Newsbriefs: Poor Sleep & Dementia; Forgo the Fried Foods; Exercise Reduces Risk of Death After Heart Attack; Low-Carb Diets & Diabetes
Poor Sleep and Dementia
Research published in Aging, Feb. 11, suggests that the risk of dementia doubles in older adults who don’t sleep well. The data also point to associations between sleep disturbance/deficiency and overall risk of death. For the study, 2,610 adults, average age 70, answered questionnaires on several characteristics of sleep disturbance and deficiency, including alertness, nap frequency, how long it took to fall asleep, sleep quality (good, very good, fair, poor, very poor), sleep duration, and snoring. The researchers also collected information about participant outcomes such as dementia and death from any cause for up to five years after the survey. The analysis found a 45 percent greater risk of dementia in people who routinely took 30 minutes or longer to fall asleep. Routinely napping, experiencing a difficulty in maintaining alertness, poor sleep quality, and sleeping five or fewer hours per night (compared to sleeping seven or eight hours) were associated with an increased risk of death. If you are having difficulty falling or staying asleep at night, discuss the problem with your doctor. (See our March issue for solutions that may promote better sleep.)
Forgo the Fried Foods
For readers who could do with a reminder that fried foods harm cardiovascular health, the journal Heart obliged with a study published Jan. 19. To assess cardiovascular disease risk, researchers combined data from 17 studies including 562,445 participants who experienced 36,727 major cardiovascular “events,” such as a heart attack or stroke. The researchers also pooled data from six studies involving 754,873 people and 85,906 deaths to assess the potential link between fried food consumption and deaths from cardiovascular disease and from any cause. The analysis showed that compared with the lowest category of weekly fried food consumption, the highest was associated with a 28 percent heightened risk of major cardiovascular events, a 22 percent heightened risk of coronary heart disease, and a 37 percent heightened risk of heart failure.
Exercise Reduces Risk of Death After Heart Attack
If you have cardiovascular disease, following an active lifestyle may confer protection against dying immediately or very soon after a heart attack, according to a study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Feb. 10. The study included data on 28,140 people with a baseline assessment of physical activity who had a heart attack during follow-up. Overall, a higher level of physical activity was associated with a lower risk of dying instantly due to a heart attack or dying within 28 days of a heart attack. Participants who had engaged in moderate and high levels of leisure-time physical activity had a 33 percent and 45 percent lower risk of instant death compared to sedentary individuals. At 28 days, these numbers were 36 percent and 28 percent, respectively. The relationship with low activity did not reach statistical significance—however, even a low amount of leisure-time physical activity may be beneficial against fatal heart attacks.
Low-Carb Diets and Diabetes
A low-carbohydrate diet may send type 2 diabetes into remission for some people, but a recent study (BMJ, Jan. 13) suggests the benefits decrease over time. For the study, 1,300 people followed a range of diets, including low-carbohydrate options. At six months, 57 percent of people with type 2 diabetes who followed low-carbohydrate diets had gone into remission compared to 31 percent of people following other diets. However, at the 12-month mark, average blood sugar levels in low-carb dieters who achieved remission had gone back up above the threshold for diagnosing diabetes. Low-carbohydrate diets are difficult to stick to, and this may be one reason why the benefits were short-term. But even short term benefits are worthwhile and may motivate you to make other lifestyle choices that help to improve your cardiovascular health.
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