Middle-aged TV watchers hit with urgent warning as California study unveils ominous brain risk
Are they watching Graying Anatomy?The idea of TV rotting your brain is apparently not just an old wives tale.Spending too much time watching TV in middle age may literally shrink the brain, increasing the risk of dementia and other complications, according to researchers at the University of Southern California.This screen-induced cerebral shrinkage was detailed in a study in Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Journal of the Alzheimer’s AssociationTo determine how TV binges affect the middle-aged brain, the researchers analyzed data on 1,700 middle-aged adults who joined the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study — a long term US population survey of heart and brain health — between 1987 and 1989.
The participants, who had an average age of 53, reported the amount of time they spent viewing television during their free time on a scale from “never/seldom” to “very often.” They also had to report how much time they remained sedentary.Fast forward two decades later and the subjects underwent MRI brain scans.The researchers found that participants who watched TV “very often” had broad structural changes compared to those who “never” or “seldom” viewed the tube.Specifically, regular viewers showed a reduction in regions of the brain linked to early indicators of Alzheimer’s.
They also displayed a higher level of white matter hyper-intensity, a hallmark of a small blood vessel disease in the brain, which is associated with cognitive decline and dementia. The same group also had smaller occipital and frontal lobes, the parts of the brain responsible for visual processing and executive functions such as planning and decision-making.Coincidentally, this rift between TV devotees and infrequent watchers persisted even when the researchers factored in physical activity, body mass index, smoking, alcohol use, and other variables.This seemed to suggest TV watching — and not sitting by itself — was the primary cause of the cerebral recession....