Watching a lot of television is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, regardless of a person’s genetic background. A new British scientific research estimates that if people watched TV for less than an hour a day, at least one in ten deaths (11%) from this cardiac cause could be avoided.
Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Hong Kong, who published the study in the medical journal BMC Medicine, analyzed data from more than 500,000 adults who were followed over a 12-year period.
Those who watched television more than four hours a day were found to have the highest risk of coronary heart disease. By comparison, those who watched for two to three hours daily had a 6% lower risk, while those who watched for less than an hour had a 16% lower risk.
Coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of premature death worldwide, especially among men. Also people with coronary heart disease are twice as likely to have a stroke. One of the major risk factors for coronary heart disease is sedentary behavior, which is favored by television. The World Health Organization recommends the greatest possible reduction of sedentary lifestyle and its replacement with various physical activities (not necessarily just physical exercise and fitness).
It is noteworthy that while television increases the likelihood of coronary heart disease, it does not do the same with computer use, although the latter is a sedentary activity. This is probably due to the fact that only watching TV is accompanied by snacking and even late at night. Also, computer users take more frequent breaks than those who are “stuck” on the TV.
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