Poor sleep may lead to heart disease and obesity

Washington, Jan 20 : People who suffer from sleep disturbance three nights per week or more are at a major risk for obesity, diabetes and coronary artery disease, say researchers.

A new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, analyzing the data of over 130,000 people, also indicates that general sleep disturbance (difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, and/or sleeping too much) may play a role in the development of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders.

The researchers examined associations between sleep disturbances and other health conditions, focusing on perceived sleep quality, rather than just sleep duration.

Patients with sleep disturbances at least three nights per week on average were 35 percent more likely to be obese, 54 percent more likely to have diabetes, 98 percent more likely to have coronary artery disease, 80 percent more likely to have had a heart attack, and 102 percent more likely to have had a stroke.

"Previous studies have demonstrated that those who get less sleep are more likely to also be obese, have diabetes or cardiovascular disease, and are more likely to die sooner, but this new analysis has revealed that other sleep problems, such as difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or even too much sleep, are also associated with cardiovascular and metabolic health issues," Michael A Grandner, PhD, research associate at the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at Penn and lead author of the study, was quoted as saying.

Grandner and colleagues analyzed data of 138,201 people from the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The BRFSS is an annual, state-based, random digit-dialed telephone interview survey of adults aged 18 years and older from all over the US. Read more...

Diet and depression: can food help fight the blues?

A healthy diet can help reduce your risk of a range of chronic diseases, but could it also help ward off depression?
by Claudine Ryan

Most of us already know that a healthy diet can help ward off is a range of chronic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes.

Now a growing body of research suggests it might also boost the health of our minds – although we're only just beginning to understand why.

"Intuitively we know that our physical health has an impact on our mental health and vice versa, but it's really been only since the end of 2009 that good scientific studies have looked at the link between diet and mental health properly," says Dr Felice Jacka, a researcher at the Barwon Psychiatric Research Unit at Deakin University.

And it's raising some exciting prospects.

Food and mood

Jacka herself recently looked at the dietary habits and mental health of more than of 3000 adolescents, who had their diet and mental health measured in 2005 and then again in 2007.

As expected, the biggest predictor of a participant's mental health in 2007 was their mental health in 2005; but the researchers also found that diet quality in 2005 – either healthy or unhealthy – often predicted mental health in 2007.

Jacka says this relationship was clear, even after taking into account other variables known to affect someone's mental health, such as age, gender, level of physical activity, weight and socio-economic status.

"What we found with this study, which was very important, is that adolescents whose diet improved over that period, their mental health also improved on average," Jacka said.

She made similar findings in an earlier study, which examined the diets of more than 1000 women.

In other words it seems what you eat really matters to your mental wellbeing and might even provide a way of fighting the epidemic of depression.

"It doesn't have to be a perfect diet ... but you should try to make sure you are getting the recommended two [serves of] fruits and five [serves of] vegetables every day. You should also aim to eat your lean red meat, fish twice a week and the whole grains," she says.

Jacka admits it's hard to be 100 per cent certain that it's diet affecting your mental health and not the other way around. But the evidence is pointing that way.

"I think the burden of evidence now supports the hypothesis that the quality of your diet matters in terms of the risk for mental health problems," Jacka says.

Omega-3 fatty acids

While Jacka's interest is your whole diet, Dr Bronwyn Hegarty, a physiologist and researcher from the Black Dog Institute at the University of New South Wales, is particularly interested in the role of omega-3 fatty acids and mental health.

Omega-3s play a crucial role in healthy brain function and research has shown that people with depression have lower levels of some omega-3s in certain parts of their brain.

Omega-3s are associated with several biological processes that are linked to depression, such as growth of brain cells, your brain cells' ability to communicate with each other, gene expression and inflammation.

Omega-3s are essential fatty acids found mainly in seafood, but also in certain plants and red meat. And while most of us are no longer consuming enough omega-3s, our increased consumption of another type of fat known as omega-6s might be relevant too. (Omega-6s are found in red meat, especially grain-fed beef, and certain plant oils used in making processed foods.)

"One of the theories is that the problem that is leading to depression and other chronic diseases – especially associated with inflammation – is that there is an imbalance between omega-6 and omega-3s," Hegarty says.

Inflammation is your body's defence against external pathogens, such as microbes or bacteria. But it's believed that inflammation can also play a role in depression and other chronic health conditions, including cardiovascular disease.

"We're now realising that diet may be very important in determining whether you have this low inflammatory state, which seems to be, not necessarily underlying, but definitely associated with a lot of the chronic diseases as diverse as cardiovascular disease to depression and diabetes."

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Scientists Discover 'Ultra-Bad' Cholesterol

FRIDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- A new, "ultra-bad" form of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol has been discovered in people with a high risk for heart disease, according to British researchers.

They found that the cholesterol, called MGmin-LDL, is super-sticky, making it more likely to attach to the walls of arteries and form fatty plaques, which could lead to heart attacks and stroke.

The discovery provides a possible explanation for the increased risk of coronary heart disease in diabetics and could help researchers develop new anti-cholesterol treatments, the researchers suggested.

In the study, which was funded by the British Heart Foundation, University of Warwick researchers created MGmin-LDL in a lab through glycation, which is the adding of sugar groups to normal LDL cholesterol, commonly referred to as "bad" cholesterol. The process changed the cholesterol's shape, making it stickier and more likely to build fatty plaques, narrow arteries and reduce blood flow and turning it into what they called "ultra-bad" cholesterol.

The findings, released online May 26 in Diabetes, could have significant implications for the treatment of coronary heart disease, particularly in older people and those with type 2 diabetes. Specifically, the researchers said, the results of their study shed light on how a common type 2 diabetes drug, metformin, fights heart disease by blocking the transformation of normal LDL into the super-sticky LDL.

"We're excited to see our research leading to a greater understanding of this type of cholesterol, which seems to contribute to heart disease in diabetics and elderly people," the study's lead researcher, Naila Rabbani, an associate professor of experimental systems biology at Warwick Medical School, said in a university news release.

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