If it wasn’t already clear through common sense, it’s become painfully clear through science that sitting all day is terrible for your health. What’s especially alarming about this evidence is that extra physical activity doesn’t seem to offset the costs of what researchers call “prolonged sedentary time.” Just as jogging and tomato juice don’t make up for a night of smoking and drinking, a little evening exercise doesn’t erase the physical damage done by a full work day at your desk.

In response some people have turned to active desks—be it a standing workspace or even a treadmill desk—but the research on this recent trend has been too scattered to draw clear conclusions on its benefits (and potential drawbacks). At least until now. A trio of Canada-based researchers has analyzed the strongest 23 active desk studies to draw some conclusions on how standing and treadmill desks impact both physiological health and psychological performance.

IKEA

What they found, broadly speaking, is that both types of active desks reduced sedentariness and improved mood without introducing too many workflow complications. More specifically, treadmill desks offered greater health benefits than standing desks did (hello, weight loss), but seemed to interfere more with productivity—at least initially. The researchers published their findings in a recent issue of the journal Preventive Medicine.

“Overall, current evidence suggests that both standing and treadmill desks may be effective in improving overall health considering both physiological and mental health components,” they conclude. Here’s a deeper look at what the researchers found.

FluidStance

The evidence sheds light on how active desks impact three measures of physiological health.

Baseline. On some baseline physiological measures, such as energy expenditure, both types of active desks showed clear benefits over sitting. Three studies of standing desks found that, on average, participants had an average heart-rate increase of more than 8 beats per minute. Not surprisingly, the impact of a treadmill was even greater here: in two studies, participants walking about 1 mph at their desk showed an average heart-increate of more than 12 beats a minute.

Cardiometabolic. Only one study has looked at how standing desks impact clinical metabolic risk factors; it found that a standing workstation could increase HDL cholesterol—aka “good” cholesterol. The encouraging evidence was a bit stronger for treadmill desks. In one study, participants spent nine months using a walking desk instead of their traditional sitter, and registered significant reductions in both total cholesterol and LDL (i.e. “bad”) cholesterol.