Scientific research has shown that watching television can dramatically increase cholesterol production in the body. Besides being a necessary component of most tissues and hormones in the body, cholesterol also serves as a stress hormone that increases during physical or mental strain. In fact, cholesterol is one of the first hormones transported to the site of an injury to help heal it. Cholesterol forms an essential constituent of all scar tissue formed during wound healing, whether it is a skin-related injury or a lesion in the wall of an artery.

It can be very tiring and stressful for the brain to compute the fast movement of picture frames for long periods of time. “Television-stress” is especially pronounced among children, whose blood cholesterol can rise by 300 percent within a few hours of watching television. Such excessive secretions of cholesterol alter the composition of bile, which causes the formation of gallstones in the liver.

Exposure to television is a great challenge for the brain. It is far beyond the brain’s capacity to process the flood of incoming stimuli that emanate from an overwhelming number of rapidly changing picture frames appearing on the TV screen every split second. The resulting stress and strain takes its toll. Blood pressure rises to help move more oxygen, glucose, cholesterol, vitamins, and other nutrients to various parts of the body, including the brain. All of these are used up rapidly by the heavy brainwork. Add to this the tension associated with the content of some programs—violence, suspense, and the noise of gunshots, cars, and shouting—and the adrenal glands respond with shots of adrenaline to prepare the body for a “fight-or-flight” response. This stress response, in turn, contracts or tightens the large and small blood vessels in the body, causing the cells to suffer a shortage of water, sugar, and other nutrients. This shortage of nutrients, in turn, may create the phenomenon of “insatiable hunger” that so many people experience in front of the television set.

Several kinds of symptoms may result from this effect. You may feel tired, shattered, exhausted, stiff in the neck and shoulders, very thirsty, lethargic, depressed, and even too tired to go to sleep. Stress is known to trigger cholesterol production in the body. Since cholesterol is the basic ingredient of stress hormones, stressful situations use up large quantities of cholesterol to manufacture these hormones. To make up for the loss of cholesterol, the liver raises its production of this precious commodity. If the body did not bother to increase cholesterol levels during such stress encounters, we would have millions of “television deaths” by now. Nevertheless, the stress response comes with a number of side effects, one of which is the formation of gallstones.

Lack of exercise can also lead to stasis in the bile ducts and, thus, cause gallstones.

(This is an extract from my book The Amazing Liver & Gallbladder Flush, available on http://www.ener-chi.com/book.htm )