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Your Netflix binge watching habits could be deadly

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If you practically live on your couch and the only marathons you run are on Netflix, we’ve got bad news.

A new study conducted by a team at Osaka University in Japan found that couch potatoes have a higher risk of developing blood clots due to their sedentary lifestyle, and this could lead to deadly pulmonary embolism, also known as a blood clot in the lung.

Researchers analyzed over 86,000 participants between the ages of 40 and 79 and noted how much time they spent watching television each day. Since beginning the study almost 20 years ago (beginning in 1988), 59 participants have died of a pulmonary embolism.

According to the study, people who watched between 2.5 to five hours of TV each day had a 70 per cent higher risk of dying from pulmonary embolism than those who watched less than 2.5 hours a day. The risk increases by 40 per cent for every additional two hours of daily TV watching and those who exceeded five hours a day were 2.5 times more likely to die from pulmonary embolism.

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Inactivity is partly to blame, says the study, as it causes blood flow to slow which may cause clots in the leg or pelvis. Over time, the clot may break free and travel through the blood stream to the lungs where it might lodge itself in a small blood vessel and cause heart failure.

“Pulmonary embolism occurs at a lower rate in Japan than it does in Western countries, but it may be on the rise,” says Hiroyasu Iso, a professor of public health at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine and co-author of the study. “The Japanese people are increasingly adopting sedentary lifestyles, which we believe is putting them at increased risk.”

The good news - there are a few simple steps you can take to reduce your risk of pulmonary embolism.

“After an hour or so, stand up, stretch, walk around, or while you’re watching TV, tense and relax your leg muscles for five minutes,” says Iso. He adds that drinking water may also help, and if you’re overweight, losing those extra pounds will also help bring down that risk.

While the study was conducted before smartphones, computers and tablets became popular sources of information and entertainment, the adverse side effects of a sedentary lifestyle can happen regardless of its cause. Researcher also acknowledge that new studies are needed to determine the effect of these new technologies on the risk of pulmonary embolism.

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