We all love to sit down and bingewatch our favourite TV show, but it turns out that watching too much TV might be increasing our risk of an early death.
After a long day at work with the latest episode of Game of Thrones waiting for you when you get home, it can be pretty tempting to kick off the shoes and plonk down on the couch for the night, but it turns out that could be doing us a bit of harm.
A study carried out by the University of Navarra in Spain assessed 13,284 young and healthy Spanish university graduates (average age 37, 60% women) and found that not only television watching, but other types of sedentary behaviour increased the risk of an early death, including spending time on the computer and time spent sitting in the car driving, according to ScienceDaily.com. The Participants were studied for around eight years, and the risk of death was twofold higher for those who said they watched three hours or more of television a day.
Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., the lead author and chair of the Department of Public Health at the University of Navarra, said that this study was in line with several others that examined the link between sedentary behaviours and health problems. With people spending more time sitting down and inactive for long periods, he noted that this creates an added burden on top of the common problems of aging which could explain the pattern.
The link between driving and spending time on the computer was less clear, and researchers felt that they needed further research to clarify that. The best remedy that the study recommends is to do about two and a half hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, or at least 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity every week, along with a minimum of two days of muscle strengthening exercises. In other words, gerrup off yer keister.
Via ScienceDaily.com. Main pic via Flickr/Espensorvik
