People Who Watch Too Much TV Are Twice As Likely To Die Early

I think just about everyone knows by now that watching TV for extended periods of time is not good for you. That is from a mental perspective, because a lot of things on TV are hardly stimulating for your brain, and from a physical perspective, because sitting still for hours on end is bad for your body. However, some research from the American Heart Association suggests it could be a lot worse than we think. The evidence indicates that people who watch TV for more than three hours on a daily basis put themselves at risk: they are statistically twice as likely to die an early death than those who do not watch more than three hours on a daily basis. The strong claims made by the American Heart Association are based on data collected from monitoring 13284 individuals whose average age was over 37 throughout an 8.2 year time period. In that period 97 deaths occurred of which the most were racked up among the said group of lazy TV watchers.

Of course there is a case of caution to be noted here: excessive TV watchers could just be symptomatic of lazy and unhealthy people that are likely to die early. TV watching does not have to be the actual cause of those deaths. However, the underlying point is that sedentary lifestyles are not healthy.

“Our findings suggest adults may consider increasing their physical activity, avoid long sedentary periods, and reduce television watching to no longer than one to two hours each day.” States the research.

The recommendation is that all adults should do 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise every week to avoid the health problems of sedentary lifestyles.

On a side note I think this news is of relevance to a lot of our readers too. TV watching isn’t too different from PC gaming, of course PC gaming is more engaging than TV watching at a mental level but generally speaking it still involves sitting still in front of a screen. How much time do you spend sedentary in front of a screen each day?

Source: American Heart Association, Via: Softpedia

Image courtesy of blogs.plos.org