Television

Television

Pandora's Electronic Box

Karen Dykeman's social life was crammed into a 19-inch box in her living room. She had breakfast with Regis Philbin, lunch with Phil Donahue, dinner with Dan Rather and a midnight snack with Johnny Carson.

"My life revolved around television virtually from first thing in the morning to late at night," says the 35-year-old switchboard operator in Seven Lakes, North Carolina. "Thank God, I've gotten away from that. In the two years since I gave up watching television, I've lost 60 pounds, gotten involved in a community theater group, gone back to college, started dating and just had a great time. I have a real life now. I definitely feel more vigorous and feel like I think more clearly."

Karen's energetic lifestyle since she kicked her TV habit comes as no shock to doctors who have long suspected that television's magnetic appeal saps us of our youth in many ways.

"There's absolutely no question that large amounts of TV viewing can make you feel old and weary before your time," says Kurt V. Gold, M.D., a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at Immanuel Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, who has studied the effects of TV viewing on children. "Just think about what happens when you watch television. You're sitting passively, not using your muscles much. After you've watched a long program, you feel stiff, tired and mentally drained.

"Over the long run, that can lessen your ability to think and perform physical tasks. If you watch a lot of television, you're simply not doing something that is going to refresh your body. As a result, your muscles sag, and your mind stagnates. It's common sense. If you don't use it, you lose it."

A Pox on Your Fitness

But the danger of television isn't confined to losing muscle tone or abusing brain cells. Some researchers also believe there is a definite link between heavy TV viewing and that dreaded middle-age bulge. In one study of 4,771 working women whose average age was 35, Larry A. Tucker, Ph.D., professor and director of health promotion at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, discovered that those who spent more than three to four hours a day watching television had twice the risk of being obese as women who watched less than one hour daily.

A study of 800 adults, published in the journal American Dietetic Association, found that the risk of obesity may be even greater than that. In this study, the incidence of obesity among those watching an hour or less of television a day was 4.5 percent, but prevalence shot up to 19.2 percent among those watching four or more hours a day.

Further evidence of the connection between TV viewing and fading fitness comes from another study at Brigham Young University. In this study of 9,000 adults, researchers concluded that people who watched television for less than one hour a day were the most fit. Compared with them, viewers with three- to four-hour habits were 41 percent less fit, and those who did regular four-hour-plus marathons of TV viewing were 50 percent less fit.

"Excessive TV viewing may not be the start of physical decline, but it can be a part of it," says Dr. Tucker. "People who watch a lot of television tend to be less physically active, eat more high-fat snack foods and be more obese. Other research has shown that people who watch a lot of television are more likely to be smokers. So there are a lot of negative health consequences that may be associated with watching lots of television."

In a study of 11,947 adults, Dr. Tucker found that people who watched three to four hours of television a day had twice the risk of developing high cholesterol levels as people who watched less than an hour a day. Even those who watched two or three hours a day were 1.5 times more likely to have high cholesterol. Excessive blood cholesterol is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

This Is No Pick-Me-Up

But how many women have the time to watch that much television every day? A lot. In fact, the average American woman watches more than 30 hours of television a week or more than 4 hours daily, according to a report from Nielsen Media Research. That means a lot of women could be facing high risk of developing unflattering stomachs, heart disease and other chronic ailments normally associated with aging.

TV viewing may also dull your mind. Researchers found that two years after television was introduced into a Canadian village in 1973, the average resident's time in front of a television increased from 0 to 22 hours a week. That increase in viewing drastically curtailed residents' participation in community social activities and sports. Researchers also found that residents who watched a lot of television did not solve puzzle problems as well as residents who watched less television. In addition, after television came to the village, residents gave up trying to solve these problems much more quickly than before its arrival, says Tannis MacBeth Williams, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Don't count on television to perk you up, either. In fact, research has shown that watching television for long periods leaves people in worse moods than they were in before they started watching. Irritability, difficulty relating to others and boredom may also be linked to excessive TV viewing.

"I wouldn't say that television is a total waste of one's leisure time. There are some good programs that inform and entertain us," Dr. Tucker says. "However, there is a tendency to overindulge in television, and that is wasteful and, to some extent, unhealthy."

Here are a few ways you can control your television rather than having it control you.

Set boundaries. Put a limit on the amount of time you will watch each week and stick to it. "You need to set limits, or your viewing can easily get out of control," Dr. Tucker says.

Have an off-night. Make the television off-limits one night a week. See what creative things you and your family can find to do, Dr. Tucker says.

Be your own guide. Browse through a programming schedule and mark one or two programs an evening that you want to watch. Turn on the set when the show begins and turn it off immediately after it ends, Dr. Tucker says. This will discourage you from getting hooked on the next program.

Put a camera on yourself. Before you turn on the television to watch a program, take a moment to visualize yourself walking over to the set and turning it off once the show is over. "That will program it into your brain that the television will actually go off at that time, and you will find something else to do," says Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., an educational psychologist in Vail, Colorado, and author of Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think and What We Can Do about It.

Reward yourself for not watching. For every hour that you don't watch television when you normally would, give yourself a point. After you've accumulated 10 or 20 points, treat yourself with tickets to a play, an evening at a comedy club or a dinner out with your family or friends, suggests Leonard Jason, Ph.D., professor of clinical and community psychology at DePaul University in Chicago.

Say what? Try turning on the set but turning off the sound, says Dr. Healy. More than likely, you'll quickly find something else to do with your time. "Much of the enticement of television comes from the sound track," says Dr. Healy.

Move it out of sight. Try putting your television in an unusual place, such as a cluttered room with no chairs, so you have to make an effort to watch it. "I've been remodeling my house, and I've put a bunch of furniture in front of my set, so I can't get to it very easily," Dr. Gold says. "You know what's nice? I've been working on my yard and spending time with my family instead of the television."

Get out of the house. Take a stroll, or go to the pool and have a leisurely swim. Get out into the real world. "If you watch three hours of television, do you usually feel invigorated? Probably not. If you go out for a 15-minute walk, you'll get a chance to talk to your neighbors and get some fresh air. I'd bet you'd come home feeling energized and ready to do anything but watch television," says C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., medical director of the Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Call on me. "Arrange to have a friend phone you at the end of your favorite program. That might be all the incentive you need to break your habit, because once you get pulled away from the set, it's going to be easier not to go back to it," Dr. Healy says.

Get a hobby. "Find something that interests you, whether it be sketching, photography, caring for pets or going to school," says Karen Dykeman. "I got involved in things such as theater that made me feel important, needed and useful. If you find something useful in your life, you can break the TV habit really quickly."

Don't get cable. The fewer viewing options you have, the more likely you'll find something else to do with your time, Dr. Gold says.