Men who watch more than four hours of TV a day significantly increase their risk of bowel cancer, a study shows.
Researchers, who tracked 500,000 British people for six years, found a significant link between sedentary behaviour and bowel cancer risk.
Scientists from the University of Oxford, Imperial College and the UN International Agency for Research on Cancer found men were more likely to smoke, drink and eat junk food while bingeing – raising their risk by 35 %.
They found no link between computer screen time and bowel cancer risk.
For women the increased risk of television watching was just 11%.
Lead researcher Dr Neil Murphy said being sedentary was linked to ‘weight gain and greater body fat’, which could ‘affect the way our cells grow’. Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in UK men.
In 2015 there were around 41,800 new cases of bowel cancer in men and women.
Professor Paul Pharoah of the University of Cambridge, said: ‘Eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy body weight, keeping active and not smoking reduces the risk of many diseases.’