Poor sleep associated with high BP
Teenagers who have bad sleeping habits can face high blood pressure problems, according to a new study.
In the latest research, the scientists looked at the relationship between not getting enough sleep and blood pressure in healthy adolescents.
From the analysis, researchers found that healthy teens (ages 13 to 16 years old) who slept less than 6.5 hours a night were 2.5 times more likely to have elevated blood pressure compared to those who slept longer.
In addition, those with poor sleep, or low sleep efficiency — having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep — had, on average, 4 mm Hg higher systolic blood pressure (the top number) and were 3.5 times more likely to have prehypertension or hypertension than their peers who slept well.
Untreated high blood pressure can increase the risk for stroke and other cardiovascular diseases later in life.
The findings are from a cross-sectional analysis of 238 adolescents ages 13 to 16 years old (average age of 14) enrolled in the Cleveland Children’s Sleep and Health Study.
Sleep efficiency and duration was evaluated at home for three to seven nights, where teens completed a daily sleep log and wore a wrist device that measures movement to determine sleep and wake cycles.
Stress worsens allergies
Even slight stress and anxiety can greatly worsen a person’s allergic reaction to some routine allergens, shows a new research. Moreover, the added impact of stress and anxiety seem to linger, causing the second day of a stressed person’s allergy attack to be much worse.
In a report, Ohio State University researchers described recent experiments meant to gauge how psychological stress might affect allergy sufferers.
“A huge number of people suffer from allergies and while hay fever, for example, is generally not life-threatening, allergy sufferers often also have asthma which can be deadly,” said Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychology and psychiatry.
Some data suggest that 38 per cent of the people who suffer from allergic rhinitis also have asthma, and that 78 per cent of asthma sufferers have allergic rhinitis.
Detecting autism early
University of Missouri researchers are using 3-D imaging to study correlations in the facial features and brain structures of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which they believe can help them develop a formula to detect the disorder early.
“When you compare the faces and head shapes of children with specific types of autism to other children, it is obvious there are variations,” said Ye Duan, assistant computer science professor in the MU College of Engineering.
“Currently, autism diagnosis is purely behaviour based and doctors use tape measurements to check for facial and brain dissimilarities. We are developing a quantitative method that will accurately measure these differences and allow for earlier, more precise detection of specific types of the disorder,” Duan said.
Device to detect bird flu
Researchers from Nottingham Trent University in Britain are developing a device that can detect an outbreak of bird flu in two hours.
Presently, it takes two to three days to identify the strain responsible for suspected cases of bird flu, or up to a week in countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam, which are most affected by the virus.
The new device could reduce this to a matter of hours, making it possible to set up exclusion zones or cull-infected birds before the virus has a chance to spread.
The researchers are developing two machines — a briefcase-sized version for use out in the field and one about the size of a desktop computer for international border points, hospitals and GPs’ surgeries.
The technology works by scanning swabs containing saliva or a tissue sample from birds or animals, and screening them for viral traces of influenza.
Trap WBC to fight infections
Researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Centre and the Emory Vaccine Centre have found that trapping disease-fighting white blood cells (WBC) in the lymph nodes might be a novel strategy against chronic viral infections, such as hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS.
Senior author John Altman, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, said that the discoveries are based on the study of two varieties of a virus that causes meningitis in mice.
Standard black laboratory mice can fight off infection by the Armstrong strain of lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), but are vulnerable to chronic infection by a variant called clone 13.
Altman and his colleagues found that infecting mice with the Armstrong strain sequesters white blood cells in the lymph nodes, while clone 13 does so less stringently.
