Heart attacks, strokes, atrial fibrillation, and heart disease are all disorders that fall within the heart disease umbrella.
Poor diet, inactivity, and smoking are all risk factors that can increase an individual’s risk. Researchers have found an almost universal risk factor.
Research, using 373,026 adults in the UK Biobank cohort, published in BMC Medicine found that reducing daily TV viewing to less than an hour a day could prevent 11 percent of cases of coronary heart disease.
Over the course of a 13-year study, researchers discovered that persons who watched less than an hour of TV each day had a 16 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease than those who watched more than four hours per day.
When compared to individuals who watched more than four hours of TV every day, those who watched two to three hours had a 6% lower risk of developing the condition.
“In addition to reducing the actual amount of time you sit watching TV, there are other measures that you might take, such as breaking up your TV viewing and doing some light exercise in between,” added author Dr Youngwon Kim.
“You could also try to avoid snacking, particularly on high calorie foods such as crisps and chocolates..”
“All of these measures could help better manage your risk of developing coronary heart disease.”
The study also discovered that spending leisure time in front of a computer had no effect on disease risk.
The researchers speculated that this could be due to the fact that most TV viewing occurs in the evening after dinner, which is often the largest calorie meal of the day, resulting in higher blood fat and cholesterol levels.
People may also munch more in front of the television than when using a computer because television viewing is often longer. They believe that people who use computers are more prone to break up their activities.
Professor Naveed Sattar of the University of Glasgow was skeptical of the study, saying it exaggerated the benefit of reduced TV screen time on heart disease risk.
The professor said: “There is abundant other evidence that increasing activity time by replacing time spent sitting help slower body fat levels and prevents weight gain, improves blood pressure and blood fat levels, and lowers diabetes risks.
“All such improvements, in turn, are known to lessen heart attack and stroke risks.”
It’s not so much that watching TV elevates the risk of heart disease as it is the lack of movement that follows.
Meanwhile, high blood pressure is a key risk factor for heart disease.
Stress, which leads to increased levels of the hormone cortisol in the body, is one of the many factors that might play a role in high blood pressure.
A hug, according to new research, can help reduce stress and the risk of heart disease.
People who received a hug saw their cortisol levels fall, according to research published in the journal PLOS One.
Cortisol can also affect memory and the ability to do certain tasks, in addition to raising blood pressure.
Hugging a loved one releases oxytocin, which lowers cortisol levels.
The study did have one limitation, though.
Only women’s cortisol levels went down after a hug, not men’s.
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