Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 3, 2009
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- 34,363
Too much TV time may be worse for you then smoking according to research. According to the researchpublished in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Experts from the University of Queensland, in Brisbane, found that on average, every hour of television a person watches reduced the viewers life expectancy by almost 22 minutes. The research also suggests that watching more than six hours of TV a day will shorten your lifespan by an amazing five years. Even watching just two hours of TV a day can shorten your lifespan by almost two years.
Why? Well there may be a few reasons. Its not that watching TV is bad, its what you are not doing because you are watching TV. Youre not moving around and exercising. Typically people munch on food when they watch television. Finally, watching television for long hours can contribute to loneliness because you arent being as social.
Three Consequences of Watching Too Much TV
1. Diabetes: Prolonged television watching could increase your chance of getting Type 2 diabetes. According to a recent research review, more than three hours of television watching a day may put you at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. While the associations between time spent viewing TV and risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease were linear, the risk of all-cause mortality appeared to increase with TV viewing duration of greater than three hours per day.
2. Weight Gain: Another new study suggests that all that time in front of the tube is becoming a health concern. Being a television-watching couch potato may be partially to blame for weight gain, high blood pressure and heart disease risk. The study collected information from thousands of Australians about their health and lifestyles, then collected the same data from these subjects five years later in order to identify any changes. For both men and women, people who increased their TV viewing similarly increased their waistlines.
3. Headaches and Back pain: Recent research suggests that spending an excessive amount of time on screen-based activities may be bad for your back. The results show a consistent association between time spent on screen-based activities and incidences of headache and backache among the youths.
Time to shut off the tube and get a hobby, meet some people, or go for a walk.