Job seekers sit as they prepare for a career fair. ( (REUTERS/Mike Segar) ) Recent studies have issued dire warnings about what sitting for long periods of time can do to a body, reminding those who work out that they’re equally at risk as a couch potato.

The American Journal of Preventive Medicine threw out all kinds of scary words in a series of studies done in October 2010. Obesity. Diabetes. Heart disease. All because a person has a desk job.

And now, colon cancer has been added to the list.

New research from the University of Western Australia found that working a desk job for more than a decade makes a person 94 percent more likely to develop a “tumour in the area of the lower bowel called the distal colon.”

Every year, almost 40,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer, while more than 16,000 die. The common causes have always been diets high in fat and red meat, a high consumption of alcohol, and unlucky genes. Now, a sedentary work day has been added to the long list.

And even if a desk job doesn’t kill you (forget colon cancer, heart disease is an incredible 54 percent more likely for desk workers), there’s always a life of obesity, muscle stiffness, poor balance, lower-back, neck, and hip pain to look forward to.

But a Milton-esque work space doesn’t have to kill you.

Stretch at your desk. Do yoga after work to get the kinks out. Get a standing desk. Or, even better, a treadmill desk. Or just quit your job and become a bike messenger, already.