What Binging News Every Day Does to Your Body
There was a time—it may be difficult to remember now—when being a news junkie wasn't hazardous to your health—but you won't believe what watching the news every day does to your body. It's been a year of exceptionally stressful developments in the news, including a global pandemic, high-pressure presidential contest and widespread racial strife, and your daily consumption of TV, radio and social news, which may have been no problem a few years back, may leave you feeling overwhelmed, anxious or depressed. That's because your body and brain respond to negative messages in a range of ways that affect you from head to toe. "The constant exposure to negative and violent media drives up our stress hormone, cortisol," says Monisha Bhanote, MD, an integrative medicine physician in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Here's what experts say watching the news every day does to your body.
Watching the News Elevates Your Cortisol Level
The continuous chronic release of cortisol increases our heart rate and blood pressure while decreasing our rest-and-digest response," says Bhanote. That can cause weight gain, particularly an increase in difficult-to-lose belly fat. The rise in cortisol has been shown to affect women in particular. After having volunteers watch bad news and have their saliva tested for the hormone, "it led to a significant increase in cortisol to a subsequent stressor in women only," according to a study in PLOS One. "Also, women in the negative news condition experienced better memory for these news excerpts compared to men. These results suggest a potential mechanism by which media exposure could increase stress reactivity and memory for negative news in women."
Watching the News Can Cause Sleep Issues
Having trouble sleeping these days? Oversleeping? You're not alone—and your news consumption may be to blame. "Watching the news every day can lead to sleep problems, which can further increase the risk for health-related problems secondary to stress and depression," says Leann Poston, MD. Poor-quality sleep has been linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia, just to name a few serious conditions.
Watching the News Can Raise Your Blood Pressure
It's not just a turn of phrase—chronically exposing yourself to stressors like the news really can raise your blood pressure. "Frequently, news stories are presented in such a way to elicit an emotional response from viewers," says Poston. "This can lead to high blood pressure and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease."