Proving the words of countless mothers across countless nations, new research shows that spending all day staring at computers and TVs actually is bad for kids, giving them heart problems later in life.
Scientists say that kids who spend many hours in front of screens have narrower arteries in the back of their eyes, and link this to future heart problems.
The study looked at almost 1,500 Australian children, and the results took into account age, sex, ethnicity, iris color, length of the eyeball, BMI, birth weight and blood pressure. The children averaged 1.9 hours of screen time every day, and 36 minutes of physical activity. Every hour of time in front of a monitor equated to a retinal artery 1.53 microns narrower, and associated with a blood pressure increase of 10 mmHg.
The measure of the micro-vessels in your retina is an indicator for cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure in adulthood.
It might not turn your eyes square, but sitting in front of a screen all day definitely isn’t good for your health.
Illustration by Andrea Danti/Shutterstock
