The time spent sitting, and intellectually inactive, has consequences on brain health.
- Dementia causes a decline in cognitive abilities, such as memory loss.
- 50 million people are affected worldwide.
- Alzheimer’s disease is one of the leading causes of dementia.
Television harms your health. Either way, it increases the risk of dementia. Researchers, from the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona, observed this in a study recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that adults over 60 who spend long periods of time sitting, doing nothing, are at increased risk of dementia.
More than 145,000 attendees
Their work is based on Biobank, a biomedical database gathering information from over 500,000 participants across the UK. The researchers observed the possible correlations between sedentary leisure activities and dementia in the elderly. They focused on the profiles of around 145,000 participants, aged 60 and over. Between 2006 and 2010, they answered questionnaires to inform about their level of sedentary lifestyle. On average, they were followed for a period of 12 years, and 3,507 cases of dementia were diagnosed. According to the authors’ findings, adults aged 60 and over who sit for long periods of time watching television, or who engage in other types of passive and sedentary behavior, are at increased risk of developing dementia.
Avoid sitting and being passive
After controlling for physical activity levels, the results remained the same. “Even in very physically active people, time spent watching television was associated with an increased risk of dementia.”, note the authors. In contrast, free time spent using a computer was correlated with a reduced risk of developing dementia. “It is not the time spent sitting per se, but the type of sedentary activity performed during leisure time that has an impact on the risk of dementia“says study co-author David Raichlen, professor of biological sciences and anthropology at the University of Southern California. According to him, it’s probably related to the fact that watching television involves low levels of muscle activity and energy consumption compared to computer use or reading.”The relatively greater intellectual stimulation that occurs when using a computer may counteract the negative effects of sitting.”he continues.
Increase our mental activity
“Although we know that physical activity is good for our brain health, many of us believe that if we are simply more physically active during the day, we can counter the negative effects of time spent sitting.“, underlines the author of the study Gene Alexander, professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona. However, the results show that the cerebral impacts of a sedentary lifestyle are not linked to the level of overall physical activity.Being more mentally active, such as when using computers, may be a key way to help counter the increased risk of dementia linked to more passive sedentary behaviors, such as watching television.”he concludes.
