For the Health of our children, Turn off the DVD players (yes even in the car), the TV, computers and the video games.

Data indicate children who watch more than two hours of TV per day may have increased asthma risk.

Commenting on the study detailed by Bloomberg News, Mary Engel pointed out in the Los Angeles Times (3/4) Booster Shots blog that "asthma is generally thought to influence sedentary behavior rather than vice versa: A wheezy child opts to watch TV rather than risk an exercise-induced asthma attack."

But, the work published in Thorax by researchers in Scotland shows "the opposite to be true." After tracking "3,065 children from 3.5 years of age to 11.5 years," investigators found that "about six percent of the children had asthma by age 11," whereas they were all asthma-free at study start.

Furthermore, "those who watched TV for more than two hours a day in early childhood were almost twice as likely to have been diagnosed with asthma by age 11 as those who watched less."

The authors explained that the "relationship between physical activity, sedentary behavior, and asthma is complicated," but "one hypothesis is that failure to stretch airway muscles by the kind of regular deep breathing that comes from exercise may contribute to the development of asthma."

Click here and here to read a little more about this