Turn off TV, walk, live longer

No-one really contends that watching television is good for you. Sure, maybe the news can keep you up to date and the occasional documentary, or even a lifestyle show, may fill a gap in your general knowledge. In general though, rather than watching Bear Grylls (in Man Versus Wild) eat a live scorpion before shimmying semi-naked up a sheer 200 metre rock face using only his teeth to maintain a grip, wouldn’t you be better off doing a spot of exercise yourself? Two new studies suggest that you would, in fact you could be up to five years better off.

The first study was an Australian one, conducted through the University of Queensland. These researchers used information from the Australian Diabetes, Obesity, and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). This involved information on 11 000 adults over age 25 beginning in 1999-2000. This survey included information on TV viewing habits. This data was then cross-matched against Australian Bureau of Statistics figures on population and mortality for 2008.

The results showed that in 2008 Australian adults watched a scary 9.8 billion hours of television. The researchers found on analysing the figures that in comparison to someone who does not watch television, someone who spends an average of six hours per day watching television can expect to live five years less.

For every hour spent watching television after age 25 the researchers calculated that life expectancy dropped by 22 minutes, and that wasn’t only for “reality” programmes.

In the second study researchers assessed the benefits of various amounts of exercise in over 400 000 people (approximately half men and half women) who underwent standard medical screening between 1996 and 2008. As part of the screening the participants had filled in questionnaires about exercise, so that from their responses, the researchers were able to categorize them according to five levels of weekly exercise volume: inactive, low, medium, high, and very high. Then over an average follow up of eight years, they noted any deaths among the group and calculated the risk of death of each of the four active groups compared to the inactive group, and the life expectancy of each group.

Compared with the inactive group, the group that exercised at the “low” level had a fourteen per cent reduction in their risk of death from all causes. This group exercised on average fifteen minutes a day. When they brought in data from all other groups each fifteen minute increase in daily exercise reduced death risk from all causes by a further four per cent.

On average the people in the low exercise category could expect to live three years longer than those who were inactive.

So while television watching takes years off your life, a mere fifteen minutes exercise per day adds years to it. Hmmm…maybe you could miss this evening’s teppanyaki cook-off between a former game-show super-model hostess and a surprised egret and go for a walk after all?

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