Middle-aged people who regularly watch TV are susceptible to greater risk of deterioration of cognitive functions at a later age. This is evidenced by the results of three new studies presented at the conference of the American Cardiology Association for Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health, writes Medical Xpress.
Scientists have found that even moderate TV viewing time is associated with a deterioration of cognitive functions in old age. At the same time, they cannot say for sure whether the television itself is a direct cause of such a decline, or it depends on the amount of time that people spend sitting in front of the screen.
About 6,500 people who watched TV shows for about six years from the mid-1980s were participating in the first study for about six years from the mid-1980s.
people were divided into three groups: those who never or rarely watched TV, those who watched sometimes, and those who watched often or very often, and as they grow up a series of cognitive tests.
Specialists found that participants who watched a TV in moderate or large quantities, a cognitive function decreased by about 7%, depending on their results in cognitive tests for 15 years.
In the second study, the data was studied about 970 people with relatively stable habits for viewing the TV shows, which passed the additional brain scanning to track changes in its structure.
A group of scientists has discovered that people who sometimes or often watched TV have had a lower volume of gray matter after ten years, which indicates greater atrophy or deterioration of the brain state.
The gray matter of the brain is involved in the management of muscles, vision, hearing, decision making and other important functions of the brain. The volume of gray substance is usually associated with the best ability to memorize and think.
The third study was also focused on the gray matter of the brain, however, the analysis of the long-term study of the risk of coronary arteries in young people took the analysis. About 600 people every five years have asked how many hours they spend on the screen on the screen. Twenty years after the start of the study, the researchers conducted an MRI scanning of the brain. This study also showed that the frequent viewing of the TV was associated with a decrease in the size of the gray substance.
In general, experts found that for each additional hour of viewing the TV, the person loses about 0.5% of the gray matter – similar to the annual deterioration in the state of the brain in the elderly.
These results show that a sedentary lifestyle can represent a unique risk for brain and cognitive health. Thus, reducing TV watching hours Man promotes healthy brain aging.