Switch off the TV and you may not get depressed

Worried about depression?  Switch off the TV for a couple of hours and you’re much less likely to ever suffer from it.

Doing something more active in those two hours can reduce your risk by around 40 percent, and it’s an especially beneficial thing to do if you’ve reached middle age.

Even switching off the goggle box for just an hour every day reduces your risk by 18 percent, say researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. If you don’t feel particularly active, going to bed instead of watching yet another programme reduces your chances of depression.

Playing sport was the most effective activity to replace TV viewing, especially if you’re young enough to participate, although doing household chores didn’t reduce the risk, the researchers found.

The researchers tracked the activities and mental wellbeing of more than 65,000 adults who didn’t have depression at the start of the study.  They monitored their activity levels for four years, which included commuting, leisure exercise, sports, household tasks, physical activity at work or school, TV watching, and sleep.

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