CAN WATCHING LESS TV LOWER YOUR RISK OF DEMENTIA?
I try to pass on the latest research into reducing your risk of developing dementia. You already knew that time spent exercising was better than the same amount of time watching TV. But now we have a large investigation finding that even actively using a computer is better than sitting on the couch binge-watching a Netflix series. Here are excerpts from the Washington Post October 25, 2022, online article by Linda Searing, Watching TV could increase seniors’ risk of dementia, study says.
How older adults spend their sedentary time — what they do while sitting — makes a difference in their chances of developing dementia, according to research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
It found that those whose time sitting was primarily spent watching television had a 24 percent increased risk for dementia, whereas those who spent that time on a computer had a 15 percent reduced risk for dementia. The researchers explained that TV watching is cognitively passive, meaning little thinking is required, while computer use is cognitively active, meaning it (like reading) is more intellectually stimulating.
For both groups of study participants, the odds of developing dementia linked to sitting persisted even if they were physically active at other times of the day.
Dementia Symptoms
Dementia, which is not considered a normal part of aging, is an umbrella term used to describe a set of symptoms — memory loss, confusion, problems with language and reasoning, and behavioral changes — that progress over time and affect a person’s daily life and activities. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. Today, about 6 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s and related dementias— most older than 65 and more women than men — and the number is expected to increase to 14 million by 2060, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New Research
The new research involved 146,651 adults 60 and older who did not have dementia when the study began. After tracking for about a dozen years, 3,507 participants had been diagnosed with dementia.
The study found:
- time spent watching television increased the risk of dementia [Those who watched the most television daily—more than 4 hours—were 24% more likely to develop dementia.]
- time spent actively using a computer (not passively streaming) decreased the risk of dementia.
As the researchers concluded, “reducing cognitively passive [sedentary behaviors] like TV watching and increasing cognitively active [ones] like computer use, by even a small amount, may have a significant impact on dementia risk in individuals, regardless of their engagement in physical activity.”