Kids who watch too much TV at greater risk of asthma

Kids who sit in front of the television for more than five hours a day are at a greater risk of developing asthma, a new study has revealed.

Scientists in Italy have found that children who lounge in front of the TV for long periods are more than half as likely to become sufferers from the respiratory condition than those who only watch television for an hour a day.

And the reason? Dr Giuseppe Corbo, who led the research carried out by the Catholic University, Rome, said: “Prolonged sitting is associated with a decrease in spontaneous sighs, which regulate airways.”

OK, well I guess it makes sense that if you lead a couch-potato lifestyle, sitting for hours would lead to lots of shallow breathing.

On the flipside, an active lifestyle would mean much deeper breaths. But, sighing?

Has Dr Corbo not watched TV for a while? Whenever I tune in nowadays, I can’t help sighing.

Anyway, the study looked at 20,000 six and seven-year-olds and was recently published in the medical journal Epidemiology.

It found a strong link between obesity and asthma, a condition that affects a million children in the UK alone.

However, salt intake was actually discovered to be more of a significant risk factor than obesity.

In fact, those kids with the highest intake were almost three times as likely to develop asthma.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, the British Lung Foundation said: “Obesity, high TV viewing and a high salt diet get children off to a bad start in life.”

Pic: Morguefile