There’s nothing better than lying flat on the couch after a long day at work and turning on some mindless reality TV. Not to burst your guilty pleasure bubble, but new research shows that reducing the amount of time you spend watching TV is linked to healthier aging.
A study published this week in the journal jama network Twenty years of data from the Nurse Practitioners’ Health Study – more than 45,000 women aged 50 or older in 1992 – were examined. . Healthy aging is defined as those who live to at least 70 years without experiencing one or more of the 11 major chronic diseases and who are not cognitively or physically impaired (41% of participants did not experience any chronic disease after age 20 ).
In comparison, adding two hours of light physical activity to work each day increased the chances of healthy aging by 6%. Replacing an hour of watching TV with light physical activity at work or home also increases your chances of healthy aging. Additionally, for those who regularly get less than the recommended at least seven hours of sleep each night, replacing screen time with rest can increase the chances of healthy aging.
Researchers estimate that 61 percent of unhealthy seniors could become healthy if they adhered to a number of lifestyle factors, including watching less than three hours of television a day, maintaining a healthy weight, and completing at least three hours of light physical activity .
“Given the strong link between a sedentary lifestyle and healthy aging, health-promoting public health campaigns should not only promote increased physical activity but also reduce sedentary behavior, especially prolonged television viewing,” the researchers concluded.
Here’s how to mindfully monitor your TV time
Now, you don’t need to throw your TV out the window completely and quit. The results confirm previous research showing that sitting for long periods of time is a new way to smoke. Research published in British Journal of Sports Medicine Last year it was found that people who sat still for 12 hours or more a day had a 38% increased risk of death compared with those who sat still for 8 hours a day. The Nurses’ Health Study also highlights that sitting for long periods of time reduces insulin sensitivity, putting people at risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes. It also increases inflammation and reduces blood flow.
So it’s probably more about sitting than you want to watch “Bravo” (phew). So consider setting a time limit for sitting and watching TV, or a 5-minute “exercise snack” for every 30 minutes of sitting. A little walking can help us combat a sedentary lifestyle and significantly reduce blood sugar spikes. Consider turning on the TV while you cook, or be careful not to overeat and move, regardless of schedule, especially since many of us sit down throughout the workday.
Researchers also suggest that sitting and watching television may promote other unhealthy aging habits, such as mindless eating and staying up late. If you can control these, set TV limits, and even move around with the TV on, you’re doing yourself a big favor. Two hours of TV viewing can make a difference, so cutting back on your TV time can help.
Keith Diaz, an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University, previously wrote in Science: “The amount of time adults in industrialized countries such as the United States spend sitting has been steadily increasing for decades due to technological advances. ” wealth. “As people shift to more remote work, people are now less willing to venture out of their homes. Therefore, there is a clear need for strategies to address the growing public health issues of the 21st century.
The researchers took socioeconomic factors, family health history, sleep, diet and menopausal factors into account in the study. However, the study only analyzed female nurses in the United States, and the data were self-reported, so there is no general or causal relationship between television viewing and unhealthy aging.
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