Spending more than four hours a day sitting in front of a television or computer more than doubles your risk of dying from or being hospitalized for heart disease, according to a new study.

And even those who exercise can’t overcome the detrimental effects of too much screen time, said study researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis, of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University College London.

Many people have sedentary jobs, and spend five to seven hours sitting at their desk or in their cars during their daily commute, he said. Tack on two to four hours of leisure time spent sitting, and the total can balloon to 10 hours a day spent parked in a chair.

‘This is excessive,’ Stamatakis told MyHealthNewsDaily.

The study is published in the Jan. 18 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Death and risks

Stamatakis and his colleagues studied 4,512 adults who answered questions as part of the 2003 Scottish Health Survey. Researchers asked how much leisure screen time the people took in each day, which included watching TV or DVDs, playing video games and using the computer. After 4.3 years, there were 325 deaths from all causes and 215 cardiac events.

The researchers found that […]