Bonzo77 Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Just logged on to the Metro website this morning and this story caught my eye! Apparently watching TV for one hour is worse for your health than smoking. Every cigarette smoked is said to reduce your life expectancy by 11mins compared to 22mins for every hour of TV watched!! Just think about that next time you sit down to watch your 5hrs of X Factor a week! You've just reduced your life span by 110 mins, just under 2 hours!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quisquose Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Okay. It's an eye-catching headline, 1hr of TV reduces your life expectancy by 22mins. But on it's own, it is nonsense. Compared to what? 1hr of doing something of course, but most people would still probably do nothing if they weren't watching TV. The other advice, that "just 15 minutes of exercise a day can boost life expectancy by three years" is a far more useful headline. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14526853 Although the headline claim that it can "cut death risk by 14%" is very funny. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiSiSi Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 I wonder what sitting in front of a compter on SF takes off your life? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Just logged on to the Metro website this morning and this story caught my eye! Apparently watching TV for one hour is worse for your health than smoking. Every cigarette smoked is said to reduce your life expectancy by 11mins compared to 22mins for every hour of TV watched!! Just think about that next time you sit down to watch your 5hrs of X Factor a week! You've just reduced your life span by 110 mins, just under 2 hours!!! The detail is slightly less dramatic though isn't it. Sedentary behaviour - such as watching TV - can reduce life expectancy In fact looking at the underlying study, you have to question whether they've actually established causality at or, or if they're actually just looking at a correlation. The authors modelled impacts of changes in population average TV viewing time on life expectancy at birth. How does that rule out other factors that have changed through the years? http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2011/08/01/bjsm.2011.085662.abstract?sid=c06d02cd-20db-4225-9c02-77ba96b6e0c7 Abstract there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithy266 Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 at £150 for the licence fee, it makes your heart go an extra bump when you read your bank statement! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just_words Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Just think about that next time you sit down to watch your 5hrs of X Factor a week! You've just reduced your life span by 110 mins, just under 2 hours!!! Is it the same for sleeping? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Sleeping could be considered to be part of a sedentary lifestyle, so in theory yes. The correlation is actually a negative one with physical activity, the amount of time spent watching tv is indicative of the general level of activity someone has and we already know that being inactive is unhealthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quisquose Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Sleeping could be considered to be part of a sedentary lifestyle, so in theory yes. The correlation is actually a negative one with physical activity, the amount of time spent watching tv is indicative of the general level of activity someone has and we already know that being inactive is unhealthy. Agree. There are two pieces of research in the news today. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14526853 1. Research from Taiwan suggests that the act of doing exercise is healthy. 2. Research from Australia suggests that act of not doing exercise is bad for you. I would suggest that 1. is useful common sense, whilst 2. is nonsense. From the BBC article: And research from Australia on health risks linked to TV viewing suggest too much time sat in front of the box can shorten life expectancy, presumably because viewers who watch a lot of telly do little or no exercise. My bold. Somebody could watch a lot of TV and do a lot of exercise, somebody could even watch TV whilst they exercise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Yep, hence correlation and not causation. People who watch a lot of TV probably don't do a lot of exercise, but it's not the TV that shortens their lifespan, it's the lack of exercise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FatDave Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Just think about that next time you sit down to watch your 5hrs of X Factor a week! You've just reduced your life span by 110 mins, just under 2 hours!!! Tbh, if I watched 5 hrs of X-Facftor every week then dying sooner would seem like a blessing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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