For many of us watching television has a favourite time pass. But if you’re watching television for long periods of time, it’s time to reconsider your daily routine as per the study.
According to a new study, watching TV for lengthy durations can increase the risk of coronary heart disease, regardless of one’s genetic composition.
This study conduct by a team of experts from the University of Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong states that watching less than an hour of television every day can avoid up to 11% of occurrences of coronary heart disease.
Sedentary living is one of the primary risk factors for coronary heart disease, according to health experts.
Sitting for long periods of time rather than being physically active increases the risk of heart disease.
The researchers look at data from the UK Biobank to see if there was a link between screen-base sedentary behaviours like watching TV and using a computer for leisure and an individual’s risk of coronary heart disease.
As per the study, publish in the journal BMC Medicine, the researchers compile the polygenic risk scores of each of the over 500,000 adults whose data they examine.
A polygenic risk score suggests how a person’s risk compares to others with a different genetic constitution.
Dr Youngwon Kim, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong and one of the researchers, said that the research offers insight into the potential role of reduce television viewing in the prevention of coronary heart diseases.
The researchers find that people who watch more than four hours of television per day were at the greatest risk of the heart disease, regardless of their polygenic risk score.
Compare to these individuals, people who watch two to three hours of television a day had a relatively 6% lower rate of developing the condition.
Those who watch less than an hour of television had a relatively 16% lower rate.
These associations were independent of genetic susceptibility and other known risk factors, the researchers said, adding that leisure time spent using a computer did not appear to influence disease risk.
