by blueside | Hacker News Reader

I switched to a standup desk 5 years ago. I got a dog 3 years ago. I don't sit anymore and she forces me to take her for two walks almost everyday.

I don't exactly have more energy and I don't feel like I'm going to live forever, but I have noticed I am aging slightly slower than my colleagues who are forced to sit down in their offices for over 12 hours a day.

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How can you notice something like this?

Start having your telomeres measured annually, before and then after switching from one lifestyle to the other.

...and then get your sitting colleagues to get theirs measured and compare? Come on.

Yep. I am not much into workouts and such, but I got a dog couple of years ago and the daily walks + other outdoor activities I do with the dog certainly improved my life and also my health.

Can you really notice aging of yourself and others who you work with over a period of just 5 years? My coworkers look largely the same (to me) as they did 5 years ago, just with different hair styles. And I'm even less capable of noticing any age related differences in myself over a five year period.

Not OP, but, yes. I'm regularly mistaken for being 5-7 younger than I am. I notice differences when I look at many high school friends. These differences weren't apparent 5-6 years prior, but they grow more visible with the passage of time.

And it's not everyone. Some people hardly look different from high school. Other looks five years past their biological age.

> I'm regularly mistaken for being 5-7 younger than I am.

But that's other people judging your age. When you look in the mirror can you say you look different than you did 5 years ago in the area of age? Can you then extrapolate a level of your own aging over a period of 5 years and compare it against your own coworkers, given what they look like to you now versus what they looked like 5 years ago?

Oh. Yes, I notice some differences. At least, from photos, compared to now. And a few small skin things have appeared in that time.

And like I said, I have friends that didn't strike me as looking older than me that now I find do look older than me. Liver spots are a very visible one: some of my friends now have these. Creases around the eyes are another. I have some when I smile, others have creases in permanence. (And other friends the same age don't.)

Of course, it can be hard to separate aging vs. sun damage (that affects nothing deeper) vs. weight gain. All of those make a person look older.

It's the same thing for me, although I am not active at all. I even get carded when buying beer (I have been able to buy beer in Norway for 18 years now).

When i was in Mexico last summer people kept asking what I ate and how I stayed so young. I don't do shit!.. Well I don't eat meat more than once or twice a week but I don't think that has anything to do with it.

Personally I believe that most of this stuff has to do with genes rather than exercise but, but I don't doubt that if you exercise moderately you will live longer than your genetic baseline.

Yeah, I think genetics does have a lot to do with it. My family tends to be long lived and young looking.

After that it's mostly avoiding smoking, alcoholism, junk food, weight gain and chronic stress. (Actually, during my most stressed period, people were guessing my biological age)

Standing desks not really good for you. Just a fad. (F Google amp too)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl...

An article that concludes "the benefits of standing desks may be overstated" isn't really the same thing as "standing desks [are] not really good for you."

Personally I can say that I've enjoyed the transition. My posture has improved greatly. I have a lot less back/shoulder tension and pain. I find myself naturally more inclined to take breaks and walk around, which has many benefits of itself. It took some getting used to but I often spend ~6 hours a day standing instead of sitting.

If you're going to conclude that standing desks are "just a fad" I would hope that you have better evidence than that.

If you are going to ask someone to find evidence, I would hope you ask them to find evidence that can even exist.

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