Reducing Your TV Time Can Actually Help Prevent Coronary Heart Disease – New Study Finds

A new study has been conducted by the Medical Research Council (MRC) to investigate the relationship between watching TV and having coronary heart disease. The results from the research study demonstrate a causal relationship between the two, and it was concluded that the time spent watching TV is directly associated with having a risk of coronary heart disease. But if people watched TV for less than an hour each day, then 11% of coronary heart diseases could be easily prevented.

“Limiting the amount of time spent watching TV could be useful and relatively light-touch, a lifestyle change that could help individuals with a high genetic predisposition to coronary heart disease in particular to manage their risk,” said Dr. Youngwon Kim, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. It has been investigated that around 64,000 deaths in the UK are due to coronary heart disease, and it is found both in males and females. However, the proportion is slightly different in both genders, meaning one in eight men and one in 15 women have a likelihood of passing out from this disease.

Sitting for long hours in front of the TV and being physically inactive can pose great threats to your health. Also, it has been identified in the research that sitting in front of computers doesn’t stimulate the risk of having coronary heart disease. This is because watching TV is likely to happen after a usual dinner, which ultimately can increase the glucose, lipids, and level of cholesterol in their blood.

On the other hand, people using computers cannot sit in front of them continuously for long periods of time. Instead, they can break up their activity in the middle and go for a short walk, which compensates for the level of calories in their blood. To assess the risk even further, the research team from UK Biobank has conducted an experiment in which the polygenic risk scores for each individual were evaluated.

It was linked to the person’s risk scores to the extent of watching TV for developing coronary heart disease. Those having higher polygenic scores are at the greatest risk. To be more specific, people who watched TV for more than four hours a day stood at the top of the list. Similarly, those who watched it for two to three hours a day had their risk of developing the disease reduced to 6%. On the other hand, the risk is reduced to 16% for people who watch TV for less than an hour a day.

Dr. Youngwon Kim further said, “The World Health Organization recommends reducing the amount of sedentary behavior and replacing it with physical activity of any intensity as a way of keeping healthier. It suggests a straightforward, measurable way of achieving this goal for the general population and individuals at high genetic risk of coronary heart disease.”