breaking latest news – Don’t you want to be stupid? So, don’t spend too many hours in front of the TV. The monitoring work carried out on hundreds of thousands of people could be summarized as follows. Do you want to defend yourself, protect yourself from the risk of an incipient “dementia” due to a sedentary life spent in front of the small screen? Well, those who watch more TV are more likely to have dementia.
This is the lapidary sentence of a study that has monitored hundreds of thousands of elderly people referred to by the Paìs. In itself it is not the sedentary lifestyle that is bad for the brain in itself, but it all depends on what you do while sitting. And TV is a contributing cause. Now, “the connection between sedentary lifestyle and dementia has not yet been categorically established” But “one of the largest studies to date examines this relationship”, Emphasizes the newspaper.
Indeed, “researchers from several US universities compared the mental health status of 146,651 seniors when they had an average age of 64.5 with their situation ten years later. In that period, 3,507 of them (about 2.5%) were diagnosed with dementia ”. The study participants, obtained from an impressive public health tool (the UK Biobank database), completed a series of questionnaires to find out what their physical activity was and the time they spent sitting, watching television or in front of the computer ( excluding working hours).
Paìs reports: “The strength of this new study is that it reveals a consistent relationship between sedentary lifestyle and mental health, but not just any sedentary lifestyle. The questionnaires asked participants how many hours a day they spent watching television or in front of a computer screen. What they observed is that the more time you spend sitting in front of the television, the more likely you are to have dementia after a decade follow-up. The percentage of increased risk rises to 40%. But the same does not happen with computers: the probability of developing dementia in this case drops to 20% ”, can be read in the report that reports the summary of the research of several US universities.
Passivity of action and television images therefore have a relationship and are a contributing cause of brain degeneration. It would be different if the use of TV were combined with a somewhat distracting physical activity.
It’s okay to go to the gym, but it’s also better to stop watching TV
Furthermore, a few weeks ago, neuroscientists from the German Center for Neurovegetative Diseases published the partial results of a work still in progress after performing brain imaging on 2,500 people who wore an accelerometer to record their physical activity by focusing on the relationship between physical activity and sedentary lifestyle (television or computer). Result? “We see that physical activity reduces the risk of dementia, but it does not completely neutralize the risks associated with watching television“said Davis Raichlen, of the University of Southern California, the lead author of the study.
According to data from the World Health Organization, Alzheimer’s and other dementias affect about 50 million people worldwide, about 5% of the world‘s elderly population. Everything indicates that the figures will rise due to increased life expectancy and aging. The prevalence of the different types of dementia, almost testimonial among the under 60s, increases with age and explodes among those who reach 85-90 years, a group in which half have mental problems. Hence the urgency in determining whether or not there is a sedentary lifestyle that is healthy for the brain. Neuropsychologist David Bartrés-Faz, professor at the University of Barcelona and associate researcher at the Guttmann Institute, comments: “If you spend hours in front of the television, the risk is not reduced if you go to the gym for an hour later. It’s okay to go to the gym, but you should also stop watching TV ”is her dispassionate advice from her.