Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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 Data from the Americans' Use of Time study show that free time spent watching television increased from about 10.4 hours per week in 1965 to about 15.1 hours in 1985 [67]. Survey data from adults also indicate that time spent watching television averages about 2-3 hours a day [68-71].
The high frequency of television viewing and other "screen time" among youth is disturbing. Dietz and Gort-maker [64] report that children in the United States spend, on average, as much time watching television each year as they do attending school. |
Andreas Moritz
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 Miscellaneous Causes
Watching Television for Several Hours
Scientific research has shown that watching television can dramatically increase cholesterol production in the body. Besides being a necessary component of most tissues and hormones in the body, cholesterol also serves as a stress hormone that increases during physical or mental strain. In fact, cholesterol is one of the first hormones transported to the site of an injury to help heal it. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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 Arthritis Medications ne night a few years ago I was watching television when a commercial came on that caught my attention. An older but very attractive woman pirouetted across a skating rink as cheerful, up-tempo music swelled around her. Three Dog Night's rock classic "Celebrate, Celebrate!" urged her on to ever more acrobatic moves. Next, the words Celebrex and Ask your doctor appeared on the screen, and with them the promise of the happiness and vitality that I, along with millions of baby boomers, fantasize about. The ad conjured up a lovely picture. |
Marshall Editions
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 DO
CO CO
NATUROPATHY
When watching television, take a few moments during the commercials to uncross your legs, curl your toes, stretch your arms over your head, twirl your wrists, and slowly bend and unbend your fingers. This routine can prevent compressed nerves and lower the risk of numbness and tingling. If you have numbness in a leg, make sure that you do not carry any bulky items, such as a wallet, in your back pockets. Every time you sit down, the lump in the back pocket puts pressure on the sciatic nerve that runs along the buttocks and down the back of the leg. |
Dr Ron Roberts
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 Some therapists suggest that while watching television or waiting at traffic lights we can help our bodies relax by applying finger and thumb pressure to the chest, especially between the ribs (intercostal bones) from the neck to the bottom of the sternum.
Acupressure points in intercostal spaces.
In recent years acupressure aids such as earrings, called 'acurings', have been designed. These apply light pressure to the lung and heart points in the ear. The earrings are only worn for 20? |
Andreas Moritz
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 By contrast, watching television makes them passive and depressed. Also, lack of exercise, cold and heavy food, overeating, and receptive work (passive versus active) slow them right down. Kaphas need to be active and only recognize their great assets of inner security and steadiness when they are in action. This keeps them youthful and healthy. The main key to balancing Kapha is, therefore, stimulation. |
Dr. Sharon Moalem
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 There's no question that gallons of sugary soda, baskets of fatty fries, and too many hours watching television and playing video games instead of after-school sports is a fattening combo. But new research suggests that may not be the whole story.
There is emerging evidence that the dietary habits of parents, especially women in the earliest stages of pregnancy, may have an impact on the metabolism of their children. In other words, if you're trying to get pregnant, you really should think twice before you bite that Big Mac—once for your own waistline, and once for your potential child's. |
Gabriel Cousens
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 In summary, factors that may contribute to insulin resistance and thus to diabetes include: high-fat diet; low-protein diet; deficiencies of the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids; a diet high in simple carbohydrates; high-glycemic meals filled with refined sugar and starches; stress; low fiber intake; deficiencies of the minerals calcium, magnesium, chromium, vanadium, potassium, and zinc; deficiency of carotenoids; low intake of vegetables; lack of exercise; watching television; and nicotine. |
Jack Challem
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 While I've always enjoyed long walks and an occasional hike, my work as a writer has been sedentary, and I spent most evenings reading books or watching television. Then, at fifty-three, I was introduced to cycling by a friend. At first, it felt like torture. After I struggled to the top of my first hill, my heart was pounding and my lungs were straining.
I've since come to enjoy my brisk bike rides, zipping along the snaking paths of a nearby river park for fourteen to twenty miles several mornings a week. |
| Boundary violations are why so many people hate telemarketers—their telephone calls violate our space during dinner or while we're watching television at home.
Our boundaries are violated in still other ways. For example, parents might allow their children and their toys full reign of the house, instead of maintaining a well-defined "adults only" space. Similarly, some couples may not recognize that each person has his or her own individual activities to pursue, such as hobbies or meeting with friends. |
| Some people enjoy watching television or reading a book, a magazine, or a newspaper in bed before turning off the lights. The bedroom should really be for just three activities: sex, pillow talk, and sleep. Read or watch television in another room.
Keep your laptop computer out of the bedroom. It's becoming more common for couples to work on their laptop computers in the bedroom before dozing off. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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 Not only did the children improve their scores on standardized tests, but the health of the volunteers substantially increased: half of the women who were using canes stopped; 44 percent reported feeling stronger; the amount of time they spent watching television dropped 4 percent; and they reported a significant increase in the number of people they could turn to for help.
Volunteering is beneficial because it involves social contact, which is inherently challenging for the brain. |
Neal D. Barnard and Bryanna Clark Grogan
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 First, exercise and eating are mutually exclusive activities, unlike eating and watching television. It is easy to scarf down extra calories while watching your favorite crime drama or a movie, but it is a real challenge while you are playing tennis. Exercise is calorie-free fun.
Second, exercise helps you sleep. If you have given your muscles a good workout, they demand sleep. You will sleep much more soundly than if you had spent the entire day behind your desk, watching television, or reading. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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 How much time do you spend watching television? Are you tuning into "Must-See TV" and skipping other activities that can enrich your life? Try treating TV as you should treat food — with quality and portion control. If possible, use TiVo® or a DVR to record your favorite programs so you can skip through the commercials. That will reduce the time you spend watching TV by over 25 percent and will protect you from the mind-conditioning messages. Make wise viewing choices and balance TV time with things that enrich your body, mind and spirit. |
Jack Challem
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 If you live alone, use a stationary bicycle or other exercise equipment while watching television. If you're out walking, you can listen to podcasts or music on your MP3 player—just pay attention to your surroundings, the traffic, and any hazards you might trip over. You can also vary your activities, walking one day, sweeping the garage or the driveway on another, and working with hand weights the next.
The Different Types of Physical Activity
Physical activities and exercise are often grouped by what they do for the body. It's good to know the different types. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Television: watching television fills your mind with false messages, clouding your mind with ideas that distort reality and impair your ability to connect with the universe. Have you ever noticed that the people who watch the most television seem to be unable to attract those things into their lives that they want? It's because television acts like an intention blocking device, draining away your intention energy and filling your head with ideas and beliefs that only serve the interests of corporations and governments. |
Dr. Timothy Scott
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 As hard as it may be to believe, television viewing somehow decreases the body's metabolic rate even more dramatically.21 watching television also slows down the body more than does reading.22 I want to see the depressed person moving away from anything that depresses physically or mentally. The "opposite" of watching television in terms of metabolic rate changes is getting physical exercise. Perhaps this is another reason exercise is so beneficial to those seeking to overcome depression.
There are secondary reasons why I am concerned about television viewing. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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| TV: The Ultimate Addiction
Few people will admit they are addicted to watching television. Yet other than sleeping or working we spend more time watching TV than any other activity. The average home in the U.S. has a TV blaring for seven hours and 40 minutes, and the average American watches over four hours of TV per day.12 We are drawn to watch TV because it is a quick and convenient escape. After a stressful day at work, one click of the remote can immediately change our state of mind. TV triggers emotional responses and alters the chemical reaction in the brain. |
Andreas Moritz
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| It is also good advice to keep one's feet warm, get complete rest, and avoid watching television (due to its stimulating and dehydrating effects). Eating food during the crisis can interfere with the healing process, since this uses up the energy the body tries to direct toward eliminating toxins. But drinking plenty of warm water helps with the much needed cleansing and rehydration process in the body. Also recommended is a warm bath before bedtime and, in case there is pain, a hot bath as often in the day as is comfortable. |
| Also, smoking cigarettes or watching television for too many hours has a dehydrating effect on the body and causes urine to become overly concentrated. This increases the precipitation of urinary constituents.
Eating lots of strongly acid-forming foods, such as meat, fish, dairy products, baked goods, candy, sugar and the like, forces the body to release many of its valuable minerals, thereby altering the pH (acid/alkaline balance) of the urine. This not only causes mineral deficiencies in the body, especially in the bones and teeth, but also turns the normally acidic urine filtrate alkaline. |
| Children spend an average of 5 to 6 hours a day on sedentary activities, including watching television, using the computer, and playing video games. Today's children are bombarded and brainwashed with well-crafted TV ads from fast-food chains and other purveyors of high-fat, high-sugar meals and snacks. When one totals the sugar intake of the average American, including refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners, the shocking intake is 142 pounds a year, or roughly 2 Vi pounds per week, according to a report by CBS Broadcasting on June 17, 2007. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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 A few moments of watching television, even so-called news programs, demonstrate that anecdotes are commonly used to "prove" just about anything related to illness and health. We ignore all such stories. Even published scientific case studies of one person, or even a few, or even a few score, interesting though they might be, are too limited in scope to help us draw conclusions. Whenever possible, we rely on statistical data. These data give us the best picture of what is happening to most people most of the time. |
Andreas Moritz
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| It reported new research linking autism in young children to the harmful effects that watching television can have on their physical and mental wellbeing. According to the research, allowing children under 3 to watch television can impair their linguistic and social development, and also increase their risk of health problems including attention-deficit disorder, autism and obesity.
Before the age of 3, children's brains go through rapid development and are being physically shaped in response to whatever they are exposed to, says the report. |
| Research has shown that watching television for several hours at a time can drive up blood cholesterol more dramatically than any other so-called risk factors, including diet, sedentary lifestyle or genetic disposition. Exposure to television is a great challenge for the brain. It is far beyond the brain's capacity to process the flood of incoming stimuli that emanate from the overwhelming number of picture frames appearing on the TV screen every second. The resulting strain takes its toll. |
Wendy Bazilian, DRPH, MA, RD, Steven Pratt, MD, Kathy Matthews
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 Don't try to accomplish other tasks while eating and that includes read-
2 More Important Tips ing or even watching television. Savor every delicious bite and chew your food well. And you'll enjoy the meal more and feel fuller faster.
Manage Hunger. Sometimes we think we're hungry but we are in fact experiencing another distracting feeling that could range from boredom to anxiety. If your tendency is to immediately grab something to eat at the first sign of hunger, here's your proactive SuperFoods approach. Follow these steps:
Take your emotional pulse: Are you bored? Stressed? Angry? Tired? |
Mike Adams
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 By the way, watching television doesn't qualify as brain exercise. Exercising your brain means doing things like engaging in social interaction, reading, and working strategy puzzles like crossword puzzles or Sudoku—the Japanese brain teaser that has you fill a grid with numbers. Even playing bingo counts as brain exercise—at least more exercise than watching television.
In terms of nutrition for the brain, there are many, many supplements that are good for brain function. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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 Don't use your bed for eating or watching television.26
"The most consistent change with aging is in sleep quality, not in sleep duration," says Charles M. Morin, Ph.D., author of Relief from Insomnia: Getting the Sleep of Your Dreams. The proportion of time spent in deep sleep (stages 3 to 4) decreases from about 20% to 25% of the night during young adulthood to 5% to 10%duringyoursixties. "Thisdeepslumber virtually disappears," Dr. Morin says. |
Michael T. Murray and Michael R. Lyon
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 Although an individual may relax by simply sleeping, watching television, or reading a book, relaxation exercises are designed specifically to produce the relaxation response.
With the stress response, the sympathetic nervous system dominates. With the relaxation response, the parasympathetic nervous system dominates. The parasympathetic nervous system controls bodily functions such as digestion, breathing, and heart rate during periods of rest, relaxation, visualization, meditation, and sleep. |
Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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| Television watching is associated with increases in energy intake and repeated episodes of eating while watching television may result in television's becoming a trigger for eating [96]. Crawford et al. [68] caution that the link between obesity and television watching appears to be complex and that targeting television viewing alone would not be an adequate public health strategy for addressing the obesity epidemic. |
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