Binge-Watching TV Can Impact Heart Health
Sitting at your desk all day is not nearly as bad as vegging out in front of the television, suggests a new study.
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People who reported watching four or more hours of TV a day had a 50 percent greater risk of heart disease than those who watched two hours or less, says Jeanette Garcia, Ph.D., assistant professor of health sciences at the University of Central Florida. (That effect wasn’t associated with sitting a lot at work.)
The great equalizer appears to be exercise: Participants who watched four or more hours a week of TV but who also logged 150 minutes a week of vigorous exercise such as brisk walking or aerobics had the same level of risk as the light TV watchers. So go ahead and binge-watch — a little — and be sure to counteract those negative Netflix effects with plenty of daily movement.