Reducing TV viewing to less than 1H/day helps prevent heart disease

According to the British Heart Foundation, coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of death, responsible for around 64,000 deaths each year. People with coronary heart disease are twice as likely to even develop a stroke.

Watching too much TV is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease regardless of an individual's genetic makeup. In a study published in BMC Medicine, the researchers show that-assuming a causal link-11% of cases of coronary heart disease could be prevented if people watched less than an hour of TV each day.

To examine the link between time spent in screen-based sedentary behaviours such as TV viewing and leisure-time computer use, an individual's DNA, and their risk of coronary heart disease, researchers examined over 500,000 adults who have been followed up prospectively for about 12 years. The team created polygenic risk scores for each individual-that is, their genetic risk of developing coronary heart disease. As expected, individuals with higher polygenic risk scores were at greatest risk of developing the condition.