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Too
Much TV Ups Obesity,
Diabetes Risk in Women
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
Women who are glued to the boob-tube are also likely to watch
their waistlines expand, Harvard researchers reported Tuesday.
What's more, some of these women
may go on to develop type 2 diabetes, according to their report,
published in the April 9th issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
"This study emphasizes the importance
of reducing prolonged TV watching and other sedentary behaviors
for preventing obesity and diabetes," write Dr. Frank B. Hu and
colleagues at Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital
in Boston.
The rate of obesity among U.S.
adults has increased by 74 percent since 1991, according to a
recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). Extremely obese people have a seven-fold greater risk of
diabetes, according to the CDC report, and are more likely to
have high blood pressure and arthritis than people with normal
body weights.
In the current study, Hu's team
looked at more than 50,000 women participating in the Nurses'
Health Study, a long-running project begun in 1976 to follow the
health of female nurses across the U.S.
The researchers tracked the new
cases of obesity and type 2 diabetes over six years, from 1992
to 1998.
By the end of this period, 3,757
women (7.5 percent) had become obese, and more than 1,500 had
developed type 2 diabetes.
After accounting for exercise,
diet, smoking and age -- factors that sway the risk of obesity
and diabetes -- Hu's team found that each two-hour-per-day increment
of TV watching was associated with a 23 percent increase in obesity
risk and a 14 percent increase in diabetes risk.
"Our data provide strong evidence
that sedentary behaviors, especially prolonged TV watching, are
directly related to obesity and diabetes risk," the researchers
conclude.
Obesity and type 2 diabetes are
preventable, the authors point out.
Currently, the CDC recommends that
people wishing to maintain good health schedule 30 minutes of
moderate physical activity each day, and 60 minutes each day if
they want to lose weight.
SOURCE: Journal of the American
Medical Association 2003;289:1785-1791.
Reference
Source 89
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