Too much time spent watching TV or sitting in front of a computer may increase your risk for heart disease and even shorten your life.
Too much time spent watching TV or sitting in front of a computer may increase your risk for heart disease and even shorten your life.
Although some evidence suggests that prolonged sitting is linked to a higher cardiovascular risk regardless of physical activity participation, studies with hard outcomes are scarce. To examine the independent relationships between television viewing or other screen-based entertainment with all-cause mortality and clinically confirmed cardiovascular disease events, researchers collected data on 4,512 adults who responded to the 2003 Scottish Health Survey, which among other things asked about leisure time activities. During 4.3 years of follow-up, 325 of these people died and 215 had a cardiovascular event.
It was found that compared with those who spent less than two hours a day in front of a screen, those who spent four or more hours watching TV or playing or working on the computer had a 48 percent higher risk of dying from any cause and a 125 percent higher risk for having a heart attack, stroke or heart failure. Moreover, the risk calculations remained even after taking into account factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, weight, social class and exercise. Importantly, participation in exercise did not seem to mitigate the harm associated with excessive screen time.
In addition, biology appears to play a role. For example, one-fourth of the link between screen time and heart attack was associated with high levels of C-reactive protein, which is a marker of inflammation along with weight and cholesterol, suggesting that inflammation and high cholesterol, combined with sitting, may increase the risk for cardiovascular events.
One way to keep healthy is to limit the amount of time spent sitting in front of a TV or a computer, recommend the researchers.
Although some evidence suggests that prolonged sitting is linked to a higher cardiovascular risk regardless of physical activity participation, studies with hard outcomes are scarce. To examine the independent relationships between television viewing or other screen-based entertainment with all-cause mortality and clinically confirmed cardiovascular disease events, researchers collected data on 4,512 adults who responded to the 2003 Scottish Health Survey, which among other things asked about leisure time activities. During 4.3 years of follow-up, 325 of these people died and 215 had a cardiovascular event.
It was found that compared with those who spent less than two hours a day in front of a screen, those who spent four or more hours watching TV or playing or working on the computer had a 48 percent higher risk of dying from any cause and a 125 percent higher risk for having a heart attack, stroke or heart failure. Moreover, the risk calculations remained even after taking into account factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, weight, social class and exercise. Importantly, participation in exercise did not seem to mitigate the harm associated with excessive screen time.
In addition, biology appears to play a role. For example, one-fourth of the link between screen time and heart attack was associated with high levels of C-reactive protein, which is a marker of inflammation along with weight and cholesterol, suggesting that inflammation and high cholesterol, combined with sitting, may increase the risk for cardiovascular events.
One way to keep healthy is to limit the amount of time spent sitting in front of a TV or a computer, recommend the researchers.
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