Too much TV in middle age ‘doubles speed of memory loss’

IT’S not exactly the warning you want to hear as you sit back on your sofa to binge on a box set of your favourite TV series.

Watching the television for just a few hours every night could harm our memory, a study has found.

More than three-and-a-half hours a day was linked to poorer memory in people aged 50 and over.

Those who watched this amount saw their memory decline by up to 10 per cent over six years when asked to recall lists of words. Middle-aged people who watched less than three-and-a- half hours a day saw a decline of up to just 5 per cent. Researchers at University College London, who tested more than 3,600 people, suggested dramatic television programmes such as soap operas could create stress which can be bad for the brain.

Watching television is also a passive activity, so does not provide the stimulation important for keeping older people’s brains active.

However, professor Andrew Steptoe, senior author of the study, also said that there ‘ may be some advantages from watching educational television like documentaries, so it is not all bad’.

‘Television may also be a useful distraction from the difficulties people experience in their lives,’ he added.

Middle-aged participants in the study were asked how much television they watched and had their memories tested. They were played a list of ten words and asked to recall as many as they could immediately, then again after a gap of several minutes during which they did other mental tasks. The same test was repeated six years later.

Previous studies have found memory problems in people who watch a more excessive amount of television, such as six or more hours a day. But the latest findings showed a decline in memory linked to threeand-a-half hours of daily viewing. The results, which show twice the speed of deterioration in people who watch that amount or more, cannot be explained just by people sitting down more.

Sedentary behaviour is indeed linked to poor memory, by contributing to high blood pressure which may damage the brain’s blood vessels. But the study, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, linked television to poorer memory in middle-aged people regardless of how much exercise they did.

Dr Bob Patton, lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Surrey, said: ‘While TV may not rot the brain as traditional wisdom may suggest, even moderate watching is associated with some very real changes among viewers aged over 50.’