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Three cheers for coffee

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Starting your day with a cup of coffee may help you live longer.

Two new studies published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggest that coffee drinkers tend to enjoy a longer life than those who don’t, whether you drink regular or decaffeinated coffee.

The European study included 5,21,330 men and women across 10 European countries. During a mean followup of 16.4 years, 41,693 people died.

People who drank three or more cups of coffee a day had a 7 to 12 per cent lower risk of death from all causes and a 40 to 59 per cent lower risk of death from digestive disorders, such as liver disease. There was a lower risk of death from circulatory diseases and cerebrovascular diseases among women who were coffee drinkers.

However, the study also found a significant increase in risk for ovarian cancer mortality.

“Our results suggest that higher levels of coffee drinking are associated with lower risk for death from various causes, specifically digestive and circulatory diseases," the authors wrote.

The US study included 1,85,855 participants from different ethnic groups.

Drinking coffee was associated with a lower risk of death from heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and respiratory and kidney disease.

Those who drank two to three cups of coffee a day had an 18 per cent lower risk of dying prematurely compared to non-drinkers. Drinking even one cup a day lowered the risk of dying early by 12 per cent.

“This study is the largest of its kind and includes minorities who have very different lifestyles. Seeing a similar pattern across different populations gives stronger biological backing to the argument that coffee is good for you whether you are white, African-American, Latino or Asian,” said the lead author of the US study.

Less sugar, healthy baby

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Your children’s risk of developing allergies and allergic asthma may depend on how much sugar you consume while pregnant, according to a British study published in the European Respiratory Journal.

The study focused on 8,956 mother-child pairs. The women provided information about their intake of free sugars (as opposed to natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables) during pregnancy. Their children were tested for asthma and common allergies such as dust mite, cat and grass at age 7.

When comparing the 20 per cent of mothers with the highest sugar intake with the 20 per cent with the lowest sugar intake, there was a 38 per cent higher risk for allergy in the offspring by age 7; a 73 per cent greater risk for two or more allergies and 101 per cent increased risk for allergic asthma.

The researchers speculate that a high intake of fructose during pregnancy may cause a “persistent postnatal allergic immune response leading to allergic inflammation in the developing lung”.

Did You Know

People who have low iron levels may have a greater risk of coronary artery disease, a type of cardiovascular disease, where clogged arteries can limit the flow of blood to the heart.

Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology

Poor sleep dulls brain

Poor sleep increases the risk of cognitive problems, an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease. A new study published in the journal Brain explains the reason for the link.

Just one night of poor sleep can cause an increase in amyloid beta, a brain protein linked to Alzheimer’s disease. And a week of disturbed sleep can increase the level of another brain protein, tau, which has been linked to brain damage in Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

The study was based on 17 healthy volunteers, aged 35 to 65, without sleep problems or mental impairments.

The participants wore activity monitors that measured the quality of their sleep for two weeks.

Half of the participants were randomly selected to have their sleep disrupted on one night, while the other half slept undisturbed. A month or more later, the process was repeated with the group that had uninterrupted sleep the first time.

The researchers compared the participants’ amyloid beta and tau levels after the disrupted night to the levels after the uninterrupted night. There was a 10 per cent increase in amyloid beta levels after a single night of interrupted sleep. But one bad night did not cause an increase in tau levels.

However, participants whose activity monitors showed disturbed sleep for a week or more showed an increase in tau levels.

“We showed that poor sleep is associated with higher levels of two Alzheimer’s-associated proteins. We think that perhaps chronic poor sleep during middle age may increase the risk of Alzheimer’s later in life,” noted the study’s senior author.

Heart at work

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Here’s good reason to leave work early today! Working long hours can put you at risk of atrial fibrillation (A-fib), a potentially dangerous heart disorder marked by irregular heartbeat. It is a risk factor for the development of stroke.

For the study in the European Heart Journal, British researchers used data from 85,494 people from Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the UK. None of the participants had A-fib at the onset, but 1,061 people developed the heart condition during ten years of follow up.

People who worked 55 or more hours a week were about 40 per cent more likely to develop A-fib compared to those who worked regular work hours of 35 to 40 hours a week.

The findings remained even after accounting for other risk factors such as age, sex, obesity, exercise, socioeconomic status, smoking status and heavy drinking.

"These findings show that long working hours are associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation, the most common cardiac arrhythmia. This could be one of the mechanisms that explain the previously observed increased risk of stroke among those working long hours. Atrial fibrillation is known to contribute to the development of stroke, but also other adverse health outcomes, such as heart failure and stroke-related dementia," the study author noted.

Drug risk

Widely used heartburn drugs called proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can increase the risk of death if taken for long periods of time. PPIs have already been linked to a variety of health problems, including kidney damage, heart disease, bone fractures, pneumonia and dementia.

PPIs are commonly prescribed for heartburn, ulcers and other gastrointestinal problems. Popular drugs in this class include omeprazole, esomeprazole and lansoprazole.

The researchers compared the medical records of 2,75,933 users of PPIs with 73,355 people who took another class of heartburn drugs known as H2 blockers (which include ranitidine and famotidine) to find out how many people died over the next five years.

Overall, PPI users had a 25 per cent increased risk of premature death compared with users of H2 blockers. For every 500 people taking PPIs for a year, there was one extra death that would not have occurred otherwise. Since millions of people take PPIs regularly, this could account for thousands of excess deaths every year.

The risk increased the longer people took the drugs. People taking PPIs for one to two years had a 50 per cent increased risk of dying over the next five years.

“No matter how we sliced and diced the data from this large data set, we saw the same thing: There’s an increased risk of death among PPI users. People have the idea that PPIs are very safe because they are readily available, but there are real risks to taking these drugs, particularly for long periods of time,” the senior author of the study said.

“Limiting PPI use and duration to instances where it is medically indicated may be warranted,” the research published in the journal BMJ Open concluded.

Mutually beneficial

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Women who breastfeed their babies may have a lower risk of suffering a stroke later in life, and the cardiovascular benefits increase the longer they breastfeed, according to a Chinese research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The study followed 2,89,573 Chinese women, average age 51, without any cardiovascular disease when they enrolled, for eight years, during which there were 16,671 cases of coronary heart disease, including heart attacks, and 23,983 stroke cases.

Mothers who had breastfed were 9 per cent less likely to have heart disease, including heart attack and 8 per cent less likely to suffer a stroke.

Among mothers who breastfed their babies for two years or more, heart disease risk was 18 per cent lower and stroke risk 17 per cent lower.

“Although we cannot establish the causal effects, the health benefits to the mother from breastfeeding may be explained by a faster “reset” of the mother’s metabolism after pregnancy. Pregnancy changes a woman’s metabolism dramatically as she stores fat to provide the energy necessary for her baby’s growth and for breastfeeding once the baby is born. Breastfeeding could eliminate the stored fat faster and more completely,” said the study co-author.

“The findings should encourage more widespread breastfeeding for the benefit of the mother as well as the child.”

Wait and watch

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Men with early stage prostate cancer who undergo surgery do not live longer than those who opt for limited or no treatment, concludes a 20-year study that compared different treatment options for prostate cancer.

Nearly 30 per cent of men who opt for surgery have to live with long-term complications, such as infection, urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction, with little added benefit to longevity.

For the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 731 men, average age 67, with low-risk prostate cancer were randomly assigned to either undergo surgery or just observation.

During 20 years of follow-up, 223 of 364 men who had surgery died of other causes, compared with 245 of 367 men in the observation group. Additionally, 27 men in the surgery group died of prostate cancer, compared with 42 men in the observation group. According to the researchers, the differences are not statistically significant.

But the study found that surgery would be beneficial for young men with a long life expectancy and those with intermediate-risk prostate cancer—with a PSA score of 10-20 ng/ml and a Gleason score of seven.

Of the 364 men treated with surgery, 53 suffered from erectile dysfunction, 63 from incontinence and an additional 45 developed other complications.

“The benefits of surgery also need to be balanced against the negative long-term consequences of surgery that occur early and often. Our results demonstrate that for the majority of men with localised prostate cancer, selecting observation for their treatment choice can help them live a similar length of life, avoid death from prostate cancer and prevent harms from surgical treatment. Physicians can use information from our study to confidently recommend observation as the preferred treatment option for men with early prostate cancer,” the senior study author commented.

Did You Know

When patients are told about the side effects of a medication, they are more likely to report those symptoms compared to when they are not aware of the adverse effects.

The Lancet

Yoga with care

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Yoga is often considered to be a gentle, healing form of exercise. But according to a study published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, yoga can cause injuries and exacerbate existing ones.

For the study, 354 people answered questions about their age, yoga experience and any forms of pain or injuries they experienced at the start of the study, and a year later.

The study found that yoga caused musculoskeletal pain in 10 per cent of people and aggravated 21 per cent of existing injuries.

The 10 per cent injury rate is comparable to the rate of all sports injuries.

Most new pain associated with yoga was in people’s upper extremities—shoulders, elbows, wrists and hands. This could be attributed to poses like downward dog that could put pressure and weight on those areas. More than a third of the injuries lasted more than three months, causing people to give up the practice.

But it was not all bad news. About 44 per cent said yoga did not affect their pain and about two-third reported yoga improved their bone, muscle and joint pain, especially neck and back pain.

Previous studies have suggested that the risk of injury can be attributed to overexertion, inadequate instruction and poor technique.

“Yoga can cause musculoskeletal pain. Participants may benefit from disclosure of practice to their health care professionals and by informing teachers of injuries they may have prior to participation. Yoga teachers should also discuss the risks for injury with their students,” the study concluded.

CONTRIBUTOR: SHYLA JOVITHA ABRAHAM

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The Week

Topics : #health

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