trouble falling asleep and heart attack risk

If you have trouble falling asleep, don't take it lightly -- you could be a candidate for a moderately higher risk of a heart attack.

In a recent study, the risk of heart attack in people with insomnia ranged from 27 percent to 45 percent greater than for people who rarely experienced trouble sleeping.

Researchers tied in heart attack risks to three major insomnia symptoms. Compared to people who reported never or almost never having these problems, people who had trouble falling asleep almost daily in the last month had a 45 percent higher heart attack risk.

Staying asleep almost every night in the last month had a 30 percent higher heart attack risk; and didn't wake up feeling refreshed in the morning more than once a week had a 27 percent higher heart attack risk.

'Sleep problems are common and fairly easy to treat,' said study co-author Lars Erik Laugsand and internist in public health from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Associaton reports.

'So it's important that people are aware of this connection between insomnia and heart attack and talk to their doctor if they're having symptoms,' Laugsand added, according to a Norwegian University statement.

Heart attack risk also increases with each additional insomnia symptom, researchers said. The study was based on 52,610 Norwegian adults who answered questions about insomnia as part of a national health survey in 1995-97.

Up to 33 percent of people are known to experience at least one insomnia symptom. Previous smaller studies have linked insomnia to heart disease, including high blood pressure and heart attacks. Every year, about 785,000 Americans have a first-time heart attack.

source: mathrubhumi.com/english/story.php?id=116121

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Cranberry juice better at fighting bugs

Cranberry juice is far better than its extract in fighting a bio-film, formed by a resistant layer of bugs that spur infection, new research says.

The study explored mechanisms that the virulent form of E. coli bug, the primary cause of most urinary tract infections in people, uses to form bio-films.

'What we have shown is that cranberry juice's ability to prevent bio-films is more complex than we may have originally thought,' said study co-author Terri Camesano, professor of chemical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).

'For a while, the field focused on these proanthocyanidins or PACs (a group of flavonoids found in cranberry extract), but the data shows that they aren't the silver bullet,' added Camesano, the journal Food Science and Biotechnology reports.

The virulent form of E. coli is covered with small hair-like projections known as fimbriae that act like hooks and latch onto cells that line the urinary tract, according to a WPI statement.

When enough of the virulent bacteria adhere to cells, they form a bio-film and cause an infection.

Camesano's team, which included graduate student Paola Andrea Pinzon-Arango and intern Kerrie Holguin, incubated two different strains of E. coli in the presence of two different mixtures of commercially available cranberry juice cocktail.

They also incubated the bacteria separately in the presence of PACs, but not juice.

source: mathrubhumi.com/english/story.php?id=116123

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Eating nuts helps lowers heart disease risk

Nuts and seeds are very beneficial to your health. You must mix your diet every day, eating nuts helps lowers heart disease risk in people with metabolic syndrome (MetS) or those with excess abdominal fat, high blood sugar and high blood pressure, say researchers.

MetS symptoms increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease, the Journal of Proteome Research reported, citing a statement from the University of Barcelona.

Cristina Andres-Lacueva and colleagues from the varsity with the Human Nutrition Unit of the Rovira i Virgili University explain that the rise in obesity worldwide means more and more patients have MetS.

To check the benefits of nut consumption, researchers put 22 MetS patients on a nut-enriched diet for 12 weeks and compared them to another group of 20 patients who avoided nuts.

The scientists analyzed the compounds excreted in patients' urine and found evidence of several healthful changes, including a boost in patients' levels of serotonin metabolites.

Serotonin, a chemical, helps decrease feelings of hunger, makes people feel happier and improves heart health, the researchers said.
source: mathrubhumi.com

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