Too much boob tube also makes you weaker, research shows
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Recent research reveals the weirder ways television is ruining your life.
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Matt Rourke / AP file
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By Linda Carroll
msnbc.com contributor
updated 8:11 a.m. ET March 5, 2010
You’ve
accepted the idea that TV makes you dumber. You know there are lots of
more edifying things you could be doing with your time than cheering on
the contestants on "Survivor."
And
unless you’re working out to an exercise video, you know those hours
sprawled out in front of the screen are going to make you fatter — not
to mention the impact of all that junk food you’ve been tempted to
scarf down during the commercial breaks.
But you’ll be surprised to learn the host of other bad things TV can do to you.
1. TV makes you deader.TV-viewing
is a pretty deadly pastime, research suggests. No matter how much time
you spend in the gym, every hour you spend in front of the TV increases
your risk of dying from heart disease, according to a recent report in
Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Australian
researchers studied 8,800 adult men and women for an average of six
years and found that every hour spent in front of the TV translated
into an 11 percent increase in the risk of death from any cause, a 9
percent increase in the risk of death from cancer and an 18 percent
increase in the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. So, compared
to people who watched less than two hours of TV a day, those who
watched four or more hours a day had a 46 percent higher risk of death
from any cause and an 80 percent higher risk of death due to
cardiovascular disease. And that was true even among people who didn’t
smoke, were thin, ate healthy diets and had low blood pressure and
cholesterol.
2. TV makes you drunker.TV
may make you drink more. When it comes to drinking, we’re apparently
very susceptible to what we see on TV, according to a report published
in Alcohol and Alcoholism. To discover whether what we view actually
affects drinking habits, researchers rounded up 80 male university
students between the ages of 18 and 29 and plunked them down in a
bar-like setting where the students were allowed to watch movies and
commercials on TV. The researchers found that men who watched films and
commercials in which alcohol was prominently featured immediately
reached for a glass of beer or wine and drank an average of 1.5 glasses
more than those who watched films and commercials in which alcohol
played a less prominent role.
3. TV can make your kid pregnant.Teens
who watched a lot of TV that included sexual content were twice as
likely to get pregnant, according to a study published in Pediatrics.
Once a year for three years, Rand Corporation researchers surveyed
1,461 youngsters — ages 12 to 17 at the beginning of the study — about
TV-viewing habits and sexual behavior. Boys were asked if they had ever
gotten a girl pregnant and girls were asked if they had ever been
pregnant. To get a handle on how much sexually charged TV kids were
watching, the researchers asked teens if and how often they viewed 23
specific programs.
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4. TV weakens your bones.Hours
spent watching TV can set a kid up for later problems with brittle
bones, according to a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics.
Until we hit 25 or so, we accumulate bone in a kind of savings account.
The more bone we build when we’re younger, the less likely we are to
develop the brittle-bone disease osteoporosis.
To
see whether TV watching might impact kids’ bone growth, researchers
followed 214 3-year-olds for four years. The children’s height and
weight were checked every four months, along with their activity
levels. At each checkup, parents were asked about their kids’
TV-viewing habits. The more TV kids watched, the less bone they grew,
regardless of how active they were at other times.
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5. TV makes you less engaging.
A recent study found that when the TV is on — even if it’s just in the background — parents interact less with their kids. To learn more about TV’s effects, researchers brought 51 infants and toddlers, each accompanied by a parent, to a university child study center, according to the report published Child Development. Parents and kids were observed for half an hour in a playroom without a TV and then for a half hour with the TV tuned to an adult program such as "Jeopardy!" When the TV was on, parents spent about 20 percent less time talking to their children. And when parents did pay attention to their kids, the quality of the interactions was lower: With a program on in the background, parents were less active, attentive and responsive to their youngsters.
A recent study found that when the TV is on — even if it’s just in the background — parents interact less with their kids. To learn more about TV’s effects, researchers brought 51 infants and toddlers, each accompanied by a parent, to a university child study center, according to the report published Child Development. Parents and kids were observed for half an hour in a playroom without a TV and then for a half hour with the TV tuned to an adult program such as "Jeopardy!" When the TV was on, parents spent about 20 percent less time talking to their children. And when parents did pay attention to their kids, the quality of the interactions was lower: With a program on in the background, parents were less active, attentive and responsive to their youngsters.