Watching five hours of TV a day increases risk of dementia, Parkinson’s: Study

Article content

If you watch five hours of television a day, you could be at risk for a number of serious, debilitating disorders and conditions.

A study of more than 400,000 people in the U.K. with an average age of 55.8 years were at greater risk of developing dementia, Parkinson’s disease and suffering a stroke.

People who watched more than five hours of TV a day had a 44 per cent greater risk of developing the debilitating condition, says a study of 400,000 people in the UK.

Published in the Journal of the America Medical Directors Association, the study’s title explained their mission: “Associations between recreational screen time and brain health in middle-aged and older adults,” though it excluded time spent on computers for work purposes.

The researchers’ findings “suggest high TV viewing time is associated with increased risk of various brain-related disorders.”

The scientists from Tianjin Medical University in China analyzed data on 407,792 people between the ages of 37 to 73, 40,000 of whom had a brain scan.

During the 13-year follow-up period, 5,227 developed dementia, 6,822 had a stroke and 2,308 were diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

The participants watched TV for 2.7 hours a day on average.

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

More than half of the participants (61%) spent between one to four hours a day in screen time, averaging 2.7 hours of TV-watching, and recreational computer screen time was 1.1 hours.

Those in the study who watched TV for one to three hours daily had a 1.02 times greater risk of developing dementia; television viewers at three to five hours a day had a slightly risk at 1.16 times greater chance of developing dementia; and those who spent more than five hours a day watching TV had a 1.41 increased risk of developing dementia.

Watching television for one to three hours per day led to a .98 increased risk of stroke, three to five hours a day of TV viewing resulted in a 1.01 risk of stroke, while those who watched more than five hours of TV jumped to a 1.12 increased risk of stroke.

The numbers were similar for TV-watching and its connection to Parkinson’s disease, with those who viewed one to three hours had a .98 increased risk and viewers of three to five hours saw a bit of a higher risk with 1.02.

However, those who watched more than five hours of TV had a 1.28 increased risk of developing Parkinson’s.

The researchers also found more than five hours of TV was associated with less grey matter and smaller memory centres, which are both tied to brain diseases.

It is unclear how watching television has these effects on the brain, though one theory is that sedentary behaviour, with low levels of muscle activity and energy expenditure, leads to chronic inflammation and reduced blood flow to the brain.

That said, it’s more about being a couch potato than regularly taking in your favourite shows.

“Restricting daily TV viewing time to three hours was shown to be the most beneficial to brain-related disorders,” the scientists noted in their conclusion.

“This has potentially important implications for public health to reduce recreational screen time, particularly for TV viewing to exert positive effects on brain health.”

For more health news and content around diseases, conditions, wellness, healthy living, drugs, treatments and more, head to Healthing.ca – a member of the Postmedia Network.