A new study suggests that watching less TV may lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, and other blood vessel problems, even for people who are more likely to get Type 2 diabetes due to their genes.
The research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, looked at how time spent watching television affects heart health, especially in people with a genetic risk for Type 2 diabetes. Scientists have long known that sitting for long periods can increase the risk of heart disease.
Type 2 diabetes is also a major risk factor for heart problems. Since watching TV is one of the most common reasons people sit for long hours, the study aimed to find out if cutting down on TV time could make a difference.
The study was led by Dr. Youngwon Kim from The University of Hong Kong. He and his team studied health data from 346,916 adults in the UK, who were around 56 years old on average. These participants were followed for nearly 14 years to track their health over time. During this period, 21,265 of them developed heart disease or related conditions.
To understand the role of genetics, the researchers used a special method to measure how likely each person was to develop Type 2 diabetes based on their DNA. They sorted the participants into three groups: low, medium, or high genetic risk for the disease.
They also asked the participants how much TV they watched each day, dividing them into two groups—those who watched for one hour or less and those who watched for two or more hours daily.
The results showed that people who watched TV for two or more hours each day had a 12% higher risk of heart disease compared to those who watched for an hour or less. This increased risk was seen in all participants, no matter their genetic risk for Type 2 diabetes.
However, people who had a medium or high genetic risk and watched less TV did not have a greater chance of developing heart disease. In other words, limiting TV time seemed to reduce the impact of genetic risk.
Interestingly, even people with a low genetic risk for Type 2 diabetes had a slightly higher chance of developing heart disease if they watched TV for more than two hours a day.
Their 10-year risk of heart disease was 2.46%, compared to just 2.13% for those at high genetic risk who limited their TV time to one hour or less. This suggests that lifestyle choices, such as cutting down on TV, may be just as important as genetics in determining heart health.
Dr. Mengyao Wang, a co-author of the study, explained that reducing TV time could be a key way to prevent heart disease, especially for people with a high genetic risk for Type 2 diabetes. Encouraging people to be less sedentary and adopt healthier habits, like standing up and moving more, could have long-term health benefits.
Dr. Damon L. Swift, an expert in kinesiology at the University of Virginia who was not involved in the study, also emphasized the importance of these findings. He pointed out that people with Type 2 diabetes are already at a higher risk for heart disease, and small lifestyle changes like reducing screen time could be an easy way to improve health.
Review and Analysis
This study highlights how reducing TV time can play a role in heart disease prevention. While genetics do influence health risks, lifestyle choices—such as limiting sitting time—can make a big difference. The fact that people at high genetic risk for Type 2 diabetes had lower heart disease rates when they watched less TV shows that behavior can help offset genetic risks.
It also suggests that simply sitting less might be a powerful tool for heart disease prevention. Since watching TV is often a passive activity, replacing some screen time with light movement—like stretching, walking, or doing household chores—could be beneficial.
A limitation of the study is that it relied on self-reported TV viewing habits, which might not be entirely accurate. However, the findings align with previous research linking prolonged sitting to poor health outcomes. Future studies could look at whether reducing TV time alone is enough or if it needs to be paired with other healthy habits like regular exercise.
Overall, this research reinforces the idea that small changes in daily habits—like cutting down on TV—can have lasting health benefits, especially for heart health.
If you care about heart health, please read studies about how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk, and Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
For more information about heart health, please see recent studies about how to remove plaques that cause heart attacks, and results showing a new way to prevent heart attacks, strokes.
The research findings can be found in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
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