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• Posted March 13, 2025

Turning Off TV Better For Heart Health Of Folks Predisposed To Diabetes

People with a higher genetic risk for type 2 diabetes also have a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and other heart-related diseases.

But controlling that risk could be as simple as picking up a TV remote and hitting the “off” switch, a new study suggests.

Limiting TV watching to no more than one hour a day appears to help offset the increased risk of heart disease associated with a high genetic risk of type 2 diabetes, researchers reported March 12 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“This suggests that less TV viewing could serve as a key behavioral target for preventing atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases linked to type 2 diabetes genetics,” lead researcher Mengyao Wang, a recent doctoral graduate of the University of Hong Kong, said in a news release.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the UK Biobank, a large repository containing genetic, lifestyle and medical records for nearly 350,000 U.K. residents.

During nearly 14 years of follow-up, researchers identified more than 21,000 participants who’d developed atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease – heart diseases related to clogged or hardened arteries.

Results showed that people with a medium or high risk of type 2 diabetes did not have a higher risk of heart disease if their TV viewing was limited to one hour or less daily.

On the other hand, spending two hours or more with a TV increased heart disease risk by 12%, regardless of a person’s genetic risk for type 2 diabetes.

In fact, people with high genetic risk for type 2 diabetes actually had a lower 10-year absolute risk for heart disease if they limited their TV viewing, 2.1%, compared to people with low genetic diabetes risk who watched two or more hours a day, 2.5%.

“Type 2 diabetes and a sedentary lifestyle, including prolonged sitting, are major risk factors for atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases,” senior researcher Youngwon Kim, a professor of public health at the University of Hong Kong, said in a news release.

“Watching TV, which accounts for more than half of daily sedentary behavior, is consistently associated with an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis,” Kim said.

“This study shows that reducing TV watching can benefit both people at high risk for type 2 diabetes and those at low risk,” said Damon Swift, an associate professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville who chairs the American Heart Association's Physical Activity Committee.

“It also highlights how lifestyle choices can improve health,” Swift, who was not involved in the study, added in a news release.

More information

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more on how sitting around affects heart health.

SOURCE: American Heart Association, news release, March 12, 2025