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Each Sip of Coffee May lower Risk of Early Death from Chronic Disease

November 17, 2015 By William Bland Leave a Comment

A recent study suggests that the dark beverage can bring some hidden health benefits to drinkers since each sip of coffee may lower risk of early death from chronic disease including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Scientists found that people who moderately drink the caffeinated beverage have a lower risk of dying prematurely from a wide range of diseases and even suicide. Still, coffee was not proven effective in off-setting the negative outcomes of smoking, researchers noted.

The research team reported that regular coffee can help people lower their risk of death from those conditions as long as they don’t surpass a five cup daily limit. Even decaf coffee had positive outcomes on study participants’ health.

Investigators at Harvard University’s school of public health explained that if regular consumption of coffee stays within the 3 to 5 cups per day range, it is linked with a lower risk of early death from heart disease, diabetes, and suicide. Plus, overall mortality risk is also reduced.

Frank Hu, lead author of the study and nutrition expert with Harvard University’s school of public health, said that both caffeinated and decaf coffee were associated with lower risk of death, but the conclusions were only preliminary.

Prof Hu’s team sifted through data on over 200,000 physicians and nurses that were surveyed constantly on their eating habits, lifestyle patterns, and overall health for more than two decades.

The study revealed that coffee drinkers had lower risk of dying than people who didn’t drink. And the results were even clearer when study investigators didn’t take into account smokers. People who did not smoke but drank coffee had an 8 percent to 15 percent lower risk of dying. The risk was lowered by each sip.

Nevertheless, researchers didn’t find a cause-and-effect relationship between coffee consumption and lower mortality risk. Plus, there are also other factors that need to be factored in when drawing final conclusions. For instance, coffee-drinkers are also more prone to smoke, drink alcohol, and consume red meat in excess.

Additionally, other lifestyle choices may influence the study’s results such as physical activity, type of coffee preferred, and amount of added sugar in the dark beverage. Hu cautioned that the study’s findings do not advocate coffee as a way to ward off chronic disease.

Hu explained that diet and lifestyle choices can have a much greater effect on chronic disease than a few cups of java. He also cautioned that amount of sugar added to our daily coffee is a reason of concern and may offset the drink’s newly-found benefits.
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Heart Disease Deaths among Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Steeply Declined

November 10, 2015 By Bonnie Gleason Leave a Comment

According to a recent study announced at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, heart disease death among the rheumatoid arthritis steeply declined in recent years.

Researchers believe that the new findings suggest early prevention and screening, better treatments, and a special attention given to heart disease in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) finally paid off.

RA has often been linked with a higher risk of heart disease and stroke. And, doctors long knew that inflammation triggered by RA was to blame. Inflammation damages blood vessels and promotes the formation of plaque on arteries.

Plaque which is a thick mix of fats, cholesterol, calcium and other compounds, can clog arteries and severely hinder blood flow. As a result, the increased pressure can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

But inflammation in RA does not only affect people’s arteries, it also wreaks havoc on their hearts’ muscles, leading to heart failure. Unfortunately, symptoms of the life-threatening condition are often mistaken for signs of RA: fatigue, respiratory problems, and swelling in the lower legs.

RA can affect the membrane enveloping the heart also known as the pericardium. If the pericardium is swollen or inflamed, it can trigger sharp and recurrent chest pain.

RA patients are also more likely to develop atrial fibrillation, or irregular heart beat which can result in stroke, heart failure and even death. All in all, keeping an eye on inflammation in RA patients is crucial, if we plan to protect their hearts.

Past research suggested that RA patients are twice as likely to develop cardiac problems as other people. Heart troubles usually emerge within a year of diagnosis. If inflammation is left unchecked it can boost heart attack risk by 60 percent and other heart troubles and heart disease mortality by 50 percent in one to four years since diagnosis.

Fortunately, efforts to curb heart disease incidence among RA patients seem to pay off, the recent study suggests. Dr. Elena Myasoedova, senior researcher involved in the study and RA expert from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, said that she and her team sifted through data on RA patients who were monitored for 10 years.

Scientists were especially interested in the death rates triggered by cardiovascular disease. There were three groups: one of the groups consisted in RA patients diagnosed in the 1980s and 1990s, other group consisted in RA patients diagnosed between 200 and 2007, and a third group was the control group of people without RA , but who died from heart disease.

Researchers found that heart disease deaths dropped from 7.9 percent in the 1980s and 1990s to 2.8 percent in the early 2000s.
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Chronic Sleep Deprivation May Lead to Heart Disease, Diabetes

October 23, 2015 By Bonnie Gleason Leave a Comment

According to a group of Korean scientists, chronic sleep deprivation may lead to heart disease, diabetes, and boost risk of stroke later in life.

Researchers learned that people who do not get at least six hours of shut-eye per night are more prone to all these conditions than they peers who get enough sleep.

Researchers explained that people who routinely lack sleep may soon develop metabolic syndrome, which is a mix of conditions including high blood pressure and cholesterol, high blood sugar and high levels of fats in the bloodstream. Metabolic syndrome often leads to more severe conditions including life-threatening diseases.

Dr. Jang Young Kim, lead author of the study and researcher at Yonsei University in South Korea, provided reporters with more details on the research. In their study, investigators monitored 2,600 adults for a couple of years.

The team learned that chronic sleep deprivation may lead to heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions in participants who didn’t sleep at least six hours every night. These people had a 41 percent higher risk of developing the syndrome than their peers who reported sleeping six to eight hours.

The study was based on data collected in two major surveys that were conducted between 2005 and 2011. Volunteers were also examined by their doctors and agreed to disclose their medical history.

The findings revealed that more than 500 study participants, or 22 percent, developed metabolic syndrome in the follow-up period. The study was published this week in the journal Sleep.

Researchers also learned that chronic sleep loss was tied to 30 percent higher risk of developing high blood sugar and cholesterol and a 56 percent risk of hypertension. On the other hand, the study results’ may not be 100 percent accurate.

Scientists acknowledged that they based their research on self-reports about how much sleep participants were getting every night and recalls on past medical conditions and lifestyle choices.

But past research also found that there is a significant link between sleep duration and metabolic syndrome.

University of Chicago’s Dr. Kristen Knutson, a medical research who wasn’t part in the study, believes that the study is significant because it was conducted from a prospective point of view.

Knutson added that other studies had also assessed sleep duration before patients developed the disease.

Researchers recommend short-sleepers to reorganize their daily schedule to include enough sleep. While, work, school, or taking care of children cannot be removed from the list, other activities can including TV watching or online procrastination.
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