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Post 16 Aug 2011, 9:37 am

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/diabetes/articles/2011/08/16/too-much-tv-may-take-years-off-your-life

For every hour of television watched after age 25, lifespan fell by 22 minutes, according to the research led by Dr. J. Lennert Veerman of the University of Queensland.

Oh Crap! I died 4 years ago!
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Post 16 Aug 2011, 11:59 am

What a load of absolute crap
So based on this statistic, I I watch TV for say an hour when I get home, maybe another 3 hours during prime time, that's 4 hours a day X 7 days = 28 hours, but wait, add a few more hours for weekend sporting events and another few hours for the say once a week movie rental.
I'm now at say 37 hours per week? that equals 1924 hours per year

I'm 50
subtract 25 = 25
25 years X 1924 = 48,100 hours, take away my "lost" 22 minutes per hour = 1,058,200 lost minutes
divide that by 60 minutes per hour = 17,636 lost hours
divide that by 24 hours per day = 735 days
...So I lost two years of my life?
and the number is quite possibly higher than that!

Yeah, right!
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Post 16 Aug 2011, 12:04 pm

I think it's more likely that sitting around doing nothing is the problem. If you are watching TV for hours, but also spending some time being active, it's not a big deal. If we are leading sedentary lives, while eating rich diets, it's not good for our health in terms of cardio-vascular, other obesity-related disorders (eg diabetes) and some cancers.
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Post 16 Aug 2011, 12:32 pm

Yet after TV was invented the life expectancy continues to increase. Is that a dichotomy of supposed facts?
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Post 16 Aug 2011, 12:52 pm

I understand and agree with Danivon 100%
However, when people come up with such "facts" like this, they lose credibility.

Watching TV is not the problem, sedentary living is the culprit.
And what if we were to sit and read a book for that same time? Surf the internet? play video games? Sleep excessively? sit outside and watch the grass grow? Nope, my watching TV is going to kill me, doesn't matter if I exercise later, doesn't matter if I eat a healthy diet, nope, I watch TV and I'm going to lose 22 minutes of precious life because I did so!?
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Post 16 Aug 2011, 1:09 pm

bbauska wrote:Yet after TV was invented the life expectancy continues to increase. Is that a dichotomy of supposed facts?
After cigarettes were mass marketed life expectancy rose, but the mere correlation doesn't mean that the two facts are linked.

Perhaps (and maybe this is hard to parse), life expectancy has risen despite the effect of factors like increased sedentary behaviour like watching TV. Perhaps it's more down to things like improved diet, better medicine and fewer total wars.
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Post 17 Aug 2011, 8:44 am

My question is what is up with the other rat?
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Post 17 Aug 2011, 9:46 am

But other experts cautioned that the study did not show that TV watching caused people to die sooner, only that there was an association between watching lots of TV and a shorter lifespan.


Older people watch more tv. That's one contributor. The study doesn't indicate causation, just correlation. I work from home a lot, so I have the tv on all the time, but on mute. It's just for some extra stimulation, without verbal distraction so I can get things done. I don't think it's going to shorten my lifespan. If it does, oh well.