The couch potatoes face more dangers, says study

New research from scientists in Australia has found that a person’s lifespan can be shortened by watching too much TV and not taking enough exercise. The study claims that this may be due to people eating more and moving less when they are watching the box.
The study involved monitoring the data on how much TV people were viewing each week from 11,000 people aged 25 plus, with the findings highlighting that excessive TV watching could be as risky as smoking and lack of exercise in lowering life expectancy.
They showed that those who spend an average of six hours each day in front of the TV screen on average live almost five years less than those who watch no TV at all, and also that for every hour spent watching TV from the age of 25 onwards meant that lifespan decreases by 22 minutes.
However, there are warnings that the research, which was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, did not prove that watching TV caused people to die earlier, just that there was an association between watching lots of TV and a shorter lifespan.
Many experts claim that the impact of TV viewing is more indirect, and involve lack of exercise and unhealthy diet, increasing the risk of obesity and conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Others argue that excessive TV watching could be due to loneliness or depression, which could be the actual reasons behind premature mortality.