Exercise
Benefits of Exercise for your Liver
Exercise is not only good for your overall health but is also good for your liver. Regular exercise is key to a healthy liver, it increases energy levels and helps prevent obesity – which is a risk factor for liver disease and liver tumours.
Exercise will help you maintain a healthy weight, keep you fit and agile, make you feel better and can be as sociable as you wish.
Exercise helps to reverse non-alcoholic fatty liver and diabetes, one of the fastest growing causes of liver disease. Exercise reduces the amount of fat in your liver and can also help with weight loss.
Safety when starting exercise
Sometimes patients with liver disease can get muscle wasting, from prolonged hospitalisations or inactivity so it is important to build up your exercise tolerance slowly and sensibly. A good rule of thumb is to increase your output by no more than 10% per week and to stop increasing for a while if you experience any pain or problems.
Exercise Guidelines
It is recommended that adults get 150 minutes of moderate activity a week (at least 30 minutes x 5 days, you don’t have to do the 30 minutes in one go) as well as strength and endurance training.
What is moderate activity?
When you feel your breathing and heart rate have increased but you are able to talk, and you get slightly warm, examples include:
Brisk walk: a mile in 15-20 minutes
Swimming medium pace
Cycling slower than 10 miles/hour
Dancing
General Gardening and digging
Tennis (doubles)
Final tips
Do not exercise while under the influence of alcohol or new drugs.
Take professional advice if you have had recent surgery, had complications such as ascites, bleeding or encephalopathy, not exercised for a long time following an illness or started new medications.
Try and find an exercise you enjoy with company if you like, as you are more likely to keep it up and continue to reap the benefits
Eat a small snack with both carbohydrate and protein soon after exercise to
replenish your muscle glucose, but do eat sensibly, as overindulging in processed and fatty foods will reduce the benefit of any exercise you have taken.
Good luck- and most of all Enjoy!
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