Too much TV & no play makes your child hypertensive

Technology has everyone hooked irrespective of their age. The amount of time children spend watching television is also on a rise and the time spent outside, playing is decreasing day by day. However, letting your child watch TV for a long time takes a huge toll not only on his mental but also his physical health. According to a new research, television time of more than two hours can severely affect your child's blood pressure which can have deleterious effect on his healthy later in his life too.

The study conducted at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, says that children who watch TV for more than two hours have 30 percent higher chance of having hypertension. Moreover, the study also stresses the fact that children who get very little physical activity are at a 50 percent higher chance of developing high blood pressure. (Read: Health hazards of watching too much TV)

The findings are based on data gathered over two years from eight European countries (Spain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Cyprus, Estonia, Sweden and Belgium) and involved 5,221 children, who were between two and 10 years old at the beginning of the study. Lead researcher Augusto Cesar de Moraes explained that the study shows the number of new high blood pressure cases and the connection between physical activity and different sedentary behaviours with the risk of high blood pressure in European children.Read more about how obese kids have six times higher risk of high blood pressure.

The findings showed that the cumulative incidence of high blood pressure in this population during the two years analysed is high as 110 in 1,000. The researchers observed that not doing an hour of physical activity a day increases the risk of high blood pressure by 50 percent and concluded that physical activity is a powerful vasodilator and therefore, the rate of oxygenation of the heart increases, and at the same time, decreases arterial pressure.

The study was published in the International Journal of Cardiology.

Image source: Getty Images

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