Dang! That explains my constant drooling….!

Of course it does. 

I've posted it previously, but my cripple mother-in-law kept her TV glued to CP24 day and night before she died. It was in this time that her mind batter dissolved to a thin gruel. 

Did she amuse herself to death? No, but I have no doubt the garbage she constantly watched was oil for the engine of her fate.

I'm relatively young (born 1995), but I can say with confidence that excessive TV news watching can be every bit as harmful as social media doomscrolling, regardless of your politics, culture or world views. The constant doom & gloom, especially during COVID restrictions that effectively served as fodder to lengthen and strengthen them can suck the life out of you. Even worse, the effects are physiological, in other words, both physical and psychological.

The article seems to be getting at the effects of combinations of under-stimulation of the brain and sedentary physical behavior. Thus, the effects must be multi-faceted. One of the worst if not the worst thing anyone can do to their brain is to just not use it. Worse, stereotypical "couch potato" behavior is associated with obesity and high blood pressure (hypertension), the latter of which has been identified as a risk factor for dementia.

Simply put, excessive TV viewing is likely an unhealthy behavior associated with compounding harms and risk factors for dementia and non-dementia age-related cognitive decline.

mace wrote:

So that's why I am a basket case. Good to know.

I too am a basket case and I don't even watch TV.