1 Hour Of TV Could Shorten Your Lifespan: Study

Would you just stand up already?

In the latest study to show that sitting is bad for you, British researchers found that for every hour you sit in front of the TV, you cut your life expectancy down by nearly 22 minutes -- the same effect as smoking two cigarettes.

And watching TV for six hours a day can cut your life expectancy down by five years, University of Queensland researchers said.

The average American age 15 and older spends about 2.7 hours a day watching TV, according to 2010 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, in 2009, the ratings company Nielsen released figures that showed that Americans spend an average of 4 hours and 49 minutes watching TV a day.

TV-watching is considered sedentary behavior, known to increase the risk of death from heart attack or stroke. The Australian researchers found that engaging in sedentary behavior by watching a lot of TV could have as big of an impact on health as smoking and not exercising.

To come to this conclusion, researchers analyzed the TV-watching habits and risk factors for chronic diseases of 11,000 people ages 25 and older who participated in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study. Then, they compared that data with the 2008 estimate that Australians 25 and older spend an estimated 9.8 billion hours watching TV, which is linked with 286,000 fewer years of life. The study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

"While smoking rates are declining, watching TV is not, which has implications at a population level," study researcher Dr. Lennert Veerman told The Guardian.

Past research also shows that watching too much TV can kill you. A Harvard review published earlier in the year in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that watching two hours of TV a day can bump up the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 20 percent, the risk of heart disease by 15 percent and the risk of early death by 13 percent.

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Comments

[kd1s]

07:49 PM on 08/19/2011

How about staring at a computer screen? That's got to shave at least 100 years off your life.

[jdesertsun]

10:43 PM on 08/18/2011

the leading cause of dieing is death

[Rooster Coburn]

10:12 PM on 08/18/2011

What about arguing with liberals over here?

[olbob757]

07:15 PM on 08/18/2011

Actually it's both together. The TV will bore you to sleep and the cigarette will burn the house down.

[clarissa49]

06:58 PM on 08/18/2011

So, we shouldn't sit at work in front of a computer, right?

[mooncop1]

06:58 PM on 08/18/2011

Somewhere deep inside the Obamacare bill we will find that T.V. is banned.

[JBM83]

05:38 PM on 08/18/2011

I lounging on the couch for an hour reduces your life expectancy then what does eight hours of lying in bed do? This is stupid. TV has nothing to do with it - sitting at your desk for 10 hours at work, sitting in an airplane for hours - stupid article, stupid study.

[Richard Duffy]

04:29 PM on 08/18/2011

This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I would have died a the age of 2 if it were true.

[adam646l]

04:02 PM on 08/18/2011

It seems to me, using this logic, if I sit and read 4 hous a day I also shorten my lifespan. Do the 2.5 I spend in the gym at a minimum of 3 days a week, healthy eating, vitamins and dieatry suppliments count for anything? Most people are smarter than the writer gives them credit for.

[Chrissy Mead]

03:30 PM on 08/18/2011

I'm a crafter. How the heck can I stitch and jog at the same time? And what about book readers? And admins and those who are stuck behind desks all day?

I can't believe that someone equated this to the death trap that is smoking. Sheesh.

[kawieboy]

03:21 PM on 08/18/2011

They better post a warning label on the window at the movie theatre.

[starlight6705]

03:13 PM on 08/18/2011

I work in News... i watch about 5 hrs of TV every single day. Stare at a computer for much of my work day... I would have been long dead by now.

You are linking diabetes with watching TV for those couch potatoes perhaps and those that choose not to exercise. It is likely someone is to catch cancer by breathing these days... such "reseaches" are so absurd.

[Sherylynne Klein]

03:10 PM on 08/18/2011

After reading this article and doing the calculations, I have to type this fast because it's just a matter of minutes before I will clock out. If only I had known...

[Shiggity]

02:58 PM on 08/18/2011

To compare this to the irreversible effects of smoking cigarettes is both alarmist and absurd. Correlation does not imply causation.

[Seiena Cyrus]

04:47 PM on 08/18/2011

Which can be said for cigarette studies don'tcha know? Most studies end up in this Correlation does not imply causation field, and then the study says "SEE! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS!" Even Video games have been subjected to such things. You know who likely sponsored this study? Someone wanting to make Television look bad. Inevitably you will find that most studies of this nature are funded by people that say "We want X-result." And they do it because hey those people are paying to get "X-result." Not so much the truth.

[Jeff081]

01:26 PM on 08/18/2011

Heck, I watch five hours of Fox News Channel every night, and I'm in perfect health. I was a little bit on the tepid side, though, when I used to watch MSNBC and CNN. But when I switched to Fox during the primaries in 2008, I felt rejuvenated. And when I switched parties from dem to Republican not long after that, man, I felt as though twenty years had been added to my life.

[CAELadyJane50]

01:55 PM on 08/18/2011

I am a democrat but yet I watch FOX news myself and always feel better watching FOX news than HLN, CNN or MSNBC. I wonder why this is?

[mojobujak]

03:17 PM on 08/18/2011

It's because the hosts and guests seem to really enjoy addressing each other and the audience. Sometimes they have passionate disagreements on issues, but are never cruel and have lively shows. The anger and sarcasm is absent; I think that's why so many dems and independents, etc, watch both the news and commentary shows - they're mostly very amusing and upbeat