A study found that watching too much television (TV) increases the risk of developing dementia.
A recent study of 400,000 British people found that those who watched TV for more than five hours a day were 44% more likely to develop dementia than those who watched TV for less than an hour. Long-term TV viewing has also been linked to increased rates of stroke and Parkinson’s disease, as well as dementia.
The average amount of TV viewing time that is not harmful to brain health was about 3 hours per day.
According to a report by the British daily Daily Mail on the 18th (local time), the research team analyzed the data of 407,000 adults aged 37 to 73 registered in the UK Biobank project (which records and tracks the medical data, including genes, of approximately 500,000 people for major disease research). At the time of the first registration (2006-2010), no one was diagnosed with a brain disease, and 40,000 people had brain imaging data.
During the 13-year follow-up period, 5,227 people developed dementia, 6,822 suffered a stroke, and 2,308 were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The subjects spent an average of 2.7 hours a day watching TV.
Those who watched TV for 3 to 5 hours a day had a 15% higher risk of developing dementia compared to those who watched TV for 1 hour or less. Those who watched TV for more than 5 hours a day had a 44% higher risk of dementia, a 12% higher risk of stroke, and a 28% higher risk of Parkinson’s disease.
There was no difference in the amount of time spent on the computer, whether it was long or short. This is likely because computer use is associated with more “mentally challenging behavior,” the researchers reasoned.
Researchers at Tianjin Medical University in China, who conducted the study, also found that watching more than five hours of TV per day was linked to a decrease in gray matter in the brain and shrinkage of memory centers, both of which are linked to brain disease.
However, it is not clear how TV viewing works to produce these effects. One theory is that sedentary behavior leads to lower muscle activity and energy expenditure, which in turn leads to chronic inflammation and reduced blood flow to the brain.
The research results were published in the international academic journal ‘Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMDA)’.
Reporter Park Hae-sik, Donga.com [email protected]
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2024-08-19 14:05:48