⚡ Get All Content for 20% Off ⚡

Here's Another Scary Reason to Get Off Your Butt and Move When you do this for too long too often, and you're likely doing it now, you could seriously damage this essential organ.

By Kim Lachance Shandrow

entrepreneur daily

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Shutterstock

You might want to stand up for this. Sitting on your keister for too long too often not only increases your risk of obesity, heart attack, diabetes and even cancer -- it also wreaks havoc on your liver.

A recent study suggests that remaining seated for extended stretches of time -- at your desk, in front of the boob tube, on a plane, a train or anywhere -- puts you at considerable risk for liver disease. Specifically, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), for which no standard treatment currently exists. We don't like the sound of it either.

The sobering news, published in the Journal of Hepatology, comes out of Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in South Korea. There, researchers found that study participants who loafed on their duffs for 10 or more hours per day had a nine percent higher risk of developing NAFLD than those who sat around for fewer than five hours per day.

Related: Don't Let Too Much Sitting at Your Desk Harm Your Health

If you're an average American worker (we sit down and work about 13 hours a day), this could be your wakeup call. Hello?! Sitting is the new smoking. You should know that by now.

Equally depressing is that the findings also indicate that routine exercise alone probably isn't enough to counteract the health risks of being a total couch (or office chair) spud. Now it appears that sitting less is just as important to squashing "Sitting Disease" as is regularly as breaking a sweat.

Upwards of 140,000 Korean men and women, with an average age of 40 years old, participated in the study. Of those, 35 percent were diagnosed with NAFLD via ultrasound.

Related: Cubicles Were Originally Designed to Set Us Free and Now They're Slowly Killing Us

With so few medications available to treat the disease, the best prescription for now is busting a move. A total of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, or 10,000 steps a day, should do the trick, says Michael Trenell. The professor of metabolism and lifestyle at Newcastle University in England penned an editorial that appeared alongside the study in the Journal of Hepatology.

Lest you forget how important your trusty liver is, here's a quick refresher. The large, rust-colored gland, tucked away in the upper right section of your abdomen, is the biggest solid organ in your body. Get up off your seat and show the big daddy some respect because it's a purifying powerhouse that works triple duty. It dutifully strains toxins out of your blood, stockpiles energy in the form of glycogen and pumps out a key digestive liquid called bile. When the liver fails, well, you don't even want to know.

To avoid finding out in the worst way, don't take the startling study findings lying down. Stand up and fight "Sitting Disease" like so:

Stand up to work.

There are plenty of standing desks to choose from, even leaning and "breathing" desks. If you (or your boss) won't spring for any of those, get crafty and improvise. Simply place your computer or laptop on a tall counter or table, stand tall and get cranking.

Related: In This Vision of a Healthier Workplace, Sitting Is Not Allowed

Walk and talk.

Get up and stroll around when you take calls in the office, obviously on a cordless phone and ideally without disturbing your coworkers.

Meet on the move.

Hold walking meetings. You'll squeeze some calorie-burning cardio into your busy day and simultaneously team build in a fun, active way. Twitter's Jack Dorsey, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Entrepreneur's own Steve Tobak are sold on this growing trend. Steve Jobs was also a fan of the moving meeting.


Toil on a treadmill.

Working on a treadmill desk (or on a standard treadmill rigged to hold a laptop) does double duty. Requiring mental and physical agility, it works your mind and your body. What's more, one recent study showed that working on treadmill can actually boost your productivity. To minimize the risk of injury, please tread lightly.

Pose like a yogi.

Open up and say om and do some light yoga at your desk. Stand up and bend, twist and stretch once or twice an hour. Doing so improves circulation, chases away tension, poor posture and the blues. No yoga mat required. To get started, try these simple, restorative desk asanas, courtesy of Yoga Journal. Who knows? Maybe you're coworkers will wonder why you're impersonating a pretzel and join in the fun.

Whatever you do, get up, stand up. Stand up for your life.

Related: 8 Tips for Staying Healthy in an Open Office

Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist at Los Angeles CityBeat, a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times. She has also written for Government Technology magazine, LA Yoga magazine, the Lowell Sun newspaper, HealthCentral.com, PsychCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at @Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebook here

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Side Hustle

The Remote Side Hustle a 43-Year-Old Musician Works on for 1 Hour a Day Earns Nearly $3,000 a Month: 'All From the Comfort of Home'

Sam Ziegler wanted to supplement his income as a professional drummer — then his tech skills and desire to help people came together.

Leadership

Former Interrogator Shares 5 Behaviors Liars Exhibit and How to Handle Them

Five deceptive behaviors to look for and how to respond to those behaviors when you encounter them.

Marketing

Ever Wonder Why Certain Websites Rank Higher Than Yours? This SEO Expert Reveals The Secret to Dominating Search Results

It's often the smart use of SEO, now supercharged with AI, particularly in keyword optimization.

Business News

AI Is Impacting Jobs. Here Are the Gigs Affected the Most, According to an Analysis of 5 Million Upwork Postings

The researcher said in the report that freelance jobs were analyzed first because that market will likely see AI's immediate impact.

Business Ideas

55 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.