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10 Reasons Not to Skimp on Sleep

You may literally have to add it to your to-do list, but scheduling a good night’s sleep could be one of the smartest health priorities you set. It’s not just daytime drowsiness you risk when shortchanging yourself on your seven to eight hours. Possible health consequences of getting too little or poor sleep can involve the cardiovascular, endocrine, immune and nervous systems. In addition to letting life get in the way of good sleep, between 50 and 70 million Americans suffer from a chronic sleep disorder—insomnia or sleep apnea, say—that affects daily functioning and impinges on health. Consider the research:

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1) Less may mean more. For people who sleep under seven hours a night, the fewer zzzz’s they get, the more obese they tend to be, according to a 2006 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report. This may relate to the discovery that insufficient sleep appears to tip hunger hormones out of whack. Leptin, which suppresses appetite, is lowered; ghrelin, which stimulates appetite, gets a boost.

2) You’re more apt to make bad food choices. A study published in the October 15, 2008 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that people with obstructive sleep apnea or other severely disordered breathing while asleep ate a diet higher in cholesterol, protein, total fat, and total saturated fat. Women were especially affected.

3) Diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance, its precursor, may become more likely. A 2005 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that people getting five or fewer hours of sleep each night were 2.5 times more likely to be diabetic, while those with six hours or fewer were 1.7 times more likely.

4) The ticker is put at risk. A 2003 study found that heart attacks were 45 percent more likely in women who slept for five or fewer hours per night than in those who got more.

5) Blood pressure may increase. Obstructive sleep apnea, for example, has been associated with chronically elevated daytime blood pressure, and the more severe the disorder, the more significant the hypertension, suggests the 2006 IOM report. Obesity plays a role in both disorders, so losing weight can ease associated health risks.

6) Auto accidents rise. As stated in a 2007 report in the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly 20 percent of serious car crash injuries involve a sleepy driver—and that’s independent of alcohol use.

7) Balance is off. Older folks who have trouble getting to sleep, who wake up at night, or are drowsy during the day could be 2 to 4.5 times more likely to sustain a fall, found a 2007 study in the Journal of Gerontology.

8) You may be more prone to depression. Adults who chronically operate on fumes report more mental distress, depression, and alcohol use. Adolescents suffer, too: One survey of high school students found similarly high rates of these issues. Middle schoolers, too, report more symptoms of depression and lower self-esteem.

9) Kids may suffer more behavior problems. Research from an April issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine found that children who are plagued by insomnia, short duration of sleeping, or disordered breathing with obesity, for example, are more likely to have behavioral issues like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

10) Death’s doorstep may be nearer. According to three large studies published in the journals Sleep and the Archives of General Psychiatry, people over age 30 who slept five hours or less per night had approximately a 15 percent greater risk of dying—regardless of the cause—over the periods studied, which ranged from six to 14 years.

You may click to see:->
Finding Dreamland: 13 Insomnia Remedies
What’s the Cause of My Sleep Disorder?
Is Sleep Really Necessary?

Sources: MSN Health

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Healthy People May Benefit From Statins Too

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In results from an eagerly anticipated study that could dramatically change the treatment of cardiovascular disease, researchers have found that statin drugs — now given to millions of people with high cholesterol — can halve the risk of heart attacks and stroke in seemingly healthy patients as well.

The drugs, currently given to people with high cholesterol, could also reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes for those with normal levels, researchers say. Costs and side effects would have to be w

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The study of nearly 18,000 people with normal cholesterol found that the drugs, already among the most widely prescribed in the country, also lowered the risk of death from heart disease by 20%, suggesting that millions more people should be put on a daily regimen.

The effects were so beneficial that the planned four-year study was halted after less than two years, researchers said today at a New Orleans meeting of the American Heart Assn.

“These are very, very dramatic findings,” said Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Nabel, who was not involved in the research, noted that the institute already had an expert panel revising guidelines for treatment and prevention of heart disease and that the new results were likely to be included in their recommendations.

The revision would most likely call for testing a wide range of healthy people with a simple blood test for above-normal levels of a compound called C-reactive protein, which indicates increased arterial inflammation that can be treated with statins.

The new study focused on a specific drug — rosuvastatin, sold as Crestor by drug maker AstraZeneca, which funded the research.

But Dr. Tim Gardner of the Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del., and president of the American Heart Assn., said, “This is likely to be a class effect, not a specific drug effect. This is a win for all statins, I would say.”

The new treatment could prevent 50,000 heart attacks, strokes and deaths each year if it were widely adopted, experts said.

The findings “really change what we are going to do in the future,” said Dr. W. Douglas Weaver of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, president of the American College of Cardiology. “This targets a patient group that normally would not be screened or treated to prevent cardiovascular disease.”

Critics, however, charged that such wide use would cost the U.S. healthcare system more than $9 billion a year at a time when healthcare costs are climbing dramatically and could expose large numbers of people to potential side effects. Crestor is one of the most expensive statins, costing about $3.45 a day, but generic statins typically sell for less than $1.

About 120 people would have to take the drugs for two years to prevent one heart attack, stroke or death, Dr. Mark Hlatky of Stanford University wrote in an editorial accompanying the report, which was published online today by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Nonetheless, the findings will most likely be widely adopted soon, Gardner said. “It will be incorporated into practice guidelines after all the nuances are sorted out,” he said.

Statins, first introduced in 1987, block the production of cholesterol in the liver. High cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart attacks and stroke because it contributes to the buildup of plaque that blocks arteries, preventing oxygenated blood from reaching the heart and brain.

An estimated 450,000 Americans die of heart disease each year and an additional 150,000 from strokes.

More than 13 million Americans take statins regularly, and worldwide sales total more than $22 billion a year, the bulk of that in the United States.

But doctors have long been mystified by the fact that about half of heart attacks occur in patients with normal cholesterol levels and researchers have been looking for other important risk factors.

Three years ago, Dr. Paul Ridker of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and his colleagues studied results from clinical trials in which statins had been used to treat high cholesterol levels and concluded that, in addition to their cholesterol-lowering ability, the drugs also reduced arterial inflammation, which can lead to the buildup of plaque.

The finding was part of a series of studies that showed statins have a number of beneficial effects beyond their ability to reduce cholesterol. Several reports have shown that they also help prevent glaucoma and cataracts and inhibit dementia. Others suggest that they also moderate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and increase bone density. These benefits may be related to their ability to reduce inflammation.

C-reactive protein, or CRP, has long been associated with inflammation. Very high levels of CRP are associated with arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. But slightly elevated levels — about a hundredth of the levels seen in arthritis — have been linked to inflammation in the arteries that causes cardiovascular diseases.

In the new trial, called Jupiter, Ridker and his colleagues studied 17,802 patients with normal cholesterol levels and elevated CRP, as measured by a test called high-sensitivity CRP, which Ridker and his hospital hold the patent on.

Men in the study were over 50, women were over 60. About 7,000 of the patients were women and 5,000 were minorities — both groups that have not received much attention in previous statin trials.

Half of the patients received 20 milligrams of rosuvastatin and half a placebo. “We specifically chose rosuvastatin because it is the most potent of the statins,” said Ridker, who has worked as a consultant to AstraZeneca and other pharmaceutical companies. “We got very large effects on both [cholesterol] and CRP.”

Low-density lipoproteins, the so-called bad cholesterol, were reduced by 50%, and CRP was reduced by 37%.

Patients receiving rosuvastatin had a 54% lower risk of a heart attack, a 48% lower risk of stroke and a 46% lower risk of requiring either angioplasty or bypass surgery, Ridker said.

There were 136 heart-related problems a year for every 10,000 people taking the placebo compared with 77 for those taking rosuvastatin. “This is very good news for these populations,” Ridker said.

The primary side effect was a slight increase in newly diagnosed diabetes among those taking the drug, an increase that has also been noted in previous trials of statins.

“This will become an important part of the armamentarium of the primary care doctor,” Weaver said. “I see this as being part of that panel of preventions that they will be applying in men over 50 and women over 60.”

The CRP test costs about $80.

Dr. James Stein and Dr. Jon Keevil of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, estimate that about 4% of the adult U.S. population, about 7.4 million people, fit the criteria to receive the test.

Sources: Los Angles Times

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Mind Your Mouth

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There are strong links between poor oral health and systemic ailments like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and certain types of cancer.

The way to a person’s heart is through his stomach, the adage goes. Researchers now think the way to a healthy heart might be through your gums and teeth.

Evidence suggests that the healthier these are, the stronger and less disease-prone the heart is. If you don’t floss or brush, you might be setting yourself up not just for gum disease but also for heart disease. The link between what’s happening in your mouth and in the rest of your body goes further still: gum disease might be a kind of early warning system, with poor oral health linked to diabetes, kidney disease, preterm labour, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease and even certain types of cancer.

“A lot of studies are coming out that suggest some possible link or associations” between oral infection and systemic disorders, says Sally Cram, a periodontist in the District of Columbia, in the US.

There’s a certain logic to the idea that your mouth — your body’s key opening to the outside — is a harbinger of bodily health. Yet the connection is one that many people, even medical professionals, often overlook. Patients tend to minimise oral health, treating mouth issues as merely “dental”. Professionals echo this artificial dichotomy: dentists and doctors don’t really talk to one another; they don’t attend the same conferences; they don’t read the same journals.

But recent research shows a startling correlation between gum health and atherosclerosis, a condition underlying much heart disease: the worse a person’s gum disease, the narrower that person’s arteries owing to a build-up of plaque. This holds even for young, healthy adults who have no other symptoms of heart disease.

Many questions remain about the nature of the body-mouth connection. In gum disease (called gingivitis in the early stages, before it develops into full-blown periodontal disease), the tissue that surrounds the bones supporting the teeth becomes infected. Often this results from the accumulation of bacteria in the plaque under the tissue holding the teeth. The bacteria release toxins and other chemicals that begin to destroy the bone. Scientists believe they circulate and cause damage elsewhere in the body; exactly how remains unclear.

When Maurizio Tonetti of the University of Connecticut in the US conducted a study into whether reversing the production of bacteria and toxins in the mouth would benefit patients who had atherosclerosis, the results were encouraging. He reported in the New England Journal of Medicine last year that patients who underwent an intensive, six-month programme of treatment for gum disease emerged not only with healthier gums but also with improved endothelial function — that is, better function of the lining of the blood vessels.

These findings merit further study of a possible link between gum infections and preterm labour. Observational studies in the US show that rates of preterm birth are higher for women with severe gum disease than those with milder or no such disease.

Gum disease may also be implicated in a “small, but significant” increase in overall cancer risk for men, according to a recent study in The Lancet Oncology. The authors linked gum disease with a higher chance of lung, kidney, pancreatic and blood cancers. A similar pattern is emerging for kidney disease and Alzheimer’s. But as with heart disease and preterm labour, what causes what is not known.

In diabetes, however, the body-mouth connection is clear. Diabetics who have uncontrolled gum disease, Cram said, “have a much harder time (than other diabetics) controlling their blood sugar levels.” The reverse, she noted, is also true: people with uncontrolled diabetes are about “three to four times at greater risk of developing periodontal disease.”

You would think physicians would be telling their diabetic patients to make regular dental visits to head off gum disease and that dentists would be advising patients who develop persistent gum disease to be tested for diabetes. But neither group of practitioners has been especially good at making the connection.

Dental patients need to get past thinking of their dentist primarily as a cosmetic practitioner — a whitener and straightener of teeth — a “fireman” to be called only when there’s extreme tooth pain.

Regular visits to a dentist can make the mouth an early warning system for a variety of problems. Sores or fungus in the mouth, for example, are often the very first indications of infection by HIV or of cancer. Osteoporosis, a disease of the bones, could show up in a routine dental X-ray before you notice its impact on your hips or spine.

“There’s a desperate need for more collaboration between the two specialities,” says Alan Douglass, associate professor of family medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, the US.

One thing both groups agree on is the power of prevention, which means brushing, flossing and having regular professional cleaning.

Doctors can also help identify patients at risk. The good news is that if you catch gum disease in its early stages, Cram says, “you can reverse it” with procedures such as scaling and root cleaning.

So take care of your mouth. Your heart, your brain and your kidneys may thank you for it. As another US dentist puts it: “Oral health is not an out-of-body experience.”

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)

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Can Refrigeration Bring us Back to Life?

The seemingly miraculous revival of a newborn baby that had initially been pronounced dead and refrigerated in Israel is raising eyebrows among scientists and doctors.

Some wonder if the baby really died before being put in a morgue refrigerator for more than five hours and then apparently reviving. And though the baby has since died (possibly, again), some doctors remain baffled about whether the extreme cooling had a life-preserving effect.

“We don’t know how to explain this, so when we don’t know how to explain things in the medical world we call it a miracle, and this is probably what happened,” hospital deputy director Moshe Daniel said, according to Reuters.

However, there could be a less divine and more scientific explanation for the recovery via refrigerator.

“There have been a number of well-documented case histories of adults and children who drowned in very cold water, even trapped under ice for hours, and were successfully revived many hours later,” Alistair Jan Gunn, a professor of physiology and pediatrics at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, told LiveScience. “Of course, this is used routinely in modern cardiac bypass.”

Decreasing a body’s temperature can induce a state of suspended animation, where metabolism slows and the body needs less oxygen and energy to survive.

“There is some historical precedent for how this might work,” said Dr. Neil Finer, chief of the University of California-San Diego‘s division of neonatology. “Many years ago some babies were put into ice water at birth to try to revive them. There were reports that this actually could be effective and that some children survived.”

Induced hypothermia has even been studied as a treatment for various injuries, sometimes with astonishing results.
In some experiments, such as those conducted by Hasan Alam at Massachusetts General Hospital, animals such as pigs and dogs survived normally-fatal injuries and blood loss by being cooled to a state of hibernation while doctors repaired their injuries.

Cooling therapy has even shown promising results in infants with hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy, or brain damage due to lack of oxygen, according to a 2005 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine .

Sources: The Times Of India

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Omega-3’s Protect Against Clogged Arteries

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A diet rich in omega-3 fats may explain why middle-aged men in Japan have fewer problems with clogged arteries than similar men in the United States.s.

The research found that Japanese men living in Japan had twice the blood levels of omega-3 fats, and also lower levels of atherosclerosis, compared to middle-aged white men or Japanese-American men living in the United States.

Atherosclerosis is the buildup of plaque inside your arteries. Over time, they can lead to serious problems like heart attacks and stroke.

Nutritional studies show that intake of omega-3 fats averages 1.3 grams per day in Japan, compared to 0.2 grams per day in the United States.

Sources:
Reuters July 28, 2008
Journal of the American College of Cardiology August 2008; 52:417-424

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