Andre Yoskowitz
13 Jan 2010 21:02
A new study performed by Australian researchers has finished with some shocking results, concluding that, even with exercise, extended TV watching leads to a higher risk of death.
The researchers tracked 8800 people for six years, and found that those who watched TV for over 4 hours per day had a 46 percent better chance of dying of any cause, and an extremely high 80 percent more likely chance of dying of cardiovascular disease, over those that spent less than two hours a day.
"It's not the sweaty type of exercise we're losing," says David Dunstan, a researcher at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne. "It's the incidental moving around, walking around, standing up and utilizing muscles that [doesn't happen] when we're plunked on a couch in front of a television." On average, most of the participants had about 30 minutes of exercise per day.
The results seem to follow the latest trend of studies which has shown that periods of inactivity can lead to slower processing of fats and other chemicals in the body.
The American Heart Association journal says Americans average 5 hours of TV a day.