Too Much TV Can Raise Kids’ Blood Pressure and Also Result in ADHD
When obese children develop high blood pressure, one factor may be watching too much television. The American Journal of Preventive Medicine issued a news release on the subject in which researchers urged families and doctors to emphasize the need for obese kids to watch less TV.
Of course it seems like commonsense — too much lazy time watching TV leads to lack of exercise which increases obesity, which in turn can result in hypertension.
The authors found that the severity of obesity, and the amount of time spent watching TV each day, were independent predictors of hypertension. “Children who spent two to four hours a day watching TV were 2.5 times more likely to have hypertension than children who watched two or less hours of TV a day. Children who watched four or more hours of TV a day were 3.3 times more likely to have hypertension than those who watched less than two hours a day.”
TV viewing among children has also been linked to an increased incidence of ADHD later on. An interesting article in the New York Times explores the connection between ADHD and television viewing. See here.
