Too Much TV May Be Linked To Risk Of Early Death In Young Adults, Multiple Studies Confirm

The Journal of the American Heart Association released a report on the risk of early death in young adults linked to watching too much TV. Watching television is a sedentary activity. Death linked to too much television are highly cardiovascular in nature.

The report found that adults who watch TV three hours or more a day may double their risk of premature death from any cause, with cardiovascular disease coming in first for cause of death. The group was not just studying television viewing habits, but rather all sedentary activities. Researchers assessed 13,284 young and healthy Spanish university graduates to determine the association between three types of sedentary behaviors and risk of death from all causes: television viewing time, computer time,and driving time. The participants were followed for a median 8.2 years. Researchers reported 97 deaths, with 19 deaths from cardiovascular causes, 46 from cancer, and 32 from other causes.

Forbes reports that it isn’t quite clear why television viewing increasing risks so significantly when researchers did not find a link between increased computer use and premature death. What is it about TV-watching that’s different from other types of sitting? The answer isn’t completely clear, but research suggests that sitting extended periods leads to metabolic changes, including insulin resistance, or to other hormone effects. Routine sitting may also produce low-grade inflammation in the body, which could be linked to cancer or heart disease.

As far as television watching compared to other sedentary activities, Forbes points out that a study from the National Cancer Institute suggested that TV-watching is linked to certain types of cancer, which also hints that there’s something “special” about TV-watching compared to other acts of sitting. Here is the kicker on the National Cancer Institute study: television watching was associated with certain types of cancers regardless of the amount of exercise a person got on a daily basis. Therefore, there is something unique about the act of watching television that is showing to be detrimental to our health.

Time Magazine pointed to another possible correlation between television and bad health, the presence of junk food. Health advocates have noted that watching TV can steer children towards eating more junk which can decrease overall health.

The magic number appears to be three hours in regards to the most recent study on the risks of too much TV. Be honest, how much television do you watch per day?

[Image Credit: Science Daily]