This makes watching too much TV as dangerous as going through long-haul flights. We all know how exhausting and agonising these are, but who would have guessed that watching TV could bring in the same risks. Scientists say that the data they gathered from well over 86000 people over a period of 18 years shows also encouraging statistics. One could easily avoid blood clots if they occasionally drink water or even just stand up.
The blockage in the pulmonary artery (the blood vessel that carries blood from one’s heart to his/her lungs) is the cause of death of tens of thousands of people each year in many countries. And with the rising in popularity of online streaming services such as Netflix these figures are just increasing.
Dr Toru Shirakawa and Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, presented the study results and discussed about this burning topic at the European Society of Cardiology conference in London. Shirakawa, the academic who led the research by the Department of Social Medicine at Osaka University, cared to add the following after warning everybody about the dangers of watching too much TV: “To prevent the occurrence of pulmonary embolism, we recommend the same preventive behaviour used against economy-class syndrome. That is, take a break, stand up, and walk around during the television viewing. Drinking water for preventing dehydration is also important.”
