A television in a teen's bedroom may hurt their heath
Story By: Dr. John
Source: KOAA
When it comes to your teenagers, one thing in their bedroom might be causing more harm than you think.
Turns out that if a teen has a television in their room, it's no big surprise that they watch more tv. But what is a little shocking is what that little extra tv time does to them.
Health professionals have been warning us for years that televisions should be taken out of our kids bedrooms. But many parents aren't listening to them. In fact about 68 percent of American youngsters have televisions in their bedrooms as we speak. And we've known that having these tv's there can cause problems, but didn't really know what type of problems, until now.
According to the results of this latest study, having a tv in your kids room obviously leads to more time spent watching tv. But that's not all. It can also result in less time spent exercising and lower fruit and vegetable intake throughout the day. And if all this isn't bad enough, that same tv in the bedroom can also mean they drink more sweetened beverages. All of this can lead to them gaining unwanted pounds. But perhaps the most troublesome is that kids with tv's in their bedrooms also end up spending less time with the family and have lower grades in school.
The study showed that, on the average, teenage girls spend about five more hours a week watching tv if it's in their bedroom. Teenage boys spend about 4 more hours.
So, get the tv out of there and let them spend time with their family or on the things they need to be doing, like their homework.
