To Watch or Not To Watch?

When we get bored, we prefer to sit back and relax. If there is a complete set of television which is fully equipped with amazing sound system, that could probably sufficient to wrap up the rest of the day. No doubt, television brings us fantastic programs which have the ability to attract us, glue our butts onto the seat.

Perhaps, that is most people culture, be it Asians or Westerners. Eyes on the TV set, is a normal thing to do, and it has becoming a routine for each one of us. In addition, many of us are very well aware that addicting to TV programs for a certain number of hours is not beneficial to us, particularly our health.

A latest study suggests that adults weighing above the healthy range (in other words, individuals who are overweight) could burn more calories by watching less television. This study was the work of University of Vermont researchers, and it appears in the December issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The lead author Dr. Jennifer Otten, suggested that other sedentary activities, such as chatting on the phone, and even reading, actually burns more calories compare to spending time in front of the television. This team of researchers had conducted a trial to look at how reducing the amount of time spent on watching television could affect energy expenditure, body weight, calorie consumption, level of activity and other related attributes, in adults who were deemed overweight.

Researchers recruited 36 adults to participate in this study. Among 20 of htem were chosen at random to cut their TV viewing by 50 per cent for 3 weeks, while the remaining of the adults were treated as the control group.

Surprisingly, for those 20 adults who were chosen to halve their amount of time in viewing the TV, they eventually burn 120 calories more than those in the control group. But how much exactly 120 calories is? Dr. Otten said 120 calories a day of energy which they burned off is equivalent to walking more than a mile.

Babyface

In this sophisticated society, females who are in their younger ages, hope to keep their beauty for an eternity, they hope so badly that their youthful looks will not deteriorate in the future. What about males? Younger males who looked young, often are not satisfied with their own looks, they prefer to look older, or in other words, more matured despite their youthful ages.

If we look at this issue in the males' point of view, will this do any good? Looking matured enough at certain age perhaps could make them more marketable, but how about in the perspective of health? Think again!

A recent study which is published in the Christmas issue of bmj.com claims that people who look young for their actual age enjoy a longer life than their years.

Professor Kaare Christensen, from the University of Southern Denmark, had led a team of researchers to examine whether perceived age is linked with survival. This research team had investigates a total of 1,826 Danish twins whom were aged 70 years and over , and had them underwent physical and cognitive tests, back then in the year of 2001.

Photographs of the faces of these twins were taken, and these photographs weer assessed by appointed individuals, including: 20 female geriatric nurses aged 25 to 46, 10 male student teachers aged 22 to 37, 11 older women aged 70 to 87. These individuals rated their perceived ages by assessing the facial photographs.

After 7 years, death records were used to track the twins survival. What really shocking to the result of the study was, the perceived age seemed to be closely related to the survival of those individuals. The bigger the difference in perceived age within a twin pair, the more likely was that the older looking twin died first. This findings can be concluded that facial photographs proved to be a strong biomarker of ageing.

So young men, do you still think being older is a cool stuff to do?