Health : 14 Heart Numbers Everyone Should Know

The older you get, the better you sleep? Perhaps, suggests a new study that found older adults report sleeping better than their younger counterparts. The research is based on self-reports from 155,877 adults; findings were published today in the journal Sleep. Compared to other age groups, people in their 70s and 80s had the fewest complaints about sleep disturbances and daytime fatigue. In fact, save for a bump in middle age, sleep appears to improve steadily over the course of a lifetime. There are numerous explanations for the discrepancy, study author Michael Grandner, a research associate at the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania, told ABC News. "Perhaps with other pain or health issues going on, older people don't really see their sleep as a problem, compared to everything else," Grandner said. "They might also have attitudes and beliefs about sleep that don't place much importance on getting a good night's sleep. After all, we live in a 'sleep when I'm dead' society that seems to think that sleep is for sissies."

Why Power Naps at Work Are Catching On

Falling asleep on the job may be evolving into office protocol—not grounds for termination. A growing number of companies are recognizing the health benefits of a quick snooze, including increased alertness, enhanced brainpower, and fewer sick days. While naps aren't necessary for those who get the recommended eight hours of shut-eye at night, they may be key for those who skimp on sleep. "Most people don't get enough sleep," says Nancy Collop, president-elect of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. "And for those people, a nap will clearly help. The most important factor is duration, and it's well-accepted that short naps are good."

Some companies are offering designated nap rooms or even setting up tents or lofted beds, but at Workman Publishing in New York, employees usually sleep underneath their desks or behind room-divider screens. "You can close your eyes for 10 or 15 minutes and wake up feeling completely refreshed," says Susan Bolotin, editor in chief of Workman, which has been nap-friendly since 2007. "We've seen very positive effects. I keep a nap mat in my office, and I'm still known to lie down, put my sleep mask on, and see what happens." Bolotin has distributed eye masks to her team, and sometimes lends her office floor to those without a private workspace who are in need of a nap. "We have one guy who works here who likes to nap, and you'll walk by and he'll be lying down on a mat like a kid in nursery school," she says. Other companies, including British Airways, Nike, Pizza Hut, and Google, offer reclining chairs and "renewal rooms." [Read more: Why Power Naps at Work Are Catching On.]

Sleep Deprived? Here's How to Recover

Sure, we all know we're supposed to get seven or eight hours of sleep a night, but all of us skimp from time to time, getting, say, five hours one night and six hours the next. Those lost hours, though, can add up to a big sleep debt by the end of the week—the reason so many of us feel wiped out by Friday. But here's a bit of good news: Researchers have found that sleeping in after a few days of missed sleep can help pay back that debt, nearly erasing any lingering sense of fatigue and mental fuzziness, according to a study published in 2010 in the journal Sleep. "The brain has a built-in reflex that helps you sleep deeper and longer when you're sleep deprived," says study coauthor David Dinges, chief of the division of sleep and chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. "This recovery sleep seems to have a genuine benefit to restoring alertness."

Think you're doing fine on only six hours a night? Think again. Although Dinges hears this from folks all the time, he says it's true for only a small percentage of the population. Most of us actually need seven or eight hours of shut-eye to feel 100 percent the next day. "If you fall asleep watching TV or struggle to stay awake in a meeting," he says, "you're sleep deprived." And it's not just fatigue you feel but reduced brain function in terms of your memory, alertness, cognitive speed, and reaction time. "Some of us are so used to not getting enough sleep that we've forgotten what it feels like to be fully alert," Dinges adds. [Read more: Sleep Deprived? Here's How to Recover.]

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Older Adults Sleep Better Than Younger Set

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PST

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10 Overhyped Health Products

Posted: 29 Feb 2012 12:48 PM PST

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Health Buzz: FDA Adds Warnings to Statins

Posted: 29 Feb 2012 06:51 AM PST

FDA Adds Diabetes, Memory Loss Warnings to Statins

Federal health officials are adding new safety warnings to cholesterol-reducing statin drugs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that medicines like Lipitor, Crestor, and Zocor will now note increased risks of type 2 diabetes and memory loss. The labeling changes are based on clinical trials and reports of adverse events from patients, physicians, and drugmakers. Statins may increase users' risk of brain-related problems like memory loss and confusion, though the symptoms typically vanish once the drug is stopped, the FDA said. The drugs could also cause elevated levels of blood sugar, the Associated Press reports. Despite the new warnings, patients should still feel comfortable taking statins, the agency said. "The value of statins in preventing heart disease has been clearly established," Amy Egan, deputy director for safety in the FDA's Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products, said in a statement. "Their benefit is indisputable, but they need to be taken with care and knowledge of their side effects."

A Plant-based Diet to Cut Bad Cholesterol

Going green could help bring down the amount of LDL cholesterol in your blood, the bad kind that can lead to heart attack and stroke. While it's always been smart to ditch the butter and forget the fatty meats, recent research suggests opting for plant-based foods is an effective way to lower the level of LDL cholesterol.

Canadian researchers recruited people with very high LDL and put them on a diet that included plant-based sterols supplied by a special margarine, soy protein from tofu, soy milk, and soy-based meat substitutes, viscous fiber from oats, barley, and psyllium, and nuts. After six months, the LDL level of the study participants dropped by an average of 13 percent, reducing their risk of heart attack and stroke over the next 10 years by about 11 percent on average. The study was published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Each one of these ingredients will help you, but when they all work together, you'll get the strongest results," says study author Peter Jones, Canada's research chair in functional foods and nutrition. "Plant-based sterols alone can lower your cholesterol by 5 percent. When you add in fiber and nuts and soy, the story just keeps getting better." [Read more: A Plant-based Diet to Cut Bad Cholesterol]

Could Getting More Fiber Help You Live Longer?

Hear fiber and you probably think of bran cereal, which doesn't exactly make you salivate. But research suggests more fiber could equal more years. Analyzing data from nearly 400,000 men and women ages 50 to 71, researchers found that those who consumed the most fiber were 22 percent less likely to die from any cause during the nine years they were studied. Men were 24 to 56 percent and women 34 to 59 percent less likely to die of heart and infectious or respiratory diseases, according to findings from the National Institutes of Health's AARP Diet and Health Study, published last year in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Why fiber reduces the risk of early death is unclear. Perhaps it's because fiber lowers levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol, improves blood glucose levels, reduces inflammation, and binds to potential cancer-causing agents, helping to flush them out of the body, says lead author Yikyung Park, a staff scientist at the National Cancer Institute.

What is clear, however, is that participants only benefited when fiber came from grains, like oatmeal, cornmeal, and brown rice. Fiber from fruits, vegetables, and beans had no impact on death risk. "Whole grains are rich sources of fiber, but also good sources of vitamins, minerals, and other phytochemicals that may provide health benefits," Park says. And grains have powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties—another reason researchers say grain fiber is beneficial. [Read more: Could Getting More Fiber Help You Live Longer?]

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Posted: 24 Feb 2012 10:39 AM PST

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Health Buzz: FDA Advisors Back Weight-Loss Drug

Posted: 23 Feb 2012 09:10 AM PST

Federal Panel Endorses Weight-Loss Drug Qnexa

The controversial weight-loss drug Qnexa is one step closer to gaining approval as the first new prescription obesity medication in 13 years. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 20 to 2 Wednesday to recommend its approval, despite rejecting the drug two years ago in light of safety concerns. The panel of medical experts argued that the weight-loss benefits of Vivus Inc's Qnexa outweigh potential heart risks and birth defects associated with the drug, USA TODAY reports. In a clinical trial of 4,323 obese adults, Qnexa patients lost an average of 10 percent of their total body weight during the first year of use. However, the researchers also found that Qnexa slightly boosted heart rate, which can heighten the risk of heart attack and stroke. And they noticed an increased risk of birth defects in the babies of women who became pregnant while taking the drug. Panelists recommended that Vivus further study the drug's heart effects, and supported the company's plan to forbid pregnant women from using it. The FDA will issue a final ruling later this year, but typically follows the recommendations of its advisory committees. "Everyone around the room knows obesity and its substantial health risks," panel member Susan Yanovski, director of the obesity and eating disorders program at the National Institutes of Health, told Reuters. "I would say not treating obesity is not risk neutral. We have few treatments for obesity for those who don't respond to lifestyle treatments."

High-Protein Diets for Weight Loss: Are They Healthy?

"High-protein diet"—burgers, steaks, chops, and more burgers, steaks, and chops. Right? Wrong. Few diets, even those like Atkins that portray themselves as a carnivore's delight, dish out more than about a quarter of their daily calories from protein. The federal view classifies diets as high-protein if the protein content exceeds 35 percent.

But even a quarter is high. Most Americans get only about 15 percent of their calories from protein, says nutritionist Teresa Fung of Simmons College in Boston, a member of the U.S. News Best Diets expert panel. That's roughly one 3-ounce burger a day. So studies of "high-protein" diets generally take aim at those at the "higher end of the recommended range" of 10 to 35 percent, says Kathie Beals, another panelist and an associate professor in the division of nutrition at the University of Utah.

These higher-protein diets, as they should be called, are gaining popularity among those who want to both drop pounds and build muscle. The protein in these plans typically comes from meat, although soy, peanuts, whey, and other plant-based protein often appear on the menu. Proponents say such diets boost metabolism, promoting weight loss while making dieters feel full. [Read more: High-Protein Diets for Weight Loss: Are They Healthy?]

7 Stick-to-Your-Diet Tricks You've Never Heard of for 2012

Another year, another resolution. The goal may be the same, but the outcome doesn't have to be. You can succeed in 2012. No more falling off the weight-loss wagon a couple of months in, or sheepishly returning the skinny jeans you bought with such hope. These 7 easy and unconventional tricks can help you stay on track this time around:

Picture yourself. Find a photo of yourself you either love or hate, whichever hits you harder. Carry it around—and whip it out and stare at it whenever temptation strikes. Seeing yourself at your thinnest or heftiest—maybe even snapshots of both—might stiffen your resolve when you pass Dunkin' Donuts or watch The Office with potato-chip-addicts, says registered dietitian Keri Gans, author of The Small Change Diet. Need a stronger reminder? Magnet the visuals to your refrigerator, too, she says.

Bet on it. "Diet betting" is catching on among friends, relatives, and coworkers. The idea is to place real bets on who can lose the most weight over a specified period, tracked by weekly weigh-ins. A study published in 2008 in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that people given financial incentives—for this study it was a chance to earn about $200—were more successful at weight loss than those without money on the line. Can't find willing competition? Sites like stickK.com require dieters to hand over their credit card information and sign contracts pledging to meet certain goals. If they fall short, say by failing to lose the weight they vowed to, it'll cost them—their credit card will be charged anything from a couple of dollars to $200 per week, depending on the terms they agreed to, with the money donated to a designated person or charity. [Read more: 7 Stick-to-Your-Diet Tricks You've Never Heard of for 2012.]

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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Health : 14 Heart Numbers Everyone Should Know

Health : 14 Heart Numbers Everyone Should Know

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