Road noise makes your blood pressure rise -- literally

Study shows the sound of traffic is associated with increased risk of hypertension, calls for public health measures to reduce noise exposure

March 22, 2023

Science Daily/American College of Cardiology

If you live near a busy road you might feel like the constant sound of roaring engines, honking horns and wailing sirens makes your blood pressure rise. Now a new study published today in JACC: Advances confirms it can do exactly that.

Previous studies have shown a connection between noisy road traffic and increased risk of hypertension. However, strong evidence was lacking, and it was unclear whether noise or air pollution played a bigger role. The new research shows that it is exposure to road traffic noise itself that can elevate hypertension risk.

"We were a little surprised that the association between road traffic noise and hypertension was robust even after adjustment for air pollution," said Jing Huang, assistant professor in the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at Peking University in Beijing, China, and lead author of the study.

Previous studies of the issue were cross-sectional, meaning they showed that traffic noise and hypertension were linked, but failed to show a causal relationship. For the new paper, researchers conducted a prospective study using UK Biobank data that looked at health outcomes over time.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 240,000 people (aged 40 to 69 years) who started out without hypertension. They estimated road traffic noise based on residential address and the Common Noise Assessment Method, a European modeling tool.

Using follow-up data over a median 8.1 years, they looked at how many people developed hypertension. Not only did they find that people living near road traffic noise were more likely to develop hypertension, they also found that risk increased in tandem with the noise "dose."

These associations held true even when researchers adjusted for exposure to fine particles and nitrogen dioxide. However, people who had high exposure to both traffic noise and air pollution had the highest hypertension risk, showing that air pollution plays a role as well.

"Road traffic noise and traffic-related air pollution coexist around us," Huang said. "It is essential to explore the independent effects of road traffic noise, rather than the total environment."

The findings can support public health measures because they confirm that exposure to road traffic noise is harmful to our blood pressure, she said. Policymaking may alleviate the adverse impacts of road traffic noise as a societal effort, such as setting stricter noise guideline and enforcement, improving road conditions and urban design, and investing advanced technology on quieter vehicles.

"To date, this is the first large-sized prospective study directly addressing the effect of road traffic noise on the incidence of newly-diagnosed hypertension," said Jiandong Zhang, cardiovascular disease fellow in the division of cardiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author of the accompanying editorial comment. "The data demonstrated in this article provides a higher quality of evidence to justify the potential to modify road traffic noise and air pollution from both individual and societal levels in improving cardiovascular health."

As a follow-up, Huang said field studies are underway to better understand the pathophysiological mechanisms through which road noise affects hypertension.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230322190921.htm

Sweets change our brain

Why we can't keep our hands off chocolate bars and co.

March 22, 2023

Science Daily/Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Chocolate bars, crisps and fries -- why can't we just ignore them in the supermarket? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, in collaboration with Yale University, have now shown that foods with a high fat and sugar content change our brain: If we regularly eat even small amounts of them, the brain learns to consume precisely these foods in the future.

Why do we like unhealthy and fattening foods so much? How does this preference develop in the brain? "Our tendency to eat high-fat and high-sugar foods, the so-called Western diet, could be innate or develop as a result of being overweight. But we think that the brain learns this preference," explains Sharmili Edwin Thanarajah, lead author of the study.

To test this hypothesis, the researchers gave one group of volunteers a small pudding containing a lot of fat and sugar per day for eight weeks in addition to their normal diet. The other group received a pudding that contained the same number of calories but less fat. The volunteer's brain activity was measured before and during the eight weeks.

Our brain unconsciously learns to prefer high-fat snacks

The brain's response to high-fat and high-sugar foods was greatly increased in the group that ate the high-sugar and high-fat pudding after eight weeks. This particularly activated the dopaminergic system, the region in the brain responsible for motivation and reward. "Our measurements of brain activity showed that the brain rewires itself through the consumption of chips and co. It subconsciously learns to prefer rewarding food. Through these changes in the brain, we will unconsciously always prefer the foods that contain a lot of fat and sugar," explains Marc Tittgemeyer, who led the study.

During the study period, the test persons did not gain more weight than the test persons in the control group and their blood values, such as blood sugar or cholesterol, did not change either. However, the researchers assume that the preference for sugary foods will continue after the end of the study. "New connections are made in the brain, and they don't dissolve so quickly. After all, the whole point of learning is that once you learn something, you don't forget it so quickly," explains Marc Tittgemeyer.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230322140934.htm

Immune system cells in the gut linked to stress-induced depression

March 20, 2023

Science Daily/Johns Hopkins Medicine

In experiments with mice and humans, a team led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers says it has identified a particular intestinal immune cell that impacts the gut microbiome, which in turn may affect brain functions linked to stress-induced disorders such as depression. Targeting changes mediated by these immune cells in the gut, with drugs or other therapies, could potentially bring about new ways to treat depression.

The findings of the study were published March 20, 2023 in the journal Nature Immunology.

"The results of our study highlight the previously unrecognized role of intestinal gamma delta T cells (γδ T cells) in modifying psychological stress responses, and the importance of a protein receptor known as dectin-1, found on the surface of immune cells, as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of stress-induced behaviors," says Atsushi Kamiya, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study's senior author.

Dectin-1 binds to certain antigens, or proteins, to signal immune cells to activate in specific ways. This receptor, the researchers say, may be involved in the microbiome alteration and immune-inflammatory responses in the colon of mice, which suggests that it may be involved in stress responses via γδ T cells in the intestinal immune system.

On the basis of previous studies suggesting that immune inflammatory responses in the gut are related to depression, Kamiya and his team designed experiments to focus on understanding stress-induced behaviors produced by an imbalance in the gut microbiota -- types of microorganisms found in a specific environment, such as bacteria, fungi and viruses.

To this end, the team examined the effects of chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) on the gut microbiota in mice. CSDS is a standard rodent test to study stress-induced disorders such as depression. In a series of experiments, the researchers simulated potential stress inducing environments that could mimic similar responses in human environments. After each exposure, the mice were assessed and classified as stress-resilient (stress did not diminish social interactions) or stress-susceptible (stress increased social avoidance).

Fecal samples were then collected and put through genetic analysis to identify the diversity of bacteria in the gut microbiota of the mice. The analysis showed that the intestinal organisms were less diverse in stress-susceptible mice than in stress-resilient mice. It specifically revealed that there were less Lactobacillus johnsonii (L. johnsonii) -- a type of probiotic, or "good" bacteria -- in stress-susceptible mice compared to stress-resilient mice.

"We found that stress increased the γδ T cells, which in turn increased social avoidance," says Xiaolei Zhu, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study's lead author. "However, when the stressed mice were given L. johnsonii, social avoidance decreased and the γδ T cells went to normal levels, suggesting that CSDS-induced social avoidance behavior may be the result of lower levels of the bacteria and γδ T cell changes."

Looking for potential natural approaches for prevention of depression rooted somehow in the gut, the researchers explored how changes in dectin-1 on CSDS-induced elevation of γδ T cells responded to pachyman. A compound extracted from wild mushrooms, pachyman is used as a natural anti-inflammatory agent and for treating depression in Eastern medicine. For this experiment, mice were fed a dose of pachyman, which was shown in previous research to affect immune function. Data from flow cytometry analysis -- a technology used to measure the physical and chemical characteristics of a population of cells -- provided evidence that dectin-1 binds to pachyman, inhibiting CSDS-induced γδ17 T cell activity and easing social avoidance behavior.

To gain insight into how the alterations in the gut microbiota could impact the human brain, the researchers investigated the makeup of gut organisms in people with major depressive disorder (MDD) compared to people without MDD. From June 2017 to September 2020, 66 participants, ages 20 or older, were recruited at Showa University Karasuyama Hospital, Keio University Hospital and Komagino Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. Of the study participants, 32 had MDD (17 women and 15 men). The other 34 participants (18 women and 16 men) who did not have MDD formed the control group.

Stool samples were collected from all study participants, who had comprehensive evaluations including psychiatric history and standard screening assessments for depression and anxiety. In these assessments, higher scores indicate greater depressive symptoms. Genetic analysis of the stool samples showed no difference in the diversity of intestinal bacteria between the subjects with MDD and the control group. However, the relative abundance of Lactobacillus was inversely related to higher depression and anxiety scores in the MDD group, meaning that the more Lactobacillusfound in the gut, the lower the potential for depression and anxiety, the researchers say.

"Despite the differences of intestinal microbiota between mice and humans, the results of our study indicate that the amount of Lactobacillus in the gut may potentially influence stress responses and the onset of depression and anxiety," says Kamiya.

The investigators say more research is needed to further understand how γδ T cells in the intestinal immune system may impact the neurological functions in the brain and the role of dectin-1 in other cell types along the gut-brain connection under stress conditions.

"These early-stage findings show that, in addition to probiotic supplements, targeting drugs to such types of receptors in the gut immune system may potentially yield novel approaches to prevent and treat stress-induced psychiatric symptoms such as depression," says Kamiya.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230320143713.htm

Attending live sport improves wellbeing

Research is first to demonstrate major benefits across large adult population

March 17, 2023

Science Daily/Anglia Ruskin University

New scientific research has found that attending live sporting events improves levels of wellbeing and reduces feelings of loneliness.

Published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, the research is the first large-scale study to examine the benefits of attending any type of live sporting event.

The study, carried out by academics from Anglia Ruskin University's School of Psychology and Sport Science, used data from 7,209 adults, aged 16-85, living in England who participated in the Taking Part Survey, which was commissioned by the British Government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

It found that attending live sporting events results in higher scores of two major measurements of subjective wellbeing -- life satisfaction and a sense of "life being worthwhile" -- as well as lower levels of loneliness.

These results are significant as previous studies have shown that higher life satisfaction scores are associated with fewer life-limiting conditions and better physical health, successful ageing, and lower mortality rates.

The new study also found that attending live sporting events leads to an increase in people's sense that "life is worthwhile," and the size of this increase is comparable to that of gaining employment.

Many initiatives currently promote the benefits of physical participation in sport, but the researchers believe that watching live sporting events can also offer an accessible and effective public health tool for improving wellbeing and reducing loneliness.

Lead author Dr Helen Keyes, Head of the School of Psychology and Sport Science at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: "Previous research has focused on specific sports or small population samples, such as college students in the United States. Ours is the first study to look at the benefits of attending any sporting event across an adult population, and therefore our findings could be useful for shaping future public health strategies, such as offering reduced ticket prices for certain groups.

"The live events covered by the survey ranged from free amateur events, such as watching village sports teams, right through to Premier League football matches. Therefore, further research needs to be carried out to see if these benefits are more pronounced for elite level sport, or are more closely linked to supporting a specific team.

"However, we do know that watching live sport of all types provides many opportunities for social interaction and this helps to forge group identity and belonging, which in turn mitigates loneliness and boosts levels of wellbeing."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230317145019.htm

Employees tend to avoid taking breaks despite high levels of stress

March 16, 2023

Science Daily/University of Waterloo

Heavy workloads make employees feel a greater need for a break, but new research finds they may actually discourage employees from taking breaks at work despite causing high levels of stress, fatigue, and poor performance.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo found employees often kept working despite wanting to pause. One potential reason is employees may have felt pressure to continue working to get everything done on time.

"Our research provides a comprehensive account of the processes involved in the decision to take a break and provides insights into how employees and managers can make more effective use of breaks at work, potentially improving both well-being and performance," said James Beck, professor of industrial and organizational psychology at Waterloo.

To conduct the study, researchers asked 107 employees about their reasons for taking a break and not taking one. They then surveyed another 287 employees twice daily over five days about their sleep quality, fatigue, performance concerns, workload, and the number of breaks they take each day.

The researchers also found that although previous research has shown that breaks can benefit employee well-being and performance, they may resist taking breaks if they feel supervisors discourage breaks in their workplace. Although there may be a misconception that breaks are unproductive, Phan notes that many employees take breaks because they are committed to staying focused and maintaining high levels of performance.

"We recognize that it may not always be possible for employees to take more breaks, but if employers can promote employee well-being by addressing the conditions that can make work unpleasant, they may be able to reduce the number of breaks needed," said Dr. Vincent Phan, first author of the study, which he led as part of his doctoral thesis in industrial and organizational psychology at Waterloo.

The researchers hope that their findings will aid in promoting employee well-being and that future research will explore broader structural and contextual factors that influence break-taking.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230316114118.htm

Short night-time sleep linked with nearly doubled risk of clogged leg arteries

March 16, 2023

Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology

Sleeping less than five hours a night is associated with a 74% raised likelihood of developing peripheral artery disease (PAD) compared with seven to eight hours. That's the finding of a study published today in European Heart Journal -- Open, a journal of the ESC.1

"Our study suggests that sleeping for seven to eight hours a night is a good habit for lowering the risk of PAD," said study author Dr. Shuai Yuan of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

More than 200 million people globally have peripheral artery disease (PAD),2 where arteries in the legs are clogged, restricting blood flow and increasing the risk of stroke and heart attack. Dr. Yuan said: "Insufficient night-time sleep and daytime napping have previously been associated with a raised risk of coronary artery disease which, like PAD, is caused by clogged arteries. In addition, sleeping problems are among the top ranked complaints in PAD patients. There are limited data on the impact of sleep habits on PAD and vice versa, and our study aimed to fill that gap."

The study included more than 650,000 participants and was conducted in two parts.3 First, the researchers analysed the associations of sleep duration and daytime napping with the risk of PAD. In the second part, the investigators used genetic data to perform naturally randomised controlled trials -- called Mendelian randomisation -- to examine causality of the associations.

Dr. Yuan said: "Observational analyses are limited by reverse causality -- meaning that if an association between sleep habits and PAD is found, we cannot be certain if sleep habits caused PAD or having PAD caused the sleep habits. Mendelian randomisation is a robust method for evaluating causality and provides more certainty about the results."

Taken together, the strongest evidence was for short sleep, where the relationship with PAD went both ways. In an observational analysis of 53,416 adults, sleeping less than five hours a night was associated with a nearly doubled risk of PAD compared with seven to eight hours (hazard ratio [HR] 1.74; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.31-2.31). This finding was supported by further analyses in 156,582 and 452,028 individuals. In the causal studies, short sleep was associated with an increased risk of PAD and, in addition, PAD was associated with an increased likelihood of short sleep. Dr. Yuan said: "The results indicate that brief night-time sleep can raise the chance of developing PAD, and that having PAD increases the risk of getting insufficient sleep."

Regarding long sleep, in an observational analysis of 53,416 adults, sleeping eight hours or more per night was linked with a 24% higher risk of PAD compared with seven to eight hours (HR 1.24; 95% CI 1.08-1.43). This finding was supported by analyses in two larger populations of 156,582 and 452,028 individuals. However, no causal relationships were found between long sleep and PAD. Similar results were reported for napping, where daytime nappers had a 32% higher risk of PAD compared to those who did not nap (HR 1.32; 95% CI 1.18-1.49) but no causal links were found. "More studies are needed on the relationships between lengthy night-time sleep, daytime napping and PAD," said Dr. Yuan. "Although we found associations in the observational studies, we could not confirm causality."

He concluded: "More research is needed on how to interrupt the bidirectional link between short sleep and PAD. Lifestyle changes that help people get more sleep, such as being physically active, may lower the risk of developing PAD. For patients with PAD, optimising pain management could enable them to have a good night's sleep."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230316114126.htm

Sleep quality is significantly associated with quality of life indicators over time

March 15, 2023

Science Daily/PLOS

Sleep quality is much more significantly linked to quality of life over time than sleep duration or "social jetlag," according to a study published March 15, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Michaela Kudrnáčová from Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, and Aleš Kudrnáč from the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences.

Though many studies link sleep quality to one's overall quality of life, there's little research on the relative impact of changes in sleep duration, quality, and timing on an individual's quality of life over the long term.

To investigate this further, the authors used data from the annual Czech Household Panel Survey 2018-2020. Different adults in the same household each completed the survey, and later iterations of the survey approached the same individuals to participate again: 5,132 Czech adults responded to the survey in 2018, 2,046 in 2019, and 2,161 in 2020. The authors analyzed responses to questions covering life satisfaction, wellbeing, happiness, subjective health, and work stress alongside responses on self-reported sleep duration, sleep quality, and sleep timing or "social jetlag" (when someone's socially directed sleep rhythms and innate biological sleep rhythms are mismatched). Their model analyzed results within the same person's responses across the years of the survey, and also compared results between respondents. This is also the first study which has tested the longitudinal effect of social jetlag on quality of life.

At the individual level, reported sleep quality was significantly correlated with all five quality of life measures except work stress. Sleep quality was also significantly positively correlated with all quality of life measures when comparing between people. Comparing between respondents, sleep duration was significantly correlated with subjective health and happiness, and social jetlag was significantly correlated with life satisfaction and work stress. However, neither sleep duration nor social jetlag showed any significant correlations over time at the individual level.

The authors note that causes of social jetlag (e.g., a new job with different hours) change infrequently, and the current study's three-year time period studied may not have been long enough to capture any potential effect. Furthermore, the final wave of data captured the experience of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, albeit during periods of eased restrictions. This study, therefore, might not be representative of the behavior under normal circumstances. However, these results suggest that sleep duration or timing may not be as important to quality of life as high-quality sleep.

The authors add: "Better sleep means a better quality of life. While when we sleep and how long we sleep is important, individuals who have better quality sleep also have a better quality of life, regardless of the time and length of sleep. In addition, by following 4,253 people for three years, we found that those whose sleep improved also had an improved quality of life."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230315143829.htm

Getting a good night's sleep could boost your response to vaccination

March 13, 2023

Science Daily/Cell Press

We all know how important sleep is for mental health, but a meta-analysis publishing in the journal Current Biology on March 13 found that getting good shut-eye also helps our immune systems respond to vaccination. The authors found that people who slept less than six hours per night produced significantly fewer antibodies than people who slept seven hours or more, and the deficit was equivalent to two months of antibody waning.

"Good sleep not only amplifies but may also extend the duration of protection of the vaccine," says senior author Eve Van Cauter, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago who, along with lead author Karine Spiegel at the French National Institute of Health and Medicine, published a landmark study on the effects of sleep on vaccination in 2002.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and mass-vaccination became an international priority, Spiegel and Van Cauter set out to summarize our current knowledge about the effect of sleep duration on vaccine response.

To do this, they combed the literature and then combined and re-analyzed the results of seven studies that vaccinated for viral infections (influenza and hepatitis A and B). In their analysis, the team compared the antibody response for individuals who slept a "normal" amount (7-9 hours, as per the National Sleep Foundation's recommendation for healthy adults) with "short sleepers" who slept less than 6 hours per night. They compared the effect for men versus women and adults over the age of 65 years versus younger adults.

Overall, they found strong evidence that sleeping less than 6 hours per night reduces the immune response to vaccination. When they analyzed men and women separately, though, the result was only significant in men, and the effect of sleep duration on antibody production was much more variable in women. This difference is probably due to fluctuating sex hormone levels in women, the authors say.

"We know from immunology studies that sex hormones influence the immune system," says Spiegel. "In women, immunity is influenced by the state of the menstrual cycle, the use of contraceptives, and by menopause and post-menopausal status, but unfortunately, none of the studies that we summarized had any data about sex hormone levels."

The negative effect of insufficient sleep on antibody levels was also greater for adults aged 18-60 compared with people over the age of 65. This was not surprising because older adults tend to sleep less in general; going from seven hours of sleep per night to less than six hours is not as big of a change as going from eight hours to less than six per night.

Some of the studies measured sleep duration directly, either via motion-detecting wristwatches or in a sleep lab, while others relied on self-reported sleep duration. In both cases, short sleep duration was associated with lower levels of antibodies, but the effect was stronger for the studies that used objective measures of sleep, likely because people are notoriously bad at estimating the amount of sleep they have had.

Knowing that sleep duration impacts vaccination might give people some degree of control over their immunity, the authors say. "When you see the variability in protection provided by the COVID-19 vaccines -- people who have pre-existing conditions are less protected, men are less protected than women, and obese people are less protected than people who don't have obesity. Those are all factors that an individual person has no control over, but you can modify your sleep," says Van Cauter.

However, there's a lot more to be known about sleep and vaccination, the authors say. "We need to understand the sex differences, which days around the time of vaccination are most important, and exactly how much sleep is needed so that we can give guidance to people," says Spiegel. "We are going to be vaccinating millions and millions of people in the next few years, and this is an aspect that can help maximize protection."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230313121003.htm

MIND and Mediterranean diets associated with fewer Alzheimer's plaques and tangles

March 8, 2023

Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology

People who eat diets rich in green leafy vegetables as well as other vegetables, fruits, whole grains, olive oil, beans, nuts and fish may have fewer amyloid plaques and tau tangles in their brain -- signs of Alzheimer's disease -- than people who do not consume such diets, according to a study published in the March 8, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study examined how closely people followed the MIND and Mediterranean diets. While similar, the Mediterranean diet recommends vegetables, fruit, and three or more servings of fish per week while the MIND diet prioritizes green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and collard greens along with other vegetables. The MIND diet also prioritizes berries over other fruit and recommends one or more servings of fish per week. Both the MIND and Mediterranean diet recommend small amounts of wine.

While this study shows an association of regularly consuming these diets with fewer Alzheimer's disease plaques and tangles, it does not establish a cause and effect relationship.

"These results are exciting -- improvement in people's diets in just one area -- such as eating more than six servings of green leafy vegetables per week, or not eating fried foods -- was associated with fewer amyloid plaques in the brain similar to being about four years younger," said study author Puja Agarwal, PhD, of RUSH University in Chicago. "While our research doesn't prove that a healthy diet resulted in fewer brain deposits of amyloid plaques, also known as an indicator of Alzheimer's disease, we know there is a relationship and following the MIND and Mediterranean diets may be one way that people can improve their brain health and protect cognition as they age."

The study involved 581 people with an average age of 84 at the time of diet assessment who agreed to donate their brains at death to advance research on dementia. Participants completed annual questionnaires asking how much they ate of food items in various categories.

The participants died an average of seven years after the start of the study. Right before death, 39% of participants had been diagnosed with dementia. When examined after death, 66% met the criteria for Alzheimer's disease.

At autopsy, researchers examined participants' brains to determine the amounts of amyloid plaques and tau tangles. Both are found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease but may also be found in the brains of older people with normal cognition. Researchers then looked back at the food questionnaires which were collected during follow-up and ranked the quality of diet for each person.

For the Mediterranean diet, there were 11 food categories. Participants were given a score of zero to 55, with higher scores if they adhered to the diet in these categories: whole grain cereals, fruits, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, fish and potatoes. They were given lower scores if they ate red meat, poultry and full-fat dairy products.

For the MIND diet, there were 15 categories. Participants were given a score of zero to 15, with one point each for 10 brain-healthy food groups including green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil, and wine. They lost a point if they ate foods more than recommended in five unhealthy food groups, including red meats, butter and margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried and fast food.

Researchers then divided participants into three groups for each diet and compared those in the highest groups to those in the lowest groups. For the Mediterranean diet, people in the highest group had an average score of 35 while those in the lowest group had an average score of 26. For the MIND diet, the highest group had an average score of 9 while the lowest group had an average score of 6.

After adjusting for age at death, sex, education, total calorie intake and whether people had a gene linked to a greater risk of Alzheimer's disease, researchers found people who scored highest for adhering to the Mediterranean diet had average plaque and tangle amounts in their brains similar to being 18 years younger than people who scored lowest. Researchers also found people who scored highest for adhering to the MIND diet had average plaque and tangle amounts similar to being 12 years younger than those who scored lowest.

A MIND diet score one point higher corresponded to typical plaque amounts of participants who were 4.25 years younger in age.

When looking at single diet components, researchers found people who ate the highest amounts of green leafy vegetables, or seven or more servings per week, had plaque amounts in their brains corresponding to being almost 19 years younger than people who ate the fewest, with one or fewer servings per week.

"Our finding that eating more green leafy vegetables is in itself associated with fewer signs of Alzheimer's disease in the brain is intriguing enough for people to consider adding more of these vegetables to their diet," said Agarwal. "Future studies are needed to establish our findings further."

A limitation of the study was that participants were mostly white, non-Hispanic, and older so the results cannot be generalized to other populations.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230308201051.htm

Poor sleep linked to years of poor cardiovascular health

Quantifying the impact of sleepless nights and ongoing drowsiness

March 8, 2023

Science Daily/University of Sydney

Poor sleep could lead to between two and seven years worth of heightened heart disease risk and even premature death, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Sydney in collaboration with Southern Denmark University.

The study analysed data from over 300,000 middle-aged adults from the UK Biobank and found that different disturbances to sleep are associated with different durations of compromised cardiovascular health later in life compared to healthy sleepers.

In particular, men with clinical sleep-related breathing disorders lost nearly seven years of cardiovascular disease-free life compared to those without these conditions, and women lost over seven years. Importantly, even general poor sleep, such as insufficient sleep, insomnia complaints, snoring, going to bed late, and daytime sleepiness is associated with a loss of around two years of normal heart health in men and women.

"Anyone who's had a few rough nights of sleep knows how it can lead to bad mood and not feeling one's best. Our research shows that, over time, regular poor sleep can lead to significantly compromised cardiovascular health in middle and old age, said Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis from the Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Medicine and Health, senior author of the paper in BMC Medicine.

"Sleep apnoea is well known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions, but these findings are a wake-up call that poor sleep in general can pose significant risk to heart health."

How does snoring affect long term health?

The team used an established composite sleep score comprising self-reported sleep duration, insomnia complaints, snoring, daytime sleepiness and whether the person was a night owl or an early bird to come up with three sleep categories: poor, intermediate, and healthy at age 40, and compared this with their overall cardiovascular disease-free health expectancy.

By combining the study participants' self-reported data with clinical data from their doctors in the two years preceding the study, the researchers were able to compare health outcomes for self-reported sleep patterns and clinically diagnosed conditions such as sleep-related breathing disorders. The team categorised participants as poor, intermediate, and healthy sleepers at age 40, and compared their health outcomes at old age.

Women with poor sleep were likely to experience two years more of compromised cardiovascular health compared to healthy sleepers, while men experienced more than two years. Intermediate sleepers lost almost one year of heart disease-free life among women, and men lost slightly more.

This means that snoring and trouble falling asleep or staying asleep can be a warning sign of potential health issues in the future.

"While the average life expectancy of the UK study participants is around 80 years, people with clinically diagnosed sleep-related breathing disorders like sleep apnoea lost over seven years of cardiovascular-disease free life," said the study's lead author Dr Bo-Huei Huang, an epidemiologist recently graduating from the Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Medicine and Health.

A wake-up call for health and policy

Professor Peter Cistulli, the ResMed Chair of Sleep Medicine at the Charles Perkins Centre and Royal North Shore Hospital, said that these findings are significant because they extend the findings of previous studies linking poor sleep to important health outcomes.

"Sleep is a vital biological function that has been under-appreciated in public health policy to date. It's gratifying that these findings shine a light on the importance of sleep, and the need for it to be recognised as a pillar of good health, alongside physical activity and nutrition. The time is right to ensure that sleep is recognised in public health policy," said Professor Cistulli.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230308084352.htm

How heavy alcohol consumption increases brain inflammation

March 7, 2023

Science Daily/Scripps Research Institute

For people with alcohol use disorder (AUD), there is a constant, vicious cycle between changes to the brain and changes to behavior. AUD can alter signaling pathways in the brain; in turn, those changes can exacerbate drinking.

Now, scientists at Scripps Research have uncovered new details about the immune system's role in this cycle. They reported in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity on Feb. 28, 2023, that the immune signaling molecule interleukin 1β (IL-1β) is present at higher levels in the brains of mice with alcohol dependence. In addition, the IL-1β pathway takes on a different role in these animals, causing inflammation in critical areas of the brain known to be involved in decision-making.

"These inflammatory changes to the brain could explain some of the risky decision-making and impulsivity we see in people with alcohol use disorder," says senior author Marisa Roberto, PhD, the Schimmel Family Chair of Molecular Medicine and a professor of neuroscience at Scripps Research. "In addition, our findings are incredibly exciting because they suggest a potential way to treat alcohol use disorder with existing anti-inflammatory drugs targeting the IL-1β pathway."

AUD is characterized by uncontrolled and compulsive drinking, and it encompasses a range of conditions including alcohol abuse, dependence and binge drinking. Researchers have previously discovered numerous links between the immune system and AUD -- many of them centered around IL-1β. People with certain mutations in the gene that codes for the IL-1β molecule, for instance, are more prone to developing AUD. In addition, autopsies of people who had AUD have found higher levels of IL-1β in the brain.

"We suspected that IL-1β was playing a role in AUD, but the exact mechanisms in the brain have been unclear," says first author Florence Varodayan, PhD, an assistant professor at Binghamton University and former postdoctoral fellow in the Roberto lab.

In the new study, Roberto, Varodayan and their colleagues compared alcohol-dependent mice with animals drinking moderate or no alcohol at all. They discovered that the alcohol-dependent group had about twice as much IL-1β in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a part of the brain that plays a role in regulating emotions and behaviors.

The team then went on to show that IL-1β signaling in the alcohol-dependent group was not only increased, but also fundamentally different. In mice that had not been exposed to alcohol, as well as in mice that had drunk moderate amounts of alcohol, IL-1β activated an anti-inflammatory signaling pathway. In turn, this lowered levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a signaling molecule known to regulate neural activity in the brain.

However, in alcohol-dependent mice, IL-1β instead activated pro-inflammatory signaling and boosted levels of GABA, likely contributing to some of the changes in brain activity associated with AUD. Notably, these changes in IL-1β signaling in the alcohol-dependent mice persisted even during alcohol withdrawal.

Drugs that block the activity of IL-1β are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. More work is needed to determine whether these existing drugs could have utility in treating AUD.

"We plan to follow up on this study with more work on exactly how targeting specific components of the IL-1β pathway might be useful in treating alcohol use disorder," says Roberto.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230307073219.htm

Age of first exposure to tackle football and years played associated with less white matter in brain

New finding suggests that future therapies should target white matter loss in former contact sport athletes

March 6, 2023

Science Daily/Boston University School of Medicine

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is not the only problem football players should be aware of. Long careers in American football are linked to less white matter in the brain and associated with problems with impulsive behavior and thinking according to a new study from the Boston University CTE Center. This finding is independent of whether football players had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

CTE is a progressive neurodegenerative disease frequently found in contact sports athletes. However, many former contact sports athletes suffer from thinking problems and impulsive behavior in the absence of CTE, or with very mild CTE. This new study suggests that a separate type of brain damage, which can appear earlier than CTE, may underlie some of these symptoms.

"Damage to the white matter may help explain why football players appear more likely to develop cognitive and behavioral problems later in life, even in the absence of CTE," said corresponding author Thor Stein, MD, PhD, a neuropathologist at VA Boston Healthcare System and assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

The researchers studied the brains of 205 deceased American football players donated to the Veterans Affairs-Boston University-Concussion Legacy Foundation (VA-BU-CLF) Brain Bank and measured levels of myelin, a component of white matter that covers, protects and speeds up the connections in the brain. They then interviewed family members on measures of cognition and impulsivity and then compared how career length and age of beginning tackle football related to levels of myelin, and how myelin levels related to cognition and impulsivity. In addition to more years of football played, the researchers found that starting tackle football at a younger age was also related to more white matter loss, independent of career length.

"These results suggest that existing tests that measure white matter injury during life, including imaging and blood tests, may help to clarify potential causes of changes in behavior and cognition in former contact sport athletes. We can also use these tests to better understand how repeated hits to the head from football and other sports lead to long term injury to the white matter," said co-author Michael L. Alosco, PhD, associate professor of neurology.

The researchers hope these findings help reinforce the idea that more needs to be done to protect the brains of athletes, especially children, from repeated hits to the head.

These finding appear online in the journal Brain Communications.

This work was supported by grant funding from: NIA (AG057902, AG06234, RF1AG054156), NINDS (U54NS115266, K23NS102399, RF1NS122854), National Institute of Aging Boston University AD Center (P30AG072978); the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, BLRD Merit Award (I01BX005161); the Nick and Lynn Buoniconti Foundation, and BU-CTSI Grant Number 1UL1TR001430. The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed as an official Veterans Affairs or Department of Defense position, policy or decision, unless so designated by other official documentation. Funders did not have a role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230306143450.htm

Trouble falling asleep at bedtime or in the middle of the night? It could impact your risk for developing dementia

March 6, 2023

Science Daily/Elsevier

Adding to the growing body of evidence on sleep disturbances and cognitive impairment, new research finds significant links between three measures of sleep disturbance and the risk for developing dementia over a 10-year period. The results, reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, associate sleep-initiation insomnia (trouble falling asleep within 30 minutes) and sleep medication use with higher risk for developing dementia. The investigators also found that people who reported having sleep-maintenance insomnia (trouble falling back to sleep after waking) were less likely to develop dementia over the course of the study.

"We expected sleep-initiation insomnia and sleep medication usage to increase dementia risk, but we were surprised to find sleep-maintenance insomnia decreased dementia risk," explained lead investigator Roger Wong, PhD, MPH, MSW, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA. "The motivation behind this research was prompted on a personal level. My father has been experiencing chronic sleep disturbances since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and I was concerned how this would affect his cognition in the future. After reading the existing literature, I was surprised to see mixed findings on the sleep-dementia relationship, so I decided to investigate this topic."

This research is novel because it is the first to examine how long-term sleep disturbance measures are associated with dementia risk using a nationally representative US older adult sample. Previous research has associated REM sleep behavior, sleep deprivation (less than five hours of sleep), and the use of short-acting benzodiazepines with cognitive decline. Their results for sleep-maintenance insomnia support other recent studies using smaller, separate data samples.

This study used 10 annual waves (2011?2020) of prospective data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), a longitudinal panel study that surveys a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older within the USA. This study included only people who were dementia-free at baseline in 2011.

There is no cure for dementia and recent pharmaceutical approaches to treat dementia have had limited success, pointing to the importance of preventive approaches to dementia. "By focusing on the variations in sleep disturbances, our findings can help to inform lifestyle changes that can reduce dementia risk," explained co-investigator Margaret Anne Lovier, MPH, Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA.

While the mechanism for decreased dementia risk among those with sleep-maintenance insomnia is still unknown, the investigators theorize that greater engagement in activities that preserve or increase cognitive reserve may thereby decrease dementia risk.

Recent evidence indicates there is a higher prevalence of sleep disturbances among older adults than among other age groups. This could be attributed to a variety of factors including anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic or warmer nights as a consequence of climate change.

"Older adults are losing sleep over a wide variety of concerns. More research is needed to better understand its causes and manifestations and limit the long-term consequences," added Dr. Wong. "Our findings highlight the importance of considering sleep disturbance history when assessing the dementia risk profile for older adults. Future research is needed to examine other sleep disturbance measures using a national longitudinal sample, whether these sleep-dementia findings hold true for specific dementia subtypes, and how certain sociodemographic characteristics may interact with sleep disturbances to influence dementia risk."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230306143443.htm

A good night's sleep may make it easier to stick to exercise and diet goals

March 3, 2023

Science Daily/American Heart Association

People who reported getting regular, uninterrupted sleep did a better job sticking to their exercise and diet plans while trying to lose weight, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023. The meeting will be held in Boston, February 28-March 3, 2023, and offers the latest science on population-based health and wellness and implications for lifestyle and cardiometabolic health.

"Focusing on obtaining good sleep -- seven to nine hours at night with a regular wake time along with waking refreshed and being alert throughout the day -- may be an important behavior that helps people stick with their physical activity and dietary modification goals," said Christopher E. Kline, Ph.D., an associate professor in the department of health and human development at the University of Pittsburgh. "A previous study of ours reported that better sleep health was associated with a significantly greater loss of body weight and fat among participants in a year-long, behavioral weight loss program."

The researchers examined whether good sleep health was related to how well people adhered to the various lifestyle modifications prescribed in a 12-month weight loss program. The weight-loss program included 125 adults (average age of 50 years, 91% female, 81% white) who met criteria for overweight or obesity (body mass index of 27-44) without any medical conditions requiring medical supervision of their diet or physical activity.

Sleep habits were measured at the beginning of the program, at 6 months and at 12 months, through patient questionnaires, a sleep diary and 7-day readings from a wrist-worn device that recorded sleep, waking activity and rest. These measures were used to score each participant as "good" or "poor" on six measures of sleep: regularity; satisfaction; alertness; timing; efficiency (the percentage of time spent in bed when actually asleep); and duration. A composite sleep health score of 0-6 was calculated for each participant, with one point for each "good" measure of sleep health, with higher scores indicating better levels of sleep health.

Adherence to the weight loss program was measured by percentage of group intervention sessions attended; percentage of days in which each participant ate between 85-115% of their recommended daily calories; and change in daily duration of moderate or vigorous physical activity. Participants had an average sleep health score of 4.5 out of 6 at the start of the study, at 6 months and at 12 months. Participants self-reported their caloric intake each day using a phone app and researchers measured participants' physical activity with an accelerometer worn at the waist for one week at a time at the start of the study, at 6 months and at 12 months.

After adjusting the sleep health scores for age, gender, race and whether or not there was a partner sharing the bed, the researchers found that better sleep health was associated with higher rates of attendance at group interval sessions, adherence to caloric intake goals and improvement in time spent performing moderate-vigorous physical activity. They found:

• Participants attended 79% of group sessions in the first six months and 62% of group sessions in the second six months.

• Participants met their daily caloric intake goals on 36% of days in the first six months and 21% in the second six months.

• Participants increased their total daily time spent in moderate-vigorous activity by 8.7 minutes in the first six months, however, their total time spent decreased by 3.7 minutes in the second six months.

The decrease in group session attendance, caloric intake and in time spent in moderate-vigorous activity in the second six months was expected, Kline said. "As one continues in a long-term behavioral weight loss intervention, it's normal for the adherence to weight loss behaviors to decrease," he said.

Additionally, while there was an association between better sleep health scores and an increase in physical activity, it was not strong enough to be statistically significant, meaning that researchers cannot rule out that the results were due to chance.

"We had hypothesized that sleep would be associated with lifestyle modification; however, we didn't expect to see an association between sleep health and all three of our measures of lifestyle modification," he said. "Although we did not intervene on sleep health in this study, these results suggest that optimizing sleep may lead to better lifestyle modification adherence. "

The study's limitations include that it did not incorporate any intervention to help participants improve their sleep, that the study sample was not recruited based upon participants' sleep health characteristics, and that the overall sample population had relatively good sleep health at baseline. The sample was also primarily white and female, so it is unclear whether these results are generalizable to more diverse populations.

"One question of interest for future research is whether we can increase adherence to lifestyle modifications -- and, ultimately, increase weight loss -- if we improve a person's sleep health," Kline said.

A second question for the researchers is how such an intervention would be timed to improve sleep.

"It remains unclear whether it would be best to optimize sleep prior to rather than during attempted weight loss. In other words, should clinicians tell their patients to focus on getting better and more regular sleep before they begin to attempt weight loss, or should they try to improve their sleep while at the same time modifying their diet and activity levels?" Kline said.

Improving one's sleep health is something everyone can do to improve their cardiovascular health and is a key component of the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8. Sleep was added in 2022 as the eighth component of optimal cardiovascular health, which includes eating healthy food, being physically active, not smoking, getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy weight and controlling cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure levels. Cardiovascular disease claims more lives each year in the U.S. than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined, according to the 2023 Statistical Update from the American Heart Association.

"There are over 100 studies linking sleep to weight gain and obesity, but this was a great example showing how sleep isn't just tied to weight itself, it's tied to the things we're doing to help manage our own weight. This could be because sleep impacts the things that drive hunger and cravings, your metabolism and your ability to regulate metabolism and the ability to make healthy choices in general," said Michael A. Grandner, Ph.D., MTR. Grandner is director of the Sleep and Heath Research Program at the University of Arizona, director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at the Banner-University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, and was a co-author of the Association's Life's Essential 8 cardiovascular health score. "Studies like this really go to show that all of these things are connected, and sometimes sleep is the thing that we can start taking control over that can help open doors to other avenues of health."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230303175844.htm

For older adults, every 500 additional steps taken daily associated with lower heart risk

American Heart Association Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023, Presentation 360

March 3, 2023

Science Daily/American Heart Association

A new study found that walking an additional 500 steps, or about one-quarter of a mile, per day was associated with a 14% lower risk of heart disease, stroke or heart failure, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Scientific Sessions 2023. The meeting will be held in Boston, February 28-March 3, 2023, and offers the latest science on population-based health and wellness and implications for lifestyle and cardiometabolic health.

"Steps are an easy way to measure physical activity, and more daily steps were associated with a lower risk of having a cardiovascular disease-related event in older adults," said Erin E. Dooley, Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health and lead researcher of the study. "However, most studies have focused on early-to-midlife adults with daily goals of 10,000 or more steps, which may not be attainable for older individuals."

Participants in the current analysis were part of a larger study group of 15,792 adults originally recruited for the ongoing Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The present study evaluated health data collected from ARIC study visit 6 (2016-17) to evaluate the potential association between daily step counts and cardiovascular disease.

Researchers analyzed health data for 452 participants who used an accelerometer device similar to a pedometer, worn at the hip, that measured their daily steps. Participants were an average age of 78 years old; 59% were women; and 20% of participants self-identified as Black adults (70% of whom were women, and 30% of whom were men).

The devices were worn for three or more days, for ten or more hours, and the average step count was about 3,500 steps per day. Over the 3.5-year follow-up period, 7.5% of the participants experienced a cardiovascular disease event, such as coronary heart disease, stroke or heart failure.

The analysis found:

• Compared to adults who took less than 2,000 steps per day, adults who took approximately 4,500 steps per day had a 77% lower observed risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event.

• Nearly 12% of older adults with less than 2,000 steps per day had a cardiovascular event, compared to 3.5% of the participants who walked about 4,500 steps per day.

• Every additional 500 steps taken per day was incrementally associated with a 14% lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

"It's important to maintain physical activity as we age, however, daily step goals should also be attainable. We were surprised to find that every additional quarter of a mile, or 500 steps, of walking had such a strong benefit to heart health," Dooley said. "While we do not want to diminish the importance of higher intensity physical activity, encouraging small increases in the number of daily steps also has significant cardiovascular benefits. If you are an older adult over the age of 70, start with trying to get 500 more steps per day."

Additional research is needed to determine if meeting a higher daily count of steps prevents or delays cardiovascular disease, or if lower step counts may be an indicator of underlying disease.

Everyone can improve their cardiovascular health by following the American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8: eating healthy food, being physically active, not smoking, getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy weight, and controlling cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure levels. Cardiovascular disease claims more lives each year in the U.S. than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined, according to the American Heart Association.

The study had limitations. Participants had to enroll in the accelerometer device study, and hip-worn accelerometers are limited in capturing other activity behaviors that may also be important to heart health, such as bicycling and swimming. Study participants were more likely to have had at least some college or above education compared to the overall ARIC sample, and primarily self-identified as white and female, which may limit the study's generalizability. Additionally, steps were only measured at one single point in time, and the researchers were unable to examine if changes in steps over time impacted CVD event risk.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230303105410.htm

High blood pressure during pregnancy linked to thinking problems later

Study finds even greater risk in those with preeclampsia, eclampsia

March 1, 2023

Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology

High blood pressure disorders during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of thinking problems later in life, according to a study published in the March 1, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers found that those with these disorders had a higher risk of cognitive problems in later life than those who did not have high blood pressure during pregnancy. They also found that those with preeclampsia, which is high blood pressure that develops halfway through pregnancy and usually involves the kidneys and other organs, may have an even greater risk of cognitive decline later in life, compared to those with gestational high blood pressure, a condition with high blood pressure in pregnancy but without affecting the kidneys or other organs.

"While high blood pressure during pregnancy, including preeclampsia, is recognized as a risk factor for heart disease and stroke, our study suggests that it may also be a risk factor for cognitive decline in later life," said study author Michelle M. Mielke, PhD, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study involved 2,239 female participants with an average age of 73. Researchers looked at medical records for information about previous pregnancies.

Of the participants, 1,854 people or 83% had at least one pregnancy, and 385 people or 17% never had a pregnancy or had a pregnancy of less than 20 weeks. Of those with pregnancies longer than 20 weeks, 100 had gestational high blood pressure, 147 had preeclampsia or eclampsia and 1,607 had normal blood pressure. Preeclampsia is when there is excess protein in the urine during pregnancy. Eclampsia is when high blood pressure during pregnancy causes one or more seizures, sometimes followed by a coma.

For the study, participants took nine memory and thinking tests every 15 months over an average of five years. The tests measured thinking and memory skills including global cognition, processing speed, executive function, language and visual perception.

Overall, researchers found that those with high blood pressure during pregnancy had a greater decline than those without high blood pressure during pregnancy and those who had not given birth on tests of global cognition, attention, executive function and language.

After adjusting for age and education, the average composite score of all memory and thinking tests of participants with any type of high blood pressure disorder had a decline of 0.3 points compared to those who did not have high blood pressure during pregnancy with a decline of 0.05 points. When looking at different types of high blood pressure disorders, those with preeclampsia had a decline of 0.04 points compared to those with other blood pressure disorders and those with no blood pressure disorders, which both had a decline of 0.05.

After adjusting for age and education, those with high blood pressure in pregnancy declined 0.4 standard deviation over five years on tests of executive function and attention, compared to those who had normal blood pressure for all pregnancies and declined only 0.1 standard deviation. These results were more pronounced for those who had preeclampsia, with a 0.5 standard deviation decrease on tests of executive function and attention compared to a 0.1 decrease for those who had normal blood pressure for all pregnancies.

"More research is needed to confirm our findings. However, these results suggest that managing and monitoring blood pressure during and after pregnancy is an important factor for brain health later in life," Mielke said.

A limitation of the study is that most of the participants were white, so results may not be generalizable to more diverse populations that have higher rates of high blood pressure in pregnancy.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230301162703.htm

Taking vitamin D could help prevent dementia

Taking vitamin D supplements may help ward off dementia, according to a new, large-scale study.

March 1, 2023

Science Daily/University of Exeter

Taking vitamin D supplements may help ward off dementia, according to a new, large-scale study.

Researchers at the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Canada and the University of Exeter in the UK explored the relationship between vitamin D supplementation and dementia in more than 12,388 participants of the US National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center, who had a mean age of 71 and were dementia-free when they signed up. Of the group, 37 per cent (4,637) took vitamin D supplements.

In the study, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, the team found that taking vitamin D was associated with living dementia-free for longer, and they also found 40 per cent fewer dementia diagnoses in the group who took supplements.

Across the entire sample, 2,696 participants progressed to dementia over ten years; amongst them, 2,017 (75%) had no exposure to vitamin D throughout all visits prior to dementia diagnosis, and 679 (25%) had baseline exposure.

Professor Zahinoor Ismail, of the University of Calgary and University of Exeter, who led the research, said: "We know that vitamin D has some effects in the brain that could have implications for reducing dementia, however so far, research has yielded conflicting results. Our findings give key insights into groups who might be specifically targeted for vitamin D supplementation. Overall, we found evidence to suggest that earlier supplementation might be particularly beneficial, before the onset of cognitive decline."

While Vitamin D was effective in all groups, the team found that effects were significantly greater in females, compared to males. Similarly, effects were greater in people with normal cognition, compared to those who reported signs of mild cognitive impairment -- changes to cognition which have been linked to a higher risk of dementia.

The effects of vitamin D were also significantly greater in people who did not carry the APOEe4 gene, known to present a higher risk for Alzheimer's dementia, compared to non-carriers. The authors suggest that people who carry the APOEe4 gene absorb vitamin D better from their intestine, which might reduce the vitamin D supplementation effect. However, no blood levels were drawn to test this hypothesis.

Previous research has found that low levels of vitamin D are linked to higher dementia risk. Vitamin D is involved in the clearance of amyloid in the brain, the accumulation of which is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Studies have also found that vitamin D may provide help to protect the brain against build-up of tau, another protein involved in the development of dementia.

Co-author Dr Byron Creese, at the University of Exeter, said: "Preventing dementia or even delaying its onset is vitally important given the growing numbers of people affected. The link with vitamin D in this study suggests that taking vitamin D supplements may be beneficial in preventing or delaying dementia, but we now need clinical trials to confirm whether this is really the case. The ongoing VitaMIND study at the University of Exeter is exploring this issue further by randomly assigning participants to either take vitamin D or placebo and examining changes in memory and thinking tests over time."

The VitaMIND study is run via PROTECT, an online study open to people aged 40 and over. In PROTECT annual questionnaires on detailed lifestyle factors combine with cognitive testing, to determine what keeps the brain sharp in later life. To find out more or to sign up, visit their website. In Canada, CAN-PROTECT, is a linked online study on aging, in people aged 40 and over, with an additional focus on caregiving in dementia.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230301101511.htm

Lending a paw for defense veterans: 'Clear evidence' that assistance dogs help improve mental health

March 1, 2023

Science Daily/University of South Australia

A new Australian study focused on defence veterans' mental health has found strong evidence that assistance dogs used in conjunction with traditional therapies provide the most effective treatment outcomes.

Almost 90 per cent of veterans reported improvements in their post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety 12 months after being matched to an assistance dog, according to researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA), University of Adelaide, and Military and Emergency Services Health Australia (MESHA).

Of the 16 returned veterans who took part in the study, 63 per cent reported "significant clinical improvements" to their mental health thanks to an assistance dog provided by the Operation K9 Program run by See Differently with the Royal Society for the Blind.

The study, funded by The Hospital Research Foundation Group, is the first in Australia to use self-reported measures, clinical assessments, and face-to-face interviews with veterans to investigate the value of an assistance dog over time.

It is published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

UniSA Master of Clinical Psychology student Melissa Sherman, who analysed the data, says the findings are relevant to policymakers and demonstrate the power of human-animal relationships.

"Previous studies have shown that existing treatments for post-traumatic stress among returned veterans are not ideal, with high dropout rates and poor adherence," Sherman says.

"This study provides clear evidence that assistance dogs can play a key role in a veteran's recovery from post-traumatic stress and other mental health conditions, supporting existing treatments."

Of the 5000 ADF members who transition from the forces to civilian life every year, 46 per cent experience mental health issues, including suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and depression. Almost a quarter of them are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress in their lifetime.

"This is an important issue that needs addressing," according to MESHA Executive Director Miranda Van Hooff, an Adjunct Associate Professor at both UniSA and the University of Adelaide.

Three major themes emerged from the study: that assistance dogs were a "life changer," a constant companion, and helped returned veterans to increase their social interactions.

"For many veterans, an assistance dog gave them a sense of purpose and a reason to live," Assoc Prof Van Hooff says.

Veterans reported their dog helped them "reclaim their life," giving them independence and a way to manage their mental health issues and fluctuating emotions, including hypervigilance.

Some participants described their dog as "a comfort or security blanket," with one veteran saying he was a recluse for many years until being matched with an assistance dog: 'Now, every day is an adventure, giving me something to look forward to'.

The study showed a slight drop in participants still reporting suicidal feelings after 12 months, but the reduction was not significant. The main benefits were a large reduction in depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Researchers say the study was limited by the lack of a control group of veterans with post-traumatic stress not receiving an assistance dog, and the small number of study participants due to the cost of breeding, training, and matching dogs to veterans.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230301101544.htm

Daily 11 minute brisk walk enough to reduce risk of early death

February 28, 2023

Science Daily/University of Cambridge

One in ten early deaths could be prevented if everyone managed at least half the recommended level of physical activity, say a team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

In a study published today in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, the researchers say that 11 minutes a day (75 minutes a week) of moderate-intensity physical activity -- such as a brisk walk -- would be sufficient to lower the risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke and a number of cancers.

Cardiovascular diseases -- such as heart disease and stroke -- are the leading cause of death globally, responsible for 17.9 million deaths per year in 2019, while cancers were responsible for 9.6 million deaths in 2017. Physical activity -- particularly when it is moderate-intensity -- is known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, and the NHS recommends that adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week.

To explore the amount of physical activity necessary to have a beneficial impact on several chronic diseases and premature death, researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis, pooling and analysing cohort data from all of the published evidence. This approach allowed them to bring together studies that on their own did not provide sufficient evidence and sometimes disagreed with each other to provide more robust conclusions.

In total, they looked at results reported in 196 peer-reviewed articles, covering more than 30 million participants from 94 large study cohorts, to produce the largest analysis to date of the association between physical activity levels and risk of heart disease, cancer, and early death.

The researchers found that, outside of work-related physical activity, two out of three people reported activity levels below 150 min per week of moderate-intensity activity and fewer than one in ten managed more than 300 min per week.

Broadly speaking, they found that beyond 150 min per week of moderate-intensity activity, the additional benefits in terms of reduced risk of disease or early death were marginal. But even half this amount came with significant benefits: accumulating 75 min per week of moderate-intensity activity brought with it a 23% lower risk of early death.

Dr Soren Brage from the MRC Epidemiology Unit said: "If you are someone who finds the idea of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week a bit daunting, then our findings should be good news. Doing some physical activity is better than doing none. This is also a good starting position -- if you find that 75 minutes a week is manageable, then you could try stepping it up gradually to the full recommended amount."

Seventy-five minutes per week of moderate activity was also enough to reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease by 17% and cancer by 7%. For some specific cancers, the reduction in risk was greater -- head and neck, myeloid leukaemia, myeloma, and gastric cardia cancers were between 14-26% lower risk. For other cancers, such as lung, liver, endometrial, colon, and breast cancer, a 3-11% lower risk was observed.

Professor James Woodcock from the MRC Epidemiology Unit said: "We know that physical activity, such as walking or cycling, is good for you, especially if you feel it raises your heart rate. But what we've found is there are substantial benefits to heart health and reducing your risk of cancer even if you can only manage 10 minutes every day."

The researchers calculated that if everyone in the studies had done the equivalent of at least 150 min per week of moderate-intensity activity, around one in six (16%) early deaths would be prevented. One in nine (11%) cases of cardiovascular disease and one in 20 (5%) cases of cancer would be prevented.

However, even if everyone managed at least 75 min per week of moderate-intensity physical activity, around one in ten (10%) early deaths would be prevented. One in twenty (5%) cases of cardiovascular disease and nearly one in thirty (3%) cases of cancer would be prevented.

Dr Leandro Garcia from Queen's University Belfast said: "Moderate activity doesn't have to involve what we normally think of exercise, such as sports or running. Sometimes, replacing some habits is all that is needed. For example, try to walk or cycle to your work or study place instead of using a car, or engage in active play with your kids or grand kids. Doing activities that you enjoy and that are easy to include in your weekly routine is an excellent way to become more active."

The research was funded by the Medical Research Council and the European Research Council.

What counts as moderate-intensity physical activity?

Moderate-intensity physical activity raises your heart rate and makes you breathe faster, but you would still be able to speak during the activity. Examples include:

• Brisk walking

• Dancing

• Riding a bike

• Playing tennis

• Hiking

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230228205249.htm

Time in nature may help older adults with improved health, purpose in life

February 24, 2023

Science Daily/Penn State

Over time, research has demonstrated that spending time in nature confers psychological, emotional and physical benefits. To maximize benefits of spending time in nature for people over the age of 65, researchers from Penn State; National Open University, Taiwan; and Lunghwa University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, studied the attitudes, beliefs and actions of a group of elders -- people over the age of 65 -- who regularly spent time in a natural area. The researchers found that fostering social connections around nature-based activities may be connected to improved health and quality of life for elders.

In Japan, the term shinrin-yoku, or "forest bathing," was developed to refer to spending time in nature while engaging all of one's senses: tasting the air, smelling a forest, listening to a stream, and being present with whatever you experience.

For elders who encounter challenges when attempting to hike quickly over difficult trails, forest bathing may present an enjoyable and safe way to spend time in nature. According to the researchers, forest bathing is popular among older adults in Japan, China and Taiwan, where the practice originated, and it is becoming increasingly popular in the United States.

The researchers studied older visitors to the Xitou Education Area, a natural preserve in Taiwan. Between April and June of 2022, the researchers surveyed 292 visitors to the preserve who were at least 65 years old and who visited the park at least once a week. Participants were asked a range of questions, from whether they felt supported by others, to how much they thought about their futures, to how much purpose they felt that their lives had.

The results of the study were published in the journal Leisure Sciences. The researchers found that people who discussed their experiences in nature with others tended to have a greater sense of attachment to forest bathing and a stronger sense of purpose in life.

Prior research supports the conclusion that these factors are related to better physical and mental health and higher quality of life. This finding can guide leisure-service providers working in various settings including community recreation departments and retirement villages on how to facilitate leisure for elders, according to John Dattilo, professor of recreation, park and tourism management at Penn State and co-author of this research.

"Elders can access community and state parks where it is safe for them to spend time in nature: places with walkable paths and convenient, accessible parking, are helpful," Dattilo explained." Agencies can publicize these opportunities and help identify the value they offer to elders and others.

"Better yet, leisure-service providers could arrange transportation and then afterwards facilitate social interactions among participants," Dattilo continued. "Enabling people to get out into nature to experience their surroundings is one aspect of forest bathing. Part of what we found is the linkage between positive social relationships and spending time in nature. So, if leisure-service providers create opportunities for elders to return from an experience, meet over a warm beverage and talk about their experiences, there will be value in these connections for people's sense of purpose."

An improved sense of purpose is related to better physical functioning, higher quality of life, and lower fear of death, according to Liang-Chih Chang, professor of living sciences at National Open University in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Forest bathing matters, he continued, because it might be able to help people foster that sense of purpose.

"Forest bathing seems to connect people to the moment and the world," Chang said. "When elders use that same experience to develop social connections and support, they may experience a broad range of benefits associated with physiological functioning as well as cognitive health. These are associations, not cause and effect, but the potential consequences are exciting to consider."

The study continues Dattilo's research on the value of the leisure experience for elders that he has explored with his collaborators in Taiwan as well as locally with colleagues from Penn State's Center for Healthy Aging.

"We have conducted research on square dancing and karaoke, both of which are common activities for elders in Asia," Dattilo said. "Forest bathing, is unique in that it is closely tied to hiking, strolling or sitting in nature in which many elders engage across the globe. If leisure-service providers facilitate exposure to nature and help participants build a sense of community around those experiences, then elders could live, not only healthier, but richer and more meaningful lives."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230224135027.htm