Surprise link between TV and ageing revealed

A surprising health warning has emerged from a Melbourne study that measured the effects of watching one hour of TV a day.

An hour of television a day could be bad for your health. Picture: iStock

Watching TV for just one hour a day has been linked to an increase in pain in the body that equates to two years of ageing.

A surprising new Melbourne study has also found those pain levels could be even worse for people who binge watch multiple hours of their favourite shows.

Researchers had already linked high amounts of sedentary behaviour to metabolic health, increasing the risk of death, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.

But the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute study, published in BMC Public Health, has revealed there are even more consequences.

“I think it’s a call to action that we need to take stock about how much time we’re spending sedentary,” the institute’s lifestyle and diabetes department head David Dunstan said.

“Long periods of time without moving, that’s not great for our body system and our musculoskeletal system.”

Pain levels could be worse for people who binge watch multiple hours of their favourite shows, the study found. Picture: iStock

The study analysed data from more than 4000 Australian adults and measured pain on a scale from zero to 100, with the former indicating “severe bodily pain”.

The pain levels of participants aged 50-years-old at the start of the study increased by an average of 0.3 every year they aged.

In comparison, watching an extra hour of television was linked to an increase of more than double, with pain levels rising by 0.69 units.

Prof Dunstan said he feared the problem was even worse now, with the study based on data collected prior to widespread popularity of streaming services.

“We at least know that during television, we do get breaks from our show by the end of the show and also the commercial breaks, which can serve as a useful prompt to distract yourself by getting up and moving.

“When we’re watching streaming services, the next show can just roll on to the next.”

Prof Dunstan said physical inactivity led to “substantial costs to the health system”.

“Doing something as simple as reducing daily TV-watching time can have a profound effect

on bodily pain trajectories that occur with ageing, and also potentially be a non-

pharmacologic intervention, or work hand-in-hand with other therapies, for chronic pain

Management.”

The study found people with type 2 diabetes also reported higher levels of bodily pain, and were more likely to watch more television.

But Prof Dunstan said for some people, time spent on the couch could become a vicious cycle.

“You’ve got pain, don’t want to move, so you sit and watch more television, so it leads to greater pain,” he said.

“So we really need to cut into that vicious cycle, because we know that moving more can help mitigate some of that musculoskeletal pain.”