Sleeping less than seven-and-a-half hours per day may be associated with future risk of heart disease, according to a report in the November 10, 2008, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, a combination of little sleep and overnight elevated blood pressure appears to be associated with an increased risk of the disease.
“Reflecting changing lifestyles, people are sleeping less in modern societies,” according to background information in the article. Getting adequate sleep is essential to preventing health conditions such as obesity and diabetes as well as several risk factors for cardiovascular disease including sleep-disordered breathing and night-time hypertension (high blood pressure).
People with even minimally symptomatic obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease because of impaired endothelial function and increased arterial stiffness, according to a study in the November 2008 issue of American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Their findings suggested that minimally symptomatic OSA is a cardiovascular risk factor to a degree not previously known.
A study published in the December 24 and 31, 2008 issue of JAMA said more sleep is better for your heart and is tied to lower calcification rates in the coronary artery.
Risk factors for coronary artery calcification include heart disease risk factors such as male sex, older age, glucose intolerance, tobacco use, disorders of lipoprotein metabolism and high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, obesity, raised inflammatory markers and a low educational level.
Sleeping less than seven and a half hours per day may be associated with future risk of heart disease, according to a report in the November 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, a combination of little sleep and overnight elevated blood pressure appears to be associated with an increased risk of the disease.
“Reflecting changing lifestyles, people are sleeping less in modern societies,” according to background information in the article. Getting adequate sleep is essential to preventing health conditions such as obesity and diabetes as well as several risk factors for cardiovascular disease including sleep-disordered breathing and night-time high blood pressure.
People with even minimally symptomatic obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease because of impaired endothelial function and increased arterial stiffness, according to a study from the Oxford Centre for Respiratory Medicine in the United Kingdom.
“It was previously known that people with OSA severe enough to affect their daytime alertness and manifest in other ways are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but this finding suggests that many more people — some of whom may be completely unaware that they even have OSA — are at risk than previously thought,” said lead author of the study, Malcolm Kohler, M.D.
A comparison of two diagnostic methods used to detect deep vein thrombosis, or DVT — a blood clot in a deep vein in the leg or thigh — of the lower extremities indicates that a simpler method, with wider availability, has rates of DVT detection that are equivalent to a more complex method, according to a study in the October 8, 2008 issue of JAMA.
The imaging technique, compression ultrasonography, is a highly accurate method for the detection of DVT and has replaced other diagnostic methods in common practice. Two ultrasonography diagnostic methods often used are two-point and whole-leg.
When someone’s heart suddenly stops beating, there’s a lot that bystanders and ambulance crews can do to get it started again. If the victim doesn’t respond, when should such efforts stop, according to the findings of a study published in the September 2008.
When should emergency crews rapidly transport a patient to a hospital with lights and sirens on, potentially endangering the lives of paramedics and other motorists and pedestrians — even though the care provided by the emergency crew is the same as what can be provided in the emergency department?
People with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on commercial airline flights may have a greater risk of adverse events from cardiac stress than healthy people, according to research to be presented at the American Thoracic Society’s 2008 International Conference in Toronto.
The researchers compared oxygen levels and ventilation of healthy people and people with severe OSA during simulated flight conditions replicating the oxygen and pressure levels of typical commercial flights that have “cabin altitudes” ranging from 6,000 feet and 8,000 feet, the maximum allowed, even if the airplane is flying at 30,000 feet. This is the first study to use these measurements to assess fitness to fly without supplemental oxygen.
The DASH diet has been shown to reduce both systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure in individuals with high or normal blood pressure, according to background information in the article. The diet has also been shown to reduce low-density lipoprotein (“bad”) cholesterol and is recommended in national dietary guidelines as an example of a healthy eating pattern.
