Could TV watching boost your risk of colorectal cancer?

Image via Wikimedia used under Creative Commons 

CANCER DIGEST – Feb. 10, 2019 – Colorectal cancer is on the rise in people under 50 years old and researchers have found a possible link. People who spend more than two hours a day watching TV have been found to have a 70 percent increase in the risk of colorectal cancer.

Colorectal cancer rates have been declining in older people, thanks in part to cancer screening initiatives, but for people under 50 the rate of colorectal cancers have been increasing, so researchers analyzed data from the ongoing Nurses Study II that has been following 89,278 women since 1976 with periodic questionnaires. The results were published in the February 2019 Journal of the National Cancer Institute Cancer Spectrum (JNCI Cancer Spectrum).

They found that among the 118 cases of cancer in those women under 50 over 20 years showed that those who said they spend an hour a day viewing TV had a 12 percent increased risk of colorectal cancer but those who watch two or more hours of TV had a nearly 70 percent increased risk. When they factored in weight, exercise and family history there was no change in the increased risk. That indicates that being sedentary may by itself be a risk factor for young-onset colorectal cancer.

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Source: ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 February 2019