Scientists have confirmed that excessive TV viewing shrinks the brain
Miscellaneous / / April 03, 2023
This is not only about a sedentary lifestyle - physical activity cannot compensate for this negative impact.
Ryan Dougherty, a research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, warns those who watch TV all the time. It can shrink your brain. Literally.
In my work published in the journal Brain Imaging and Behavior, Ryan relied on 20 years of data from another study, The Development of Coronary Artery Risk in Young People, which began in 1985. More than five thousand people took part in it.
All participants watched TV an average of 2.5 hours a day, and this figure has remained stable for 20 years. Dougherty and colleagues analyzed their data and found that those who watched 1.4 hours a day or more had a half-percentage reduction in gray matter by age 50.
People who watched an average of about an hour and a half more TV per day than their middle-aged and older peers had about 0.5% less brain volume. This may seem like a small number, but from a scientific point of view, maintaining the integrity of our brains can extend the time before age-related cognitive decline appears.
Ryan Dougherty
study author
In other words, watching TV can affect mental performance, memory and perception of information.
Curiously, regular physical activity did not affect the performance of the subjects. Those who watched TV frequently but also exercised had the same reduction in gray matter.
This may mean that simply increasing physical activity alone will not eliminate the negative effects associated with TV viewing, Dougherty added.
In one of the previous studies, scientists establishedthat frequent television viewing may increase the risk of heart disease.
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