A sedentary lifestyle has been known to cause heart disease, obesity, diabetes - and now, liver disease.
A new study by Dr. Seungho Ryu, professor of occupational and environmental medicine at Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in South Korea, has found that sitting for more than 10 hours a day increases an individual's risk of developing Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD).
"The amount of time spent doing sedentary activity such as sitting at a computer or watching TV has increased dramatically in recent years." Now, "more than half of the average person's waking day involves sedentary activities," said Ryu, according to Live Science.
"Our body is designed to move, and it is not surprising that sedentary behavior, characterized by low muscle activity, has a direct impact on physiology," wrote Michael Trenell, a professor of metabolism and lifestyle medicine at Newcastle University in England, in an editorial accompanying the study published in the Journal of Hepatology, reports Fox News.
Records of approximately 140,000 Koreans were studied as part of the research. The Korean version of the international Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form was used to assess physical activity level and sitting time. An ultrasonography was conducted to test the presence of fatty liver. Of the people studied, nearly 40,000 had NAFLD.
"We found that prolonged sitting time and decreased physical activity level were positively associated with the prevalence of NAFLD in a large sample of middle-aged Koreans," said lead author Ryu.
"Our findings suggest that both increasing participation in physical activity and reducing sitting time may be independently important in reducing the risk of NAFLD, and underlines the importance of reducing time spent sitting in addition to promoting physical activity," added Dr. Yoosoo Chang, according to Medical Express.
