Newsbriefs: Fragmented Sleep & Heart Disease; Persistent Negative Thinking; Back Pain Solutions
Fragmented Sleep: A Risk Factor for Heart Disease
Sleep scientists from the University of California, Berkeley have found that fragmented sleep is associated with chronic circulating inflammation throughout the bloodstream, which, in turn, is linked to higher amounts of plaques in coronary arteries. These findings, published June 4, 2020, in the journal PLOS Biology, adds poor sleep as a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which ranks as the top killer of Americans, with some 12,000 deaths each week. Using statistical modeling, the researchers analyzed the diagnostic data of more than 1,600 middle-aged and older adults. To isolate the effect of sleep quality on heart health, the study controlled for age, ethnicity, gender, body mass index, sleep disorders, blood pressure and high-risk behaviors, such as smoking. The researchers then tracked the results of the study participants, analyzing their blood tests, their calcium scores (which can gauge arterial plaque buildup), as well as several different measures of sleep. The final outcome clearly linked disrupted sleep patterns to higher concentrations of circulating inflammatory factors that are key players in atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries due to plaque). Sleep trackers, often embedded into fitness trackers, can detect interrupted sleep by recording when you’re tossing and turning or waking up at night. These trackers can help you recognize patterns, but for more accurate and specific data about your sleep quality, a medical sleep study is recommended.
Persistent Negative Thinking May Raise Risk for Dementia
Persistently engaging in negative thinking patterns may raise the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a University College London (UCL) study published in the June 2020 issue of Alzheimer’s & Dementia. “Depression and anxiety in mid-life and old age are already known to be risk factors for dementia,” says lead author Dr. Natalie Marchant, UCL Psychiatry. “Here, we found that certain thinking patterns implicated in depression and anxiety could be an underlying reason why people with those disorders are more likely to develop dementia.” For the Alzheimer’s Society-supported study, the research team studied 292 people over the age of 55. The study participants responded to questions about how they typically think about negative experiences, focusing on repetitive negative thinking (RNT) patterns like rumination about the past and worry about the future. The participants also completed measures of depression and anxiety symptoms. The researchers found that people who exhibited higher RNT patterns experienced more cognitive decline over a four-year period, and declines in memory (which is among the earlier signs of Alzheimer’s disease), and they were more likely to have amyloid and tau deposits in their brain (both have been linked to Alzheimer’s). Depression and anxiety were associated with subsequent cognitive decline but not with either amyloid or tau deposits, suggesting that RNT could be why depression and anxiety contribute to Alzheimer’s disease risk. They theorize that RNT may contribute to Alzheimer’s risk via its impact on indicators of stress such as high blood pressure, as stress can contribute to amyloid and tau deposition. The researchers suggest that RNT could be a new dementia risk factor and that looking after mental health is vitally important for well-being in the long term.
Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qigong for Back Pain
Researchers compared and contrasted yoga, tai chi and qigong and found them all to be effective for the treatment of low back pain, reporting positive outcomes such as reduction in pain or psychological distress, reduction in pain-related disability, and improved functional ability. The review, published in Holistic Nursing Practice, included both randomized and nonrandomized studies with a total of 3,484 subjects ages 33 to 73. Two of the studies focused on the effects of yoga in veterans. Many military veterans and active- duty military personnel experience chronic low back pain and are affected by this pain more than the general population, according to the authors. Lead author Juyoung Park, PhD, an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University’s College for Design and Social Inquiry, noted that these modalities could be used as effective treatment alternatives to pain medications, surgery, or injection-based treatments such as nerve blocks, which are associated with adverse effects in treating lower back pain.
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