Binge-Watching Increases the Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases

By Dr Vaibhav Mishra

All of us have heard that an excess of anything is bad. The same applies to binge-watching television for long periods of time. What we need to understand is the effect this will have on our heart. Here are the few factors associated with binge Watching and cardiovascular diseases -  

· Prolong sitting – Even walking around a little bit not just makes us burn calories but improves the circulation of legs. Sitting in a comfortable position we assume while watching TV for hours and hours will not only make us gain weight but also reduces our exercise capacity and thus our cardiovascular and respiratory reserve. 

· Eating while watching TV – Most of the people get into the habit of munching junk food and it becomes a deadly combination of Binge-watching and binge eating. The excessive amount of saturated fats in these junk foods will imbalance our lipid profile. Also being engrossed in TV we consume more that we require. 

· Indulging in smoking and drinking while watching TV is worse, just because our mind is occupied and being entertained continuously, we lose track of numbers and thus end up with exposing ourselves to more toxic substances. 

· In short sedentary lifestyle with consumption of excessive junk food will promote weight gain, glucose intolerance and deranged lipid profiles all of which in the long term can compromise your cardiovascular health. 

A lack of physical activity will directly cause a heart-related ailment. This is because the fat will cause blockages which will clog up the heart vessels and can result in a heart attack, breathlessness, loss of consciousness. Therefore, we need to step out every day, spend about 30 minutes (minimum) walking, swimming or going any form of physical activity. 

About the Author - 

Dr Vaibhav Mishra is the Additional Director, Dept of Cardiac Surgery, Fortis Hospital, Noida.