Medicine: TV Legs

Sitting motionless and staring at TV, long feared by physicians as a danger to the eyes, is also a threat to the circulation. So warned Philadelphia’s Dr. Meyer Naide in the A.M.A. Journal last week. Internist Naide cited three patients (one a doctor) who had had severe blood clots in leg veins or arteries, requiring hospitalization and treatment with anticlotting drugs. Dr. Naide’s prescription: take a “seventh-inning stretch” by getting up and moving around at least once an hour at TV seances, and for women, take off girdles, which can stop circulation in the thighs.