Watching TV Will Cut Your Lifespan

By Kelly Turner on February 4th, 2010

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You better think twice next time you plop your kid in front of the TV to get some peace and quiet.

Australian researchers found that each hour a day spent in front of the TV is linked to an 18% greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and an 11% greater risk of all causes of death.

1 hour. Think how many hours of TV the average kid watches each day.

The study that was released January 11 in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association, which studied the health data among 8,800 adults over 25 as part of the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (those with a history of cardiovascular disease were not allowed to participate.) Participants recorded their television viewing hours for a week, and were divided into three categories: less than two hours of TV watched per day, two to four hours watched per day, and more than four hours per day.

The subjects under went a litany of tests to determine their baselines of health. Six years later, in a follow up of participants, 87 people had died due to cardiovascular disease and 125 of cancer.

Here are the scary numbers: People who watched more than four hours of television a day showed an 80% greater risk of death from cardiovascular disease and a 46% higher risk of all causes of death compared with those who watched fewer than two hours a day. These numbers were consistent between obese participants and those who were of a healthy weight. The numbers were the same after the researchers controlled for smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and unhealthy diet, so the sedentary lifestyle TV watching promotes is the culprit.

Yikes. The more you sit, the more likely you are to die from unnatural causes. It doesn’t sound like the most shocking news when you break it down like that, but when you hear that the average child watches more than 4 hours of TV per day it becomes obvious that most of our children will fall into the most severe category of the study. Shut off the TV during meal times, homework time and playtime.  The TV should only be on during ‘TV time’ which should, obviously, be limited to under 2 hours per day.

Worried about how much TV you are watching? Catch up on your news on the treadmill, or march in place while watching “The Office.” TV isn’t necessarily going to kill you, but sitting on the couch and watching TV will. Get your family moving.