may be slowly killing you. Researchers found that people who watched three or more hours of television a day were at twice the risk of an early death than those who watched less.
A report published in the Journal of the American Heart Association studied more than 13,000
Spanish university graduates for about eight years to determine the association between sedentary behaviors and risk of death. The study focused on television viewing time, time spent on the computer and time spent driving.
"Television viewing is a major sedentary behavior, and there is an increasing trend toward all types of sedentary behaviors," said Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, the study's lead author and professor at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain.
Over the course of the study, there were 97 deaths, 19 from
cardiovascular causes, 46 from cancer and 32 from other causes.
The study found a correlation to television watching time but
found no significant association with computer or driving time.
"Watching television is a passive, sedentary activity, and certainly
people who do it for hours are not paying attention in terms of
their lifestyle and in terms of their diet," said American Heart
Association cardiologist Nisa Goldberg.
A sedentary lifestyle is often associated with diabetes or heart
disease, Goldberg said. When a person is sedentary for too long,
the blood vessels can stiffen and cause a buildup of cholesterol in
the arteries, she said. These are the building blocks of heart
disease, Goldberg said.
Adapted from USA Today
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