By The Survivors Club Staff
January 12, 2009

Is your TV habit slowly killing you?

A new Australian study says beware of too much TV... or more accurately, too much time sitting in front of the tube.  Every extra hour you watch increases your risk of death by 11 percent, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association and its Circulation Website.

The study followed 8,800 adults with no history of heart problems and found that people who watch four hours or more were 80 percent more likely to die from heart disease and 46% more likely to die from any cause than people who watch under two hours a day.

Here's the astonishing statistic: Each additional hour spent in front of the TV increased the risk of dying from heart disease by 18 percent and the overall risk of death by 11 percent, according the study.

Television doesn't kill you, the study's lead author says.  It's the lack of physical activity because sitting is the "default position" for watching TV.

According to the A.C. Nielsen Company, the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV per week - or the equivalent of two months of nonstop TV watching per year.

“Prolonged watching of television equals a lot of sitting, which invariably means there’s an absence of muscle movement,” says Dr. David Dunstan of Melbourne's Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.

The study also found that even people who exercise on a regular basis were potentially hurting their bodies by sitting down for prolonged periods. “What these findings suggest is that in addition to regular exercise, people need to consider avoiding prolonged periods of sitting; whether it's in front of the television, working long hours or driving for prolonged periods,” Dunstan said.

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