Lost sleep = Lost Brain Cells

Yes, you read right.
Insufficient sleep is not only detrimental for our physical health but a recent study says it also leads to brain cell death.

The study conducted at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine was published in the latest issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. While studying lack of sleep in mice, the researchers noticed prolonged lack of sleep lead to 25% of certain brain cells dying. After further observation and research the team concluded that similar damage is most likely occurs in human too.

As explained in the abstract of the article, "Modern society enables a shortening of sleep times, yet long-term consequences of extended wakefulness on the brain are largely unknown. Essential for optimal alertness, locus ceruleus neurons (LCns) are metabolically active neurons that fire at increased rates across sustained wakefulness. We hypothesized that wakefulness is a metabolic stressor to LCns and that, with extended wakefulness, adaptive mitochondrial metabolic responses fail and injury ensues."

With prolonged sleep deprivation the processes that maintain a health metabolic homeostasis in the brain can not be sustained, hence may lead to significant irreversible injury.  Although much more research and work needs to be done to determine whether loss of sleep can lead to real brain damage.

In the end, for all of us who survive on minimal sleep, it is clearly time to make an extra effort to ensure we get a good prolonged sleep every night.



References:

Extended Wakefulness: Compromised Metabolics in and Degeneration of Locus Ceruleus Neurons (The Journal of Neuroscience -March 19th 2014) 

Lost sleep leads to loss of brain cells, study suggests (BBC World News- Health March 19th 2014)

Reduce all animal proteins in our diet to live longer

It has been well documented that consumption of too much red meat as an adult can lead increased risk for type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke and certain cancers.

Now researchers in the US and Italy have gathered enough data, over a period of two decades, to conclude that individuals who have diets high in animal proteins during their middle age are four times more likely to die of cancer then their counterparts who had diets low in animal proteins. A risk some have compared with smoking. An increased risk of developing Diabetes Type 2 was also observed.

Valter Longo, a University of Southern California gerontology professor and director of the school’s Longevity Institute, who co-authored the study pointed out "The great majority of Americans could reduce their protein intake," and added "The best change would be to lower the daily intake of all proteins, but especially animal-derived proteins."

The interesting finding though was the fact that if you started eating more animal proteins after the age of 66 years, it is actually good for your health.


Here are two articles on the subject:

Too much animal-based proteins could lead to early death, study says ( Brady Dennis for The Washington Post)

It's time to kick the high-protein diet habit – before it kills you (Holly Baxter for The Guardian)


Reference:

Low Protein Intake Is Associated with a Major Reduction in IGF-1, Cancer, and Overall Mortality in the 65 and Younger but Not Older Population

Anger really harmful to cardiovascular health

We all lose our temper from time to time, and it never feels good. An angry outburst is almost always leaves on exhausted, unhappy and feeling drained. We've all been told a bad temper and anger are bad for us at some point in our life.
Now a research study conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health, has found that the risk of a heart attack or stroke is much higher for about two hours immediately following an angry outburst. The risk for a heart attack is increased almost five-folds, whereas the risk is increased two-folds for stroke. This finding is more consistent in individuals with preexisting risk factors.
According to the researchers, 'At a population level, the risk with a single outburst of anger is relatively low - one extra heart attack per 10,000 people per year could be expected among people with low cardiovascular risk who were angry only once a month, increasing to an extra four per 10,000 people with a high cardiovascular risk. But the risk is cumulative, meaning temper-prone individuals will be at higher risk still.'

It is not exactly clear how anger causes the increased risk, but a constant rise in stress level might be significant. Chronic stress is known to lead to high blood pressure which itself is a risk factor for heart diseases. Use of alcohol consumption or smoking for relieving the stress might further exacerbate that risk. Yet, further research is required to fully understand how anger could lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular events and what steps might successfully abate that risk.

This study involved the data analysis of nine studies in which anger and cardiovascular events were self-reported over a period of two decades. It was published in the European Heart Journal on March 3rd, 2014.


P.S: 
References:

Angry people 'risking heart attacks' (BBC World- Health 03/03/14)

Angry outbursts may raise heart attack, stroke risk (CNN Health 03/03/14)