University study
shows our viewing
may slowly be killing us
Hopefully it wasn’t C-Span, CNN, MSNBC or Fox News.
Mine was the Saturday morning cartoon, “Gigantor,” about a young boy named Jimmy Sparks who commands a towering robot that his father created whenever the world faced catastrophic danger, which happened every Saturday morning in our Gary home.
The robot was initially developed as a weapon, but it was later reprogrammed as a guardian of peace. Sort of the opposite of the internet in our lives today.
The show, modified from its original Japanese version, debuted on U.S. television in 1964, so I was probably a toddler when I first starting watching it. As a young boy, I’m sure I watched every episode multiple times. I never complained. Gigantor ruled.
I’ve been watching TV every day since then, from “Gilligan’s Island” to “This Is Us,” thousands of shows, events, news reports and sporting events. I wish there was some kind of cosmic calculator that counted how many hours I’ve spent staring into what we used to call the “boob tube.” Never mind, that staggering figure would probably depress me.
I’ve spent too much time watching TV in my life. I’ll bet you have too. There were too many nights when I fell asleep watching it, allowing it to then watch me. Other than those sleepy times, I typically sat up to watch TV. I’ve sat on dining room chairs. I’ve sat on easy chairs. I’ve sat on couches. I’ve sat on ottomans. I’m an expert at sitting.
Last week, I found out that sitting while watching TV is unhealthier than, say, sitting at your desk working. We already knew that sitting, in general, has been labeled as dangerous to our health as smoking. Yes, my fellow couch potatoes, sitting while staring at TV is even worse, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers from Columbia University found that television viewing is associated with more cardiovascular events and death, compared to sitting at a desk job, which had no association with those outcomes.
“It may be that most people tend to watch television for hours without moving, while most workers get up from their desk frequently,” said the study’s author Keith M. Diaz in a statement. “The combination of eating a large meal such as dinner and then sitting for hours could also be particularly harmful.”
This makes perfect sense to me. As a writer, I’m sitting at a desk for several hours each day, typing on a keyboard while staring into another kind of screen.
It now commands my attention more than my TV screen. If you told me this in my younger days, I never would have believed it.
Our TVs have been our constant companion, our late-night guest, our surrogate girlfriend, our trusty baby sitter, our nursing home entertainer, and possibly our longest-running friendship. It’s been as omnipresent in our lives as boredom or loneliness.
Too many of us have binged on popular shows for so many hours on end that we get annoyed having to use the bathroom or to leave for work or to care for a crying child.
The study found that people who watched four or more hours of television a day had a 50% greater risk of cardiovascular events and death compared to those who watched it less than two hours a day. It’s the difference between catching up on a season of “Game of Thrones” and catching up on the day’s news, respectively.
I was co-fathered by Mike Brady, Hawkeye Pierce, Mr. Cunningham, Archie Bunker and Mork from Ork. My real dad didn’t stand a chance compared to my TV dads. Plus they were as dependable as a ratings sweep week.
In my childhood home, my dad was proud that we were one of the first families in our neighborhood to have a TV remote control, even though each click sounded like a mousetrap just went off. Before we purchased that remote control, I was the remote control in our home.
“Sonny boy, get up and turn on Channel 2 …” my father would tell me. “Nah… try Channel 5 … nah … try 7 … nah, just go back to 9.”
This was the only activity I performed while watching TV.
Our family revolved around our television set like planets around the sun. Some days I was Mercury, sitting cross-legged on the floor closest to the TV. Other days, I felt like Uranus, banished to the back of the living room if we had company. Still, I would always find a seat — somewhere. I don’t recall ever standing.
My only exercise while watching TV came during a commercial break when I would, literally, run to the bathroom or kitchen. These days, I simply push pause on my fancy (and quiet) remote control. In other words, I’m likely doomed to the clinical fate of a middle-age black man from Jackson, Mississippi.
If only Dr. Marcus Welby (Tuesday nights on ABC-TV) were still around to treat us. Or Dr. Doogie Howser. Or Dr. McDreamy. Or Trapper John. Or Dr. Quinn.
Don’t laugh too hard. You also might be doomed. Don’t stress, though. I’m sure you can learn more about this study on the 10 o’clock news.
Several readers have recently contacted me on Facebook, saying they couldn’t find my Post-Tribune contact info. So here it is:
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