Watching Too Much TV May Increase Dementia Risk
Many of us like to sit in front of the TV at the end of the day — or perhaps enjoy a weekend movie marathon in our living rooms!
But watching too much TV could put us at greater risk of conditions like dementia and Parkinson's disease, as well as increasing our risk of suffering a stroke.
That's according to a new study led by researchers in China.
They found that watching more than five hours of television per day was associated with a 44% higher risk of dementia.
That's when compared to people who watched less than one hour of TV per day.
The study looked at data from more than 400,000 healthy adults aged between 37 and 73, using the UK Biobank, a large database of people in the UK.
People were asked about how much time they spent watching TV and using the computer.
They were followed from the late 2000s for an average of more than 12 years. During this time, more than 5,200 people developed dementia, 6,800 had a stroke and about 2,300 developed Parkinson's.
Watching more than five hours of TV per day was associated with a 28% higher risk of developing Parkinson's, and a 12% higher risk of having a stroke.
Participants in the study watched an average of 2.7 hours of television per day, and the researchers said it's a good idea to restrict the time we spend watching TV to three hours or fewer per day.
However, they weren't sure exactly why watching a lot of TV had such an effect — though it may be linked to spending a lot of time sitting down, which could reduce the amount of blood that goes to the brain.
