14 DAY TRIAL // It's bad news for people who love nothing more than come home after a hard day's work, take off their shoes, put on their pajamas, and watch two or three episodes of their favorite TV series before falling asleep relaxed and at ease with the world.
In a nutshell, a recent paper in the Journal of the American Heart Association warns that, according to recent investigations, people who have too close a relationship with their TVs are more likely to die an early death.
Simply put, it looks like, as happy as TVs can sometimes make people feel, they also have one very important and too often overlooked dark side: they drastically reduce life expectancy by encouraging sedentarism.
“Television viewing is a major sedentary behavior and there is an increasing trend toward all types of sedentary behaviors,” explains study lead author Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez with the University of Navarra in Spain.
Together with his colleagues, Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez says that, as surprising as this may sound, evidence indicates that people who watch TV for more then three hours on a daily basis are twice more likely to die an early death than those who do not.
As detailed in a press release on the official website for the American Heart Association, this claim is based on data collected while monitoring as many as 13,284 individuals whose average age was one of 37 years, over a period of time of 8.2 years.
During this time, a total of 97 deaths were reported, of which 19 were due to cardiovascular problems and 46 to cancer. The researchers say that, of the 97 deaths, the most were documented among individuals who admitted to spending too much time in front of their TVs.
Commenting on the outcome of this investigation, Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez said, “As the population ages, sedentary behaviors will become more prevalent, especially watching television, and this poses an additional burden on the increased health problems related to aging.”
“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,” the University of Navarra researcher added.
Together with the American Heart association, the specialists behind this research project recommend that people find a way to include about 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity in their weekly routine. Those who do not have that much free time at their disposal can settle for 75 minutes of vigorous activity.