Many people nowadays sit on their couches watching television once they get home from school for students and work for adults. Sitting on the couch watching television isn’t necessarily a bad thing but sitting on the couch for long hours is. When we were kids we were often told to go out and exercise because it is beneficial to ones health. But some studies have shown that when a person has been sitting on the couch for a long period of time then even exercising won’t reverse the effects. People shouldn’t sit on couches for long hours because it causes health problems.
Day in and day out I have heard my mom and dad telling me to get off the couch and go exercise; they tell me that exercising is good for my health. Many times I have refused to listen because I am just too lazy which I am sure many others have the same thought as I do under the same circumstance. I would think that I get enough exercise from the time I spend in school from basketball training and from walking up and down the stairs to get to different classrooms. A lot of people rather sit on their couches than to go out and exercise because it’s too much work. Many people also think that if they exercise a few hours a week it can compensate their hours sitting on the couch but they are wrong.
According to the Journal of the American College Cardiology “the amount of leisure time spent sitting in front of a screen can have such an overwhelming, seemingly irreparable impact on one’s health that physical activity doesn’t produce much benefit.” It means, even if one did exercise a lot but they sat staring at a screen for too long the effects done by sitting for too long will be irreversible. During a clinical research on cardiovascular disease it found out “that those who said they spent two or more leisure hours a day sitting in front of a screen were at double the risk of a heart attack or other cardiac event compared with those who watched less. Those who spent four or more hours of recreational time in front of a screen were 50 percent more likely to die of any cause.” Sometimes exercising just won’t be enough to maintain a person’s health.
Sitting on a couch and staring at a screen not only causes cardiac problems but also other health problems as well such as blood pressure. According to a research done in 2009 children who watch a lot of television have higher blood pressure than those who watch less even if they do exercise more. Not only is sitting on a couch dangerous but when we decide to stare at the television at the same time it will lead to more health problems. By watching more television or staring at a screen while sitting around people could potentially have health issues but at the same time if people watched less television and got off the couch there could be benefits.
Some people who oppose of this argument might say that if people exercised more each day then they can watch as much television as they want. However that is not true because some people are not willing to get off their couch and exercise and like I mentioned before, sometimes people watch too much television causing some health problems that are irreversible. It is true, however that by exercising people can become healthier. According to a study done about one year ago showed that if overweight adults simply cut their viewing time in half for three weeks used about 120 more calories a day than those who continued to watch television for five hours a day. By cutting their television time the adults were able to spend more time in light physical activities that burn their calories than watching television. It shows that the only thing preventing the television viewers from a health like is the time spent sitting on a couch and doing nothing that might burn their calories. If the viewers simply got up and moved around it wouldn’t cause as much problems but how many people are willing to do that? Some irreversible health problems like cutting the amount of time can prevent sitting on the couch spent on sitting and staring at a screen. If something can’t be cured then there is only one way to stop the health problems from happening which is to know the factors that causes it. People should stop spending long hours sitting on the couch because the effects might be irreversible. Sitting on the couch may be fun but like everything else, too much of a good thing is bad for you.
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