Year Study Links Heavy Midlife TV Viewing to Smaller Brain Volumes, More White Matter Damage - [your]NEWS

A long-running U.S. study linked very frequent TV watching in midlife to later differences in brain structure. Researchers analyzing 1,712 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) project reported that people who said they watched television “very often” at an average age of 53 had smaller volumes in frontal and occipital regions and in areas associated with Alzheimer’s disease decades later. They also showed greater white matter hyperintensities, tied to small-vessel brain disease. Occupational sitting showed a different pattern: frequent workday sitting correlated with lower white matter hyperintensity volume and larger cortical volumes. Findings were published July 10 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, with authors cautioning the results show associations, not causation.