Scientists have issued a warning that spending a certain amount of time glued to the television can significantly heighten your risk of serious health conditions. A recent study has unveiled that watching two or more hours of TV daily could escalate your chances of heart attack, stroke, and other blood vessel diseases by up to 12 per cent.
This correlation was identified among individuals with different levels of risk for type 2 diabetes. In the research involving over 340,000 Brits, it was found that an alarming 79 per cent of people watch two or more hours of TV each day - placing them at risk of these associated conditions.
The research team delved into the connection between TV viewing, type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). This disease is triggered by plaque accumulation in arterial walls and encompasses conditions such as heart disease, stroke and peripheral artery disease.
Youngwon Kim, the lead author of the study and a professor in the School of Public Health at The University of Hong Kong, highlighted the danger of sedentary behaviour, saying: "Type 2 diabetes and a sedentary lifestyle, including prolonged sitting, are major risk factors for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases. Watching TV, which accounts for more than half of daily sedentary behaviour, is consistently associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis.
"Our study provides new insights into the roles of limiting TV viewing time in the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases for everyone and especially in people with a high genetic predisposition for type 2 diabetes. " The research, featured in the [Journal of the American Heart Association](https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.124.036811), scrutinised data from 346,916 UK adults housed within a sprawling biomedical database.
In the follow-up duration extending to roughly 14 years, some 21,265 participants were identified to have developed atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Assessment of their risk factor for type 2 diabetes utilised a polygenic risk score, while their television viewing habits came from questionnaire responses.
Findings indicated that slightly over a fifth of those surveyed (roughly 21 per cent) clocked in at one hour or less of TV daily. Conversely, a notable majority exceeding 79 per cent indicated they engaged in over two hours of television viewing daily.
Watching more than two hours of daily telly time was shown to hike your risk of heart disease by 12 per cent, regardless of diabetes risk. In contrast, those with a high genetic risk for type 2 diabetes who kept their TV viewing to an hour or less had a lower 10-year probability (2.13 per cent) of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease compared to individuals with a low diabetes risk who indulged in over two hours of screen time (2.46 per cent).
Lead researcher Mengyao Wang explained: "We found that people with high genetic risk for type 2 diabetes may exhibit lower chances of developing atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease by limiting TV watching to one hour or less each day. This suggests that less TV viewing could serve as a key behavioural target for preventing atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases linked to type 2 diabetes genetics. "
Wang emphasised the importance of future health strategies: "Future strategies and actions to prevent disease and improve health by reducing time in front of the TV and promoting other healthy lifestyle modifications should target broad populations, including those with a high genetic risk for type 2 diabetes."
Damon L. Swift, of the American Heart Association's Physical Activity Committee, added: "This study shows that reducing TV watching can benefit both people at high risk for type 2 diabetes and those at low risk. It also highlights how lifestyle choices can improve health.
"These findings add to the evidence that sitting time may represent a potential intervention tool to improve health in people in general, and specifically for people with a high risk for type 2 diabetes. This is especially important because people with type 2 diabetes are at a heightened risk for cardiovascular disease compared to those who do not have diabetes."
However, it should be noted that the study's participants were primarily UK residents of white British descent, which could limit the wider applicability of the results to other ethnic groups. Given the known health risks associated with sedentary living, public health bodies like the [NHS](https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/all-about/nhs) advise at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week to avert ailments such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.