Too Much TV May Cause Earlier Death

Posted on January 22, 2010 in Health & Medicine, Recent Studies, Technology

Spending hours in front of the tube is a waste of time, some might say. According to a study, watching too much television can also raise the risk of dying at an earlier age—especially from heart disease.

Researchers tracked 8,800 adults with no history of heart disease for over six years. The study subjects who watched four hours or more hours of TV per day were 80 percent more likely to die from heart disease, as compared to those who watched less than two hours per day. Each additional hour spent in front of the TV raised the risk of dying from heart disease by 18 percent and the overall risk of death by 11 percent.

Lead study author David Dunstan said that the real problem can be attributed to too much sitting. “Prolonged television watching equals a lot of sitting, which invariably means there’s an absence of muscle movement,” he wrote.

If you’re planning to make up for movie marathons with more exercise, think again: Dunstan and his colleagues incorporated into their study how much participants exercised. Adults who exercised but still watched more TV were still at higher risk of dying than those who watched less and exercised the same amount.