Every single hour of television watched after the age of 25 reduces the viewer’s life expectancy by 22 minutes

By comparison, smoking a single cigarette reduces life expectancy by about 11 minutes.

An adult who spends an average of six hours a day watching TV over the course of a lifetime can expect to live 4.8 years fewer than a person who does not watch TV.

References:

Get Up. Get Out. Don't Sit. - NYTimes, 2012 http://nyti.ms/10oXBQd

Comments from Twitter and Google Plus:

Humera Naqvi, MD @nayab78: hmmm that means we ppl should be dying early taking the amount of tv watched but life expectancy has increased.

K Dillon, RDMS,CPC-A @comalliwrites: Confounders & confirmation bias not accounted for...

@ShadolooDoll: Misleading. It isn't TV itself, but the lack of activity. A person who is dedicated to exercise can still watch TV, right?

Timothy Cook: Great, since I stopped watching TV.  I can start smoking again!  ;-)

Davíð Þórisson: Phew - no mention of watching Youtube! :-)

Jimena Yosara Aguilar Jimenez: I'll never watch tv again

Dimiter Stanev: Does that mean that disabled people suffer from this too?

Image source: Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.

28% of Vermont doctors "to stop practicing medicine" after single payer reform - doctors on Twitter disagree

According to BMJ, Vermont moves closer to becoming first US state to provide “socialised medicine”.

Vermont is set to become the first US state to launch a single payer healthcare plan after a bill passed both houses of the state’s legislature.

The plan is expected to be signed by Governor who originally proposed the idea that would abolish most insurance plans and would instead provide healthcare to all residents through public funding - a “single payer” scheme and is fiercely opposed by many conservative politicians as “socialised medicine.”

Some doctors in Vermont are unhappy about the proposed changes. In an online poll of 600 doctors conducted by a state representative and an ObGyn doctor, 28% said that they will stop practising medicine in the state if the plan is adopted.

Comments from Twitter:

@a_singledrop (Emily Lu): Seriously?

@movinmeat: calling their bluff.

@gruntdoc (GruntDoc): States as exp labs.

@backpackerchick (Hartley): In another era, doctors ****** about Medicare and found themselves richer than ever when it was enacted! What's good for the doctor (profits) is not necessarily good for the patient!

@RN_ing (Mary v. Seattle RN): Change is difficult... to be expected, but continue to want #singlepayor.

@irfandhalla (Irfan Dhalla): Single payer turned out to be well liked by docs in Canada. Will same happen in Vermont?

What do you think? Feel free to comment below, or post on Twitter.

References:

Vermont moves closer to becoming first US state to provide “socialised medicine”. BMJ 2011; 342:d2921.

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.