This Just In: Sleep & Weight Loss; Migraines & Weight Loss; Cooking Oil & Breast Cancer
A Better Night’s Sleep May Help with Weight Loss
A study of obese people with self-reported obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) found that those who wore a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) mask lost more weight during the study period than those with OSA who did not wear the mask (26.7 vs. 21 pounds). CPAPs push air into the nose and mouth when a person stops breathing for a few seconds. The mask helps people with OSA get a better night’s sleep. Of 211 participants in the 16-week program, 47 received a CPAP mask; 164 didn’t. Another 89 had no OSA symptoms and were not treated for OSA. The study included an 800-calorie daily diet, exercises, counseling, and cognitive behavioral therapy. The study was presented March 23, 2019, at ENDO 2019, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society.
Losing Weight May Reduce Migraines
People who suffer from migraines and are overweight might find headache relief in weight loss, according to research presented at ENDO 2019, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society. In an analysis of 10 studies with 473 migraine patients, researchers found that losing weight resulted in significant reductions in headache frequency, duration, disability, and intensity. It did not matter how much the person weighed to start or how much they lost. Also, results were equally as successful whether the person used bariatric surgery or behavioral intervention.
Reheating Cooking Oil Could Worsen Breast Cancer
Cooking oil breaks down when heated. If you cool it and then reheat it, the composition of those molecules changes, and each time, a carcinogen called acrolein is released, according to research published in Cancer Prevention Research, March 18, 2019. Lab animals were injected with tumor cells from 4T1 breast cancer. Then, for 16 weeks, the first group of mice was given unheated fresh soybean oil, while a second group was given thermally abused (or reheated) soybean oil for the same duration. After 20 days, the growth of the cancer throughout the body of the mice in those that consumed the thermally abused oil was four times greater than the cancer in the mice in the first group. Also, there were twice as many lung tumors. These results are limited to a lab environment; further testing is needed.
Consuming Mushrooms May Help with Brain Health
Eating mushrooms more than twice a week delayed brain deterioration and reduced the risk of mild cognitive impairment for 663 people ages 60 and older who had participated in the Diet and Healthy Aging Study in Singapore. Researchers’ analysis found that adding two or more standard portions of mushrooms per week benefited everyone, regardless of age, gender, or existing health issues, including diabetes, hypertension, smoking, or drinking alcohol. They defined a standard portion as 1 cup of cooked mushrooms—either golden, oyster, shiitake, or white button—weighing about 150 grams. The study was published in Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, March 12, 2019.
Self-Monitoring Results in Higher Weight Loss
Participants in a survey who monitored their food intake on a daily basis through a private web portal had better success with both short- and long-term weight loss than those who didn’t visit the website at all or didn’t visit as much as the most frequent users, according to research published in the journal Obesity, Feb. 25, 2019. Of 124 people participating in the research program, 80.1 percent were obese; 90.8 percent were female; 23.2 percent were African American. Participants were evaluated in month 1 and again in month 6. In the first month, they spent 23 minutes on the website. By month six, they had cut their site visiting down to 15 minutes per day, but were just as successful with weight loss as they were earlier in the program. People who lost more than 5 to 10 percent of their weight spent the most time on the website, but frequency of visits was the leading factor more than time spent. African Americans logged into the site for the least amount of time.
The post This Just In: Sleep & Weight Loss; Migraines & Weight Loss; Cooking Oil & Breast Cancer appeared first on University Health News.
