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Health news worldwide
The following
information relates to articles and
papers concerning health and wellbeing published worldwide.*
Poor sleeping habits earn bad marks
Study shows why cigarette smoke makes flu, other viral infections worse
A lazy brain is a shrinking brain
Blood sugar levels might be new measure of health
Mind over matter in chronic disease treatment
Women have hearts too!
Previous editions
Public
release date: 23 July 2008
Poor sleeping habits earn bad marks
Grumpiness and lethargy are well recognised behaviours in
schoolkids with insufficient sleep, but a new study at Flinders
University shows that lack of sleep impairs children’s ‘working
memories’, negatively affecting their academic ability and
ultimately dragging down their marks and grades. Flinders
psychologist and sleep researcher Dr Michael Gradisar led a study of
adolescent schoolchildren that shows the performance of complex
tasks that require information to be retained while other
information is processed are affected by levels of sleep.
Previously, investigations of links between poor sleep and working
memory performance based on simple memory tasks suggested that
performance was unaffected.
“Previous studies suggested that despite
getting inadequate sleep, kids could tolerate it and still
function,” Dr Gradisar told Flinders Journal. “But we have found
that when challenged with a more complex task, adolescents who have
been having less than eight hours sleep begin to have trouble,” he
said. Dr Gradisar said adolescents who had insufficient sleep
displayed an impaired ability to encode, store and retrieve
information. In the school setting, these difficulties affect tasks
such as dictation, which requires information to be retained while
writing, and multi-step problems in mathematics. “Kids learn a whole
range of different abilities at school, and we have shown that some
of these abilities are susceptible to sleep loss,” Dr Gradisar said.
“This has implications for their learning and their overall grades.”
The study, published in the journal Sleep and Biological Rhythms,
found eight to nine hours sleep appeared to be optimal: the
researchers observed a plateau effect, with no further improvement
in performance associated with more than nine hours. Further
research aims to test the effect of shortened sleep on performance
in areas such as abstract thinking and novel problem-solving.
Following the small-scale studies, PhD student Michelle Short has
embarked on a larger project to determine the prevalence of
inadequate sleep among school students in Years 9 to 11. As well as
completing a questionnaire, participants keep a sleep journal for a
week, and their activity levels are logged by a wrist monitor. “The
early indications are that the incidence of problematic sleep is
much higher than we anticipated,” Dr Gradisar said. Early results
show some adolescents take almost an hour to fall asleep,
contributing to bad sleep patterns.
To address these problems, Dr Gradisar and his team have set up the Child and Adolescent Sleep
Clinic where they correct sleep problems in school-aged children.
Treatments are also offered for infants and toddlers.
Perfecting a good night's sleep
Public
release date: 24-Jul-2008
Study shows why cigarette smoke makes flu, other viral infections worse
A new study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine could
explain why the cold and flu virus symptoms that are often mild and
transient in non-smokers can seriously sicken smokers. Published in
the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the study also identified the
mechanism by which viruses and cigarette smoke interact to increase
lung inflammation and damage.
Until recently, scientists haven't been able to explain why
smokers have more exaggerated responses to viral infections. Smokers
have been more likely than non-smokers to die during previous
influenza epidemics and are more prone to chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease (COPD). Furthermore, children who are exposed to
second-hand smoke have more severe responses when infected with
respiratory synctial virus.
The prevailing view has been that cigarette smoke decreases
anti-viral responses. But the Yale researchers—lead author Jack A.
Elias, M.D., the Waldermar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine and
chair of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, and first
author Min-Jong Kang, M.D., associate research scientist—found the
opposite to be true.
Their experiments showed that the immune systems of mice exposed
to cigarette smoke from as little as two cigarettes a day for two
weeks overreacted when they were also exposed to a mimic of the flu
virus. The mice's immune systems cleared the virus normally but the
exaggerated inflammation caused increased levels of tissue damage.
"The anti-viral responses in the cigarette smoke exposed mice
were not only not defective, but were hyperactive," said Elias.
"These findings suggest that smokers do not get in trouble because
they can't clear or fight off the virus; they get in trouble because
they overreact to it."
"It's like smokers are using the equivalent of a sledge hammer,
rather than a fly swatter, to get rid of a fly," said Elias.
The team found that mice with viral infections that had been
exposed to cigarette smoke had accelerated emphysema and airway
scarring. Elias and his team also defined the signaling pathway that
mediates this exaggerated innate immune response.
"If the exaggerated responses are verified in human studies, it
will be the first explanation for why viral infections are more
serious in smokers," said Elias. "Once verified, we can find ways to
prevent the destruction of lung tissue and the higher illness and
death among smokers."
"These studies have identified molecular pathways that can
explain how cigarette smoke exposure and viral infections interact
to make breathing problems worse in diseases like COPD," said James
P. Kiley, director, Division of Lung Diseases of the National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute. "With further research, these findings
may even lead to more effective drug treatments for COPD."
Public
release date: 22-July-2008
A lazy brain is a shrinking brain
Those who don’t engage in complex mental activity over their
lifetime have twice the shrinkage in a key part of the brain in old
age, according to researchers from UNSW.
The researchers found that people who have been more mentally
active over their lives have a larger hippocampus – which relates to
memory – and critically that it shrinks at half the rate of those
who have lower mental activity.
This is the first time that researchers have compared
participants’ brains over a period of time in relation to mental
activity patterns, adding weight to previous work which shows that
complex mental activity helps prevent dementia.
“This is a significant finding because a small hippocampus is a
specific risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease,” says the
lead author, Dr Michael Valenzuela, from UNSW’s School of
Psychiatry.
“It also helps throw some light on why there has been this
consistent link between mental activity and lower dementia risk,” he
says.
In this NHRMC supported research, the researchers looked at a
group of more than 50 people who were 60 years of age over a period
of three years.
Dr Valenzuela says while many drug companies are trying to find a
pharmaceutical target to prevent the shrinkage of the hippocampus,
the good news is that people can help themselves.
“Our prior research shows the risk for dementia is quite
malleable, even into late life,” says Dr Valenzuela. “It is vital
that everyone is involved in cognitive, social and physical
activities in late life such as dancing, tai chi, sailing,
travelling and learning a new language, for example.”
The paper has just been published in the Public Library of
Science ONE medical journal (PLoS ONE).
Dr Valenzuela and other researchers from UNSW, the University of
Sydney and James Cook University are now working on a clinical trial
to assess whether relatively short-term cognitive and physical
exercise can reduce the severity of cognitive decline amongst
at-risk older people.
Ageing
well - develop sound habits
Public
release date: 21-July-2008
Blood sugar levels might be new measure of health
Blood sugar levels might be just as important in measuring good
health as blood pressure or cholesterol, new University research
suggests.
Naomi Brewer, a research fellow at the University’s Centre for
Public Health Research, is the lead author of a study published in
the leading international diabetes journal Diabetes Care, published
by the American Diabetes Association.
The study followed 47,904 people who had undergone haemogloblin
A1C testing – a standard way to measure blood sugar – as part of a
screening program for hepatitis B from 1999 to 2001. They were
followed until the end of 2004, when it was found 815 had died.
Ms Brewer and her team discovered that the likelihood of death
rose in parallel with blood sugar levels, even when the analysis was
restricted to people without diabetes. Those in the highest category
of blood sugar levels had more than twice the death rate of those
with low levels.
“In future, people will need to know their haemoglobin A1C level,
just as they may currently know their blood pressure or their
cholesterol levels,” she says.
As well as the association with the overall risk of death, strong
associations were seen for some specific causes of death, including
endocrine, nutritional, metabolic and immunity disorders (which can
include diabetes and cystic fibrosis), and diseases of the
circulatory system (which can include heart disease). Weaker
associations were noted between elevated blood sugar levels and
deaths from cancer. The associations were equally strong in men and
women.
Ms Brewer was surprised at the lack of previous research in to
the subject in New Zealand. The association has previously been seen
in several overseas studies, but this new study is the largest that
has been carried out internationally on this topic, and the first
such study in New Zealand.
“People might have thought of those with diabetes as being in one
corner and themselves in another. This suggests there might be more
to it than that,” Ms Brewer says.
“It is interesting because it’s something people might want to
know, and to think about. There’s possibly more of a continuum
between not having diabetes and having diabetes than previously
supposed.”
Weighing it all up
Public
release date: 21-July-2008
Mind over matter in chronic disease treatment
Dr Simon Smith, from Queensland University of Technology's Centre
for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q), studied
people newly diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and found
they were more likely to take up, and stick to, treatment when they
believed they could do so, regardless of how severe their condition
was.
OSA is a serious condition in which sufferers stop breathing
throughout the night, only starting to breathe again when their
brain registers lack of oxygen and wakes them up.
OSA causes sufferers to fall asleep during the day or at the
wheel of their car, puts a strain on their hearts which can lead to
heart attack and stroke, and has been linked to Type-II diabetes.
The treatment is to wear a mask at night attached to a machine
that keeps the airway open and maintains normal breathing. Losing
weight through diet and exercise can also have a significant effect
in reducing the symptoms and can even do away with the need for the
mask.
"From other research we know between 15 and 20 per cent of people
diagnosed with OSA won't accept treatment at all. Of those who start
treatment, up to 50 per cent don't use it enough, that is right
through the night, or they give up using it," Dr Smith said.
He found psychological factors had a powerful effect on whether
people would accept effective medical treatment.
"Surprisingly, people with the most serious disease aren't any
more likely to stick to the treatment.
"We found a person's beliefs about the treatment's effectiveness,
their confidence in sticking to the treatment, and their
understanding of the condition's health risks, were more important
than the severity of the disease."
Dr Smith said it was often only the urging of family and friends
that caused OSA sufferers to see a doctor because the cost to their
health, like other chronic diseases, might be some way down the
track.
"A person with OSA might fall asleep during the day, but if they
aren't working or don't drive much, this might not worry them enough
to seek treatment or stick to treatment.
"But if a spouse or family members pressure them to do something
about the loud stop-start snoring that accompanies OSA, which is
keeping them awake, the sufferer is more likely to do something
about it.
"After they have seen the doctor and been offered treatment,
psychological factors, including the threat to important
relationships, are what motivates them into complying with
treatment."
Dr Smith said the research would lead to new programs to get
people motivated to change their health behaviours, and help them to
adhere to treatments that would alleviate chronic health conditions.
Public
release date: 2-July-2008
Women have hearts too
People who have already had one heart attack could die from a
second because they know so little about the disease, a joint
Australian–US study has shown.
The first large-scale international study to assess the knowledge
of heart patients about their disease revealed poor levels of
knowledge about symptoms and what to do when experiencing symptoms.
High-risk cardiac patients also have inaccurate perceptions of their
future risk of a heart attack.
Forty-six per cent of patients had "low knowledge levels" and 43%
thought they were at no higher risk of having another heart attack
than other people their age, Professor Sharon McKinley from UTS
Nursing, Midwifery and Health (NM&H) and Professor Kathleen Dracup,
Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of California, San
Francisco (UCSF) reported to the American Heart Association.
"Our research shows that people who have had a previous heart
attack do not go to hospital any earlier than people who have never
had one", Professor McKinley said. "But if treated in the first
hour, survival rates rise. Modern diagnosis and treatment begins in
the ambulance with an ECG that is faxed to the emergency room.
Doctors can decide before the patient arrives whether to send the
patient straight to the cardiology department for an angiogram or
whether they need to use drugs to break down a blood clot."
Unexpectedly, women in the study knew more than men about acute
coronary symptoms and saw themselves at higher risk than age-matched
healthy controls.
"This was unexpected because in previous studies, women have
often underestimated their risk for heart disease and had longer
pre-hospital delays than men", Professor McKinley said.
Researchers have presumed
this indicated women's lack of knowledge of symptoms and a lack of
understanding of the importance of heart disease as a cause of death
in women.
Ischaemic (caused by restricted blood supply) heart disease and
not breast cancer, is the leading cause of death for women in
Australia. In 2002, ischaemic heart disease was the cause of 20% of
male deaths and 18.8% of female deaths. The only significant
difference between women's and men's risk for cardiac disease is
that men's risk increases from 55 years old and women's from 65
years.
Professor Gallagher urged women to ask their health care
practitioner to assess their cardiac risks along with their other
check-ups, to know the warning signs and to know what to do when
experiencing symptoms (call an ambulance).
Some helpful information
The vital numbers are blood pressure
(BP), cholesterol (HDL and LDL), blood sugar, body mass index (BMI),
the number of family members with heart problems, minutes spent
active in a day, and age.
Cardiac warning signs:
- Chest discomfort in the centre of the chest that lasts for more than
a few minutes (it may feel like pressure, squeezing, fullness or
pain and it may come and go).
- Discomfort in one or both arms, the
back, neck, jaw or stomach, especially if it occurs with shortness
of breath. Other signs include nausea, light-headedness, or breaking
out in a cold sweat.
- Get help quickly: wait no more than a few
minutes before calling the ambulance. It is important to do this
because treatment can be started in the ambulance.
Cardiovascular Disease
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*The inclusion of the above
articles
does not imply any endorsement of the research or information by the
Jean Hailes Foundation for Women's Health.
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Content created July 29, 2008
Page updated
July 29, 2008
