How TV can be good for your health

What boosts your risk for heart disease, diabetes and cancer and could shorten your life by five years? Your TV.

Current research is showing that watching too much is a major health hazard. In one new study, binge-watching boosted the risk for metabolic syndrome (some combo of excess body fat, high bloodsugar levels, increased blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol/triglyceride levels) by a whopping 30 per cent!

A Danish study of 1.1 million people observed that sitting two hours a day increased risk for diabetes by 20 per cent, for heart disease by 15 per cent and for an early death by 13 per cent.

Next up, according to the landmark Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study that’s tracking the health and habits of 11,000 adults, six hours of daily TV could shorten your life by five years. And prolonged TV time raised colon cancer risk by 54 per cent in a major German study.

Build a healthy TV habit with these steps:

Move while you watch. Bring your exercise bike, treadmill or other favourite piece of exercise equipment into the same room with your TV. Stow your hand weights, exercise bands and an exercise mat there, too. Then plan to stay active while you watch.

You could work out during commercials or continuously. Just make a rule: You can keep watching only if you keep moving.

The good news: TV can help you stick with exercise — and may be better than going to the gym. In a recent University of North Carolina study, people who watched videos while they listened to music (kind of like the experience you have watching TV) said their routine felt easier than those who just stared at a wall while exercising. The longer the workout, the easier it felt.

And in other research, exercisers who could watch their favourite TV shows were the least likely to drop out of a 14-week exercise program. People were more likely to give up if they couldn’t choose their own shows.