Several studies conclude that sitting for extended period of times can be harmful to the body, and a new study found that people who watch television for three hours a day or more are twice as likely to die in the next few years as people who watch little or no TV.
"Television viewing is a major sedentary behavior and there is an increasing trend toward all types of sedentary behaviors," Dr. Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, the study's lead author and the chair of the Department of Public Health at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, said in a release. "Our findings are consistent with a range of previous studies where time spent watching television was linked to mortality."
The study done in Spain was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Over a period of eight years, researchers studied 13,284 young, healthy Spanish people whose average age was 37. They sought to find a connection between death risk and three sedentary behaviors: watching TV, being on the computer and driving.
At the end of the study period, 97 participants had died, and the researchers came to some surprising conclusions about the link between these activities and risk for early death.
"We observed that those in the lowest category of television viewing, those who watched television less than one hour a day, they have a very low risk for mortality," study author Dr. Miguel Martinez-Gonzalez, professor and chair of the department of public health at the University of Navarra, told FoxNews.com.
Experts also urge people to get up as much as they can during the day, and walk around the office, to and from work, and on your lunch break.
"As the population ages, sedentary behaviors will become more prevalent, especially watching television, and this poses an additional burden on the increased health problems related to aging," said Martinez-Gonzalez. "Our findings suggest adults may consider increasing their physical activity, avoid long sedentary periods, and reduce television watching to no longer than one to two hours each day."
