Heart Disease Prevention - Would Long Hours Of TV Viewing Cause Heart Disease?

Research has linked sedentary behavior to incident cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular death. But different sedentary behaviors might have different effects. Several studies had found that the association between health and TV viewing time was stronger than other kinds of sedentary behaviours. Click for more details:

Heart Disease Prevention - Would Long Hours Of TV Viewing Cause Heart Disease?

Can Walking Keep One Fit?

It is generally thought that spending an hour of running or working out in the gym is the only way to fitness, yet some fitness experts think otherwise. They argued that walking is just as good.

Modern people spend plenty of time sitting. In fact, there is a new category of people, known as “actively sedentary” who are fit for one hour but sitting around the rest of the day. Obviously, exercising for just an hour or so can never be able to offset the long hours of stillness.

Emerging evidence has suggested that combined physical activity and inactivity may be more important for chronic disease risk than physical activity alone. In a study conducted in 2013 by researchers from the University of Texas School of Public Health, 218 marathoners and half marathoners were asked to report their training and sitting times. It was found that median training time was 6.5 hours per week, and median total sitting time was between 8 and 10.75 hours per day. This suggested that these runners were simultaneously highly sedentary and highly active.

Sedentary lifestyle has been blamed for years to cause obesity epidemic, which ultimately lead to many chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. So getting active is the key to one’s overall long-term health. 

A paper published in the journal ‘Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise’ by scientists at Indiana University found that three 5-minute walks done throughout 3 hours of prolonged sitting did reverse the harmful effects of prolonged sitting on arteries in the legs.

Physical activity is undoubtedly essential to health, and walking is the most basic foundation of movement. It is easier to get movement than it is to get exercise. There is a growing number of people calling walking a “superfood”, though this is somehow controversial.

While walking can benefit one’s health, it is definitely not a magical cure because walking would not help muscle or improve cardiovascular system. In order to help prevent disease and lose weight, weights and more intense cardio such as jogging are necessary, according to some fitness experts. Nevertheless, walking might be the only choice of physical activity for some people, especially for those who are not fit for jogging and those who are elderly. 

One might consider setting a target on number of steps to finish everyday. If fitness-walking guidelines of 10, 000 steps per day is too much, maybe one can begin at about 7,500 steps per day and at least 150 minutes of activity each week. Some habits change can help achieve the target. For instance, one might start with walking to friend’s house or the grocery store if they are within walking distance. If one takes public transport, get off a few stops early and walk the rest of the way. If possible, one can fit a walk every evening. Walking, when combined with healthy diet, would certainly benefit one’s health in one way or another.

Why Sitting Too Much Is Bad For Health?

A paper, which was published January 20, 2015 in the ‘Annals of Internal Medicine’ by Canadian Researchers, reported that longer sedentary time would increase the average risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke) or Type-2 diabetes after reviewing 47 studies. Meta-analyses were performed on outcomes for cardiovascular disease and diabetes in 14 studies, cancer in 14 studies, and all-cause mortality in 13 studies.

The effect of sedentary time, according to the study, is cumulative. Some people who sat for fewer than 8 hours a day were shown to have a 14 percent lower risk for being sick enough to be sent to hospital. People who had regular exercise would ease some of the damage, even if they still spent too much time sitting. As compared to those with lower levels of physical activity, people who had higher levels of physical activity had a 30 percent lower risk for all-cause mortality.

Previous studies have indicated that sitting too much would raise the risk of obesity, disability, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. 

On June 25, 2014, researchers from the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain found that television (TV) viewing was directly associated with all‐cause mortality. After taking into account of the age, sex, smoking, obesity and diet, participants were 44 percent more likely to die from heart disease or stroke, 21 percent more likely to die of cancer and 55 percent more likely to die from something else, for every 2 extra hours of watching TV over and above a hour a day. Their findings were published in the ‘Journal of the American Heart Association’.

In 2014, another study by researchers from the University of Regensburg in Germany reported that the average American raises the risk of colon cancer by 8 percent, of endometrial cancer by 10 percent and of lung cancer by 6 percent, for every two hours spent sitting in front of the computer or TV. The paper can be found in the ‘Journal of the National Cancer Institute’.

Animal studies suggested that activities like watching TV might affect how the body manages cholesterol or carbohydrates, or it might raise inflammation that is linked with cancer and heart disease. Comparing to driving a car or doing work on a computer, television is a very passive activity. Other studies have actually shown that watching TV could lower the metabolism than even sitting and doing nothing.

Hence, people should watch less TV and exercise more. As recommended by most health organizations including the American Heart Association, adults should have at least 150 minutes of weekly physical activity in bouts of 10 minutes or more. Meanwhile, there are many ways one can raise the level of physical activity in his or her daily life. For instance, he or she could take stairs instead of the elevator.