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Folks who consistently work out two to three times a week are less likely to suffer from insomnia, a new study says. That sort of long-term commitment to exercise also helps people get the recommended amount of sleep each night, according to findings published March 26 in the journal BMJ Open. The paper “indicates strongly that consistency in [physical activity] might be an important factor in optimizing sleep duration and reducing the symptoms of insomnia,” concluded the research team led by Icelandic psychologists Erla Bjornsdottir and Elin Helga Thorarinsdottir. For the study, researchers tracked the exercise habits and sleep quality of nearly 4,400 middle-aged adults from 21 hospitals in nine European countries. Participants were specifically asked how often they exercise to the point that they become out of breath or sweaty. Researchers found that people who persistently worked out at least a few times a week — totaling at least one hour of exercise weekly — were: 42% less likely to find it difficult to fall asleep 22% less likely to suffer any symptoms of insomnia 40% less likely to suffer more than one insomnia symptom Symptoms of insomnia include taking a long time to go to sleep, waking in the night and feeling excessively sleepy during the day. People who consistently exercised also were 55% more likely to get the normal, recommended amount of… read on > read on >

Fried foods not only wreck the waistline, but they could also be harming the brain, a new study of lab rats suggests. Fed chow that was fried in sesame or sunflower oil, the rodents developed liver and colon problems that wound up affecting their brain health, researchers found. These brain health effects not only were found in the lab rats that munched down the fried food, but also in their offspring, noted lead researcher Kathiresan Shanmugam, an associate professor with the Central University of Tamil Nadu in India. These results suggest that reused frying oil could affect connections between the liver, gut and brain, Shanmugam said. “Deep-frying at high temperatures has been linked with several metabolic disorders, but there have been no long-term investigations on the influence of deep-fried oil consumption and its detrimental effects on health,” Shanmugam said. “To our knowledge we are first to report long-term deep-fried oil supplementation increases neurodegeneration in the first-generation offspring.” Scientists stress that this is early research, however, and animal studies don’t always pan out in humans. The study was presented Sunday at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Deep frying adds loads of fat calories to food, researchers noted. In addition, frying oil that’s reused often loses many of its natural antioxidants and health benefits, while gaining harmful compounds.… read on > read on >

Youngsters might have good cause to think they’re brainier than their parents or grandparents, a new study finds. It turns out that human brains are getting larger with each generation, potentially adding more brain reserve and reducing the overall risk of dementia, researchers report March 25 in the journal JAMA Neurology. People born in the 1970s have nearly 7% larger brain volume and almost 15% larger brain surface area than folks born in the 1930s, according to the results of the 75-year study. “The decade someone is born appears to impact brain size and potentially long-term brain health,” said lead researcher Dr. Charles DeCarli, director of the University of California, Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. For the study, researchers analyzed brain scans of participants in the Framingham Heart Study, a multi-generational project launched in 1948 to analyze disease patterns among people in the town of Framingham, Mass. The study has continued for 75 years and now includes second- and third-generation participants, researchers said. MRIs of the participants’ brains were conducted between 1999 and 2019. Researchers found gradual but consistent increases in several brain structures when they compared participants born in the 1930s to those born in the 1970s. White matter, gray matter and the hippocampus — a region involved in language and memory — were all larger in people born in the 1970s, results show.… read on > read on >

Migraines in young adults appear to increase their risk of stroke more than traditional risk factors like high blood pressure, a new study reports. Results show that migraine is the most important non-traditional risk factor for stroke among adults ages 18 to 34, accounting for 20% of strokes in men and nearly 35% in women. Overall, non-traditional risk factors were associated with more strokes in young adults than the factors traditionally associated with stroke risk, like high blood pressure or smoking, researchers found. “Most of our attention has been focused on traditional risk factors,” noted lead researcher Dr. Michelle Leppert. She’s an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora. “We should not ignore nontraditional stroke risk factors and only focus on traditional risk factors; both are important to the development of strokes among young people,” she added. Factors traditionally associated with increased risk of stroke include high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, smoking, obesity, lack of physical activity, alcoholism and clogged arteries, researchers said. However, recent data has shown strokes increasing among young adults who don’t have those risk factors, researchers said. To figure out what is driving stroke risk among young adults, researchers used health insurance claims data to compare more than 2,600 stroke victims with more than 7,800 people who hadn’t suffered a stroke.… read on > read on >

Chemicals found in common household products might damage the brain’s wiring, a new study warns. These chemicals — found in disinfectants, cleaners, hair products, furniture and textiles — could be linked to degenerative brain diseases like multiple sclerosis and autism, researchers report. The chemicals specifically affect the brain’s oligodendrocytes, a specialized type of cell that generates the protective insulation found around nerve cells, researchers said. “Loss of oligodendrocytes underlies multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases,” said principal investigator Paul Tesar, director of Case Western Reserve University’s Institute for Glial Science, in Cleveland. For example, MS occurs due to a breakdown in myelin, the protective sheath around nerve cells. “We now show that specific chemicals in consumer products can directly harm oligodendrocytes, representing a previously unrecognized risk factor for neurological disease,” Tesar added in a university news release. For the study, Tesar and his colleagues analyzed the effect of more than 1,800 chemicals on these brain cells. They identified two classes of chemicals that damage oligodendrocytes — organophosphate flame retardants and quaternary ammonium compounds. Quaternary ammonium compounds are present in many personal care products and disinfectants, while organophosphate flame retardants are found in many electronics and furniture, researchers said. Lab tests showed that quaternary ammonium products cause oligodendrocytes to die, while the flame retardants prevent the maturation of these brain cells. These classes of chemicals also… read on > read on >

A protein that shuts down immune cells in the lungs could be key to a new treatment for asthma attacks, a new report says. The naturally occurring protein, called Piezo1, prevents a type of immune cell called type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) from becoming hyperactivated by allergens. An experimental drug called Yoda1 that switches on Piezo1 reduced the activity of these immune cells in mice, alleviating asthma symptoms, researchers report. “Given the importance of ILC2s in allergic asthma, there is an urgent need to develop novel mechanism-based approaches to target these critical drivers of inflammation in the lungs,” researcher Omid Akbari, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, said in a news release. Once triggered by an allergen, ILC2s drive the inflammatory cascade that cause airways to swell and tighten, making it tough for asthma patients to draw breath. In mouse research, researchers found that activated ILC2s naturally produce a protein called Piezo1 that limits their activity. In the absence of Piezo1, mouse ILC2s became more responsive to allergy signals and promoted even more airway inflammation. On the other hand, Yoda1 caused Piezo1 to kick into action, reducing the activity of ILC2s. Human ILC2s also produce Piezo1, researchers say, and the drug Yoda1 also worked on lab-engineered mice with the human immune cells. “Remarkably, treatment of these humanized mice… read on > read on >

Six out of every 10 stroke survivors wind up struggling with depression later in their lives, a new study says. That compares to the 22% depression rate of the general population, results show. Further, 9 of 10 stroke-related depression cases occur within five years of surviving a stroke, researchers found. “Depression is common in stroke survivors but our research shows it persists for much longer than previously thought,” researcher Yanzhong Wang, a professor of statistics in population health at King’s College London, said in a news release. Biochemical changes in the brain caused by stroke injury can contribute to depression by interfering with a person’s ability to feel positive emotions, according to the American Stroke Association. For the study, researchers reviewed the cases of 6,600 stroke survivors whose data appears in a South London stroke registry. Results showed that severe depression tended to occur earlier after stroke, lasted longer than expected, and was quicker to recur than cases of mild depression. Depression among stroke survivors can affect their mobility, hampering simple tasks like walking and holding objects, Wang said. It also can increase their overall risk of death. “Quality of life is important for stroke survivors as there is evidence depressed survivors have a reduced survival rate,” researcher Lu Liu, a doctoral candidate at King’s College London, said in a news release. “There are many… read on > read on >

Honey bees fly to flowers whenever the weather is right, and warmer autumns and winters are putting these crop pollinators at risk, researchers warn. Using climate and bee population models, a Washington State University team showed that longer and longer autumns with ideal flying weather increase the odds that bee colonies will collapse come spring. “It’s not like this is something that can be expected 80 years from now,” lead author Kirti Rajagopalan, an assistant professor of biological systems engineering, said in a WSU news release. “It is a more immediate impact that needs to be planned for.” A potential intervention: Putting colonies into cold storage, where bees will cluster in their hive from October to April before too many workers wear out. The practice is relatively new. But commercial beekeepers already rely on it to help manage logistics of moving more than 2 million hives from around the country to pollinate almond trees in California, researchers said. “A lot of beekeepers are already practicing this management technique of storing bees indoors because it has a lot of immediate potential to help in a number of ways,” study co-author Brandon Hopkins, a WSU entomologist, said in the news release. He said the new study demonstrates that cold-storage has additional benefits for the survival of bee colonies in a changing climate. For the study, researchers used… read on > read on >

Ahead of a total solar eclipse arriving April 8, new research finds there was a temporary rise in U.S. traffic accidents around the time of a solar eclipse back in 2017. The area in the United States covered by the total eclipse seven years ago was relatively small (about 70 miles wide), but it was still tied to a 31% national rise in fatal traffic accidents. “In absolute terms, this averaged to 1 extra crash-involved person every 25 minutes and 1 extra crash fatality every 95 minutes,” said a Canadian team led by Dr. Donald Redelmeier of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, in Toronto. His team suspects the rise in accidents didn’t owe to any temporary change in visibility due to the eclipse. Instead, it more likely stemmed from a surge in people traveling to view the rare phenomenon. In 2017, the total eclipse had an estimated 20 million people traveling to another city to view it, the Toronto team said. More traffic danger might loom on April 8, however, since this time the eclipse “is within driving range for more than 200 million individuals within the US,” the study authors said. The new study relied on U.S. data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Redelmeier’s team looked at the three days before, during and immediately after the Aug. 17,… read on > read on >

Federal regulators are taking a second stab at banning the controversial use of electroshock devices to manage the behavior of patients with intellectual and developmental disorders. The devices deliver electric shocks to a patient’s skin, in an attempt to stop them from harming themselves or lashing out physically at others, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in its Monday announcement. These devices — called electrical stimulation devices or ESDs — now are in use at just one U.S. facility, the Judge Rotenberg Education Center in Canton, Mass., the FDA said. “We estimate around 50 individuals currently have a treatment plan that includes the use, or potential use, of” these devices, the FDA statement said. A special United Nations report in 2013 concluded that the Rotenberg Center’s use of the shock devices on students constitutes a violation of the U.N. convention against torture. The FDA previously attempted to ban the use of the devices in 2020, but a federal court ruled that the agency didn’t have the authority to enact its proposed ban. “Since ESDs were first marketed more than 20 years ago, we have gained a better understanding of the danger these devices present to public health,” Dr. William Maisel, director of the Office of Product Evaluation and Quality in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a news release… read on > read on >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

Could Regular Exercise Cure Your Insomnia? New Research Says Yes

Could Deep Frying Foods Harm the Brain? Rat Study Suggests It Might

Human Brains Are Getting Larger With Each Generation

Young Adults With Migraine May Face Higher Stroke Risk

Common Household Chemicals Could Harm the Brain

Researchers Find New Way to Curb Asthma Attacks

6 in 10 Stroke Survivors Will Struggle With Depression Years Later

Warmer Autumns May Doom Hardworking Honey Bees

Total Solar Eclipse in 2017 Linked to Brief Rise in Traffic Accidents

FDA May Ban Electroshock Devices Used on Some Psychiatric Patients