Column: ‘Are you watching too much TV during the COVID-19 pandemic?’ asks Dr Keith Souter

“You might not think that will be much of a problem, but here is a lot of research that suggests that there are real risks from watching too much TV.

“One major study that was carried out in 2015 suggests that each hour that is spent watching television each day increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by three-and-a-half per cent.

“That is very important if you have already been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, the stage where diabetes is likely to occur, but it has not yet developed.

“The study was done on more than 3,000 overweight adults who were pre-diabetic.

“The overweight adults were divided into two groups.

“One of the groups was given the drug metformin to see if it could prevent the development of the condition.

“The other half were given lifestyle advice and asked to be more active.

“At the start of the trial they had all watched television an average of 140 minutes a day.

“They found that the lifestyle change group fared better.

“They had a 58 per cent decrease in the development of diabetes, compared with only 30 per cent in the ones given the drug metformin.

“Very significantly, they found that for every hour a day that people watched television the risk increased by three-and-a-half per cent.

“That can be enough to tip one from pre-diabetes into diabetes.

“It has to be noted that the study was done on overweight people, but even when this is accounted for the risk is still increased by two per cent per hour.

“Another study was done on the effect of a sedentary lifestyle on your chromosomes and your DNA.

“In this study researchers measured the length of telomeres, (the ends of the DNA threads) in the blood cells of 49 overweight and sedentary people in their late 60s.

“The participants were randomly allocated to an exercise program or advised to stick to their usual routine.

“They found that the DNA and chromosomes did not get frayed as much in those who spent less time sitting watching television. The point of this is that frayed telomeres are more likely to lead to illness and earlier death. All good “reason to consider missing a programme or so and doing some light exercise instead.”