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Ever immersed yourself in a book and lost all sense of the time and place you’re currently in? That’s how reading can meld with mindfulness, one neuropsychologist explains. The experience can bring real mental health benefits, said Dr. Samantha Henry, an assistant professor of neurology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Reading is a quiet pursuit that can be a more adaptive coping strategy than some other hobbies we engage in,” she said in a Baylor news release. Henry said that there’s a difference between typical reading and mindful reading. Very often, folks are reading for a goal: To read through a document or book within a specific timeframe, with the conscious aim of acquiring valuable knowledge. That’s fine, but it’s different from mindful reading, which focuses only on the pleasure of reading itself, without a set goal, and remaining fully present to understand whatever it is you are reading. According to Henry, you can prepare for mindful reading by practicing mindful breathing, which is often taught in meditation classes. “We can think of mindful reading in the way we think of mindful breathing, which is just focusing on your breath,” she explained. “Normally when we breathe, we don’t think about it because it’s automatic. Traditional reading can be that way too; to get to the destination of finishing that book. Try to slow… read on > read on >

Folks with genetically-driven stress are more likely to suffer heart attacks after nerve-wracking events or times of unrest, a new study shows. People with above-average genetic scores linked to neuroticism and stress were 34% more likely to experience a heart attack following stressful periods, researchers found. Further, these jittery individuals were more than three times as likely to have a heart attack during stressful times if they also had anxiety or depression. “We found people who are genetically predisposed to stress tend to have a strikingly higher probability of developing a heart attack after these stressful events,” said lead researcher Dr. Shady Abohashem, an instructor of cardiovascular imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 18,500 participants in the Mass General Brigham Biobank, a program that captures genetic data for use in medical research. Researchers compared genetic stress scores among people who had a heart attack after stressful times against those who had a heart attack during calmer times and those who’d never had a cardiac event. For the study, periods considered to be highly stressful included: The 10 days after Christmas. The five days after presidential elections. The five days after major sporting events like Super Bowls or NBA playoffs involving Boston-area teams. People with above-average genetic stress scores had a 34% higher… read on > read on >

Out of a host of possible risk factors for dementia, three really stood out in a new analysis: Diabetes, air pollution and alcohol. British and American researchers used brain scans to focus on a neurological network they labeled a “weak spot” in the brain. This network is known to be vulnerable to the effects of aging, as well as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other conditions. The neural network only begins to develop during adolescence, and also shows signs of degeneration earlier in old age, explained a team led by Gwenaëlle Douaud, an associate professor of clinical neurosciences at the University of Oxford. Her group examined brain scans from over 40,000 seniors, all of who also provided complex lifestyle and medical histories as part of the ongoing U.K. Biobank project. The study looked at the impact on the targeted neural network of 161 different risk factors for dementia. These included blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, weight, alcohol consumption, smoking, depressive mood, inflammation, pollution, hearing, sleep, socialization, diet, physical activity and education. Three risk factors appeared to weaken the network the most, Douaud said. “We know that a constellation of brain regions degenerates earlier in aging, and in this new study we have shown that these specific parts of the brain are most vulnerable to diabetes, traffic-related air pollution — increasingly a major player in dementia —… read on > read on >

Suicidal thoughts and contemplation of death haunt the minds of many rural Black men in the United States, a new study reports. One in three rural Black men said they had such dark thoughts within the past two weeks, University of Georgia researchers found. These thoughts are driven by childhood trauma, poverty and exposure to racism, all of which take a heavy toll on mental health as Black teens enter adulthood, researchers said. “We found when Black men were exposed to childhood adversity, they may develop an internal understanding of the world as somewhere they are devalued, where they could not trust others, and they could not engage the community in a supportive way,” said researcher Michael Curtis, a graduate of the University of Georgia’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences. Racial discrimination in particular predicted higher rates of suicidal thoughts, researchers found. Even Black men who reported positive childhood experiences struggled to maintain healthy relationships if they had experienced racial discrimination, results show. As a result, they were more likely to feel isolated and experience thoughts of suicide. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for Black people between the ages of 15 and 24, researchers said in background notes. Further, Black men die by suicide at a rate four times that of Black women. “We just know it’s bad, and particularly among young… read on > read on >

Seniors wound up with lower blood pressure after they were coached to get up and move more often, a new study says. Health coaching successfully reduced sitting time for a group of older adults by just over 30 minutes a day, according to a report published March 27 in the journal JAMA Network Open. Sitting less led to a reduction of nearly 3.5 points in the seniors’ average blood pressure, researchers said. By comparison, increased physical activity typically leads to an average 4-point reduction in blood pressure and weight loss an average 3-point reduction, they noted. “Our findings are really promising because sitting less is a change that may be easier for people than increasing physical activity, especially for older adults who are more likely to be living with restrictions like chronic pain or reduced physical function,” said lead researcher Dori Rosenberg, a senior scientific investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle. Older adults typically sit between 65% and 80% of their waking hours, researchers said in background notes. Such sedentary behavior can lead to heart disease and diabetes. The new study involved 283 seniors ages 60 to 89 covered by Kaiser Permanente’s health system in Washington state. The seniors all received a tabletop standing desk, an activity tracker and 10 health coaching sessions during a six-month period. In these sessions, participants… read on > read on >

Living in a poor and unhealthy neighborhood could nearly double a person’s risk of heart disease and stroke, a new study says. The findings indicate that all the factors that make for a crummy neighborhood — air and water pollution, toxic sites, few parks, tons of traffic — play a significant role in heart health. So, too, do social and economic factors like low income, poor education, unemployment and lack of access to internet and health care. These environmental and social factors deliver a “dual hit” to the heart health of people trapped in lousy neighborhoods, said senior researcher Dr. Sarju Ganatra, director of the Cardio-Oncology Program and South Asian Cardio-Metabolic Program at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Mass. “I was amazed to see the tight links and complex interplay between social and environmental factors on health outcomes,” Ganatra said. Even after adjusting for social factors like low income and poor education, “environmental factors played a crucial and independent role in determining various heart disease and other related health outcomes,” Ganatra added. For the study, researchers rated more than 71,000 U.S. census tracts using the Environmental Justice Index, a database combining demographic, environmental and health data gathered by multiple federal agencies. People living in neighborhoods beset by harmful environmental factors had about 1.6 times the rate of clogged arteries and more than double… read on > read on >

Some folks struggling with obesity appear to be hampered by their own genes when it comes to working off those extra pounds, a new study finds. People with a higher genetic risk of obesity have to exercise more to avoid becoming unhealthily heavy, researchers discovered. “Genetic background contributes to the amount of physical activity needed to mitigate obesity. The higher the genetic risk, the more steps needed per day,” said senior researcher Douglas Ruderfer, director of the Center for Digital Genomic Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. Because of that, physical activity guidelines might not be so helpful when it comes to maintaining a healthy weight, since individual genetic differences drive how much exercise each person requires, Ruderfer noted. People instead need to be “active enough to account for their genetic background, or their genetic risk for obesity, regardless of how high that risk might be,” Ruderfer said in a Vanderbilt news release. For the study, researchers tracked more than 3,100 middle-aged people who weren’t obese and who walked an average 8,300 steps a day for more than five years. Obesity increased 43% among people with the highest genetic risk scores for obesity, but only by 13% among those with the lowest risk, researchers found. Results showed those with the highest genetic risk for obesity had to walk an average of 2,280… read on > read on >

A major review of data confirms that getting less than the recommended amount of sleep each night is a risk factor for high blood pressure. Data collected in 16 studies conducted from 2000 through 2023, involving over 1 million people in six countries, revealed a 7% rise in the risk for hypertension among folks who got less than seven hours of slumber each night. People who got an average of five hours of sleep per night saw their risk for high blood pressure rise by 11%, compared to people who got the recommended seven or eight hours, said a team from the Tehran Heart Center in Iran. “Based on the most updated data, the less you sleep—that is less than seven hours a day—the more likely you will develop high blood pressure in the future,” said study lead author Dr. Kaveh Hosseini, an assistant professor of cardiology at the center. “We saw a trend between longer sleep durations and a greater occurrence of high blood pressure, but it was not statistically significant. Getting seven to eight hours of sleep, as is recommended by sleep experts, may be the best for your heart, too.” His team will present its findings April 7 at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta. The sleep and heart health of people who were involved in the… read on > read on >

ADHD stimulant medications like Ritalin or Adderall appear linked to a heightened risk for cardiomyopathy (a weakening of the heart muscle), and the risk grows with time, new research shows. However, researchers were quick to note that cardiomyopathies are rare in the young, and even with ADHD medication use the absolute risk to any one patient remains very small. Overall, folks ages 20 to 40 who were on a medication for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were 17% more likely to have cardiomyopathy at one year and 57% more likely to have cardiomyopathy at eight years, compared to their peers who weren’t taking the drugs. The study wasn’t designed to prove cause-and-effect. “The longer you leave patients on these medications, the more likely they are to develop cardiomyopathy, but the risk of that is very low,” said study lead author Pauline Gerard. She’s a second-year medical student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “I don’t think this is a reason to stop prescribing these medications,” she said. “There’s very little increased risk of these medications over the long term; it’s a real risk, but it’s small.” The findings are slated to be presented April 7 at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in Atlanta. The new study was based on data from 80 hospitals from across the United States, looking at people ages 20… read on > read on >

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 >

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All Sauce from Weekly Gravy:

What Is ‘Mindful Reading’ and Can It Help Your Brain?

Stressed? Some Genes Could Raise Your Heart Attack Risk

These 3 Factors Make Your Brain More Vulnerable to Dementia

High Rate of Suicidal Thoughts Among Black Men in Rural America: Study

Just 30 Minutes Less Sitting Time Per Day Cuts Seniors’ High Blood Pressure

Living in Poor Neighborhoods Nearly Doubles Risk of Heart Attacks, Stroke

Obesity Genes Mean Some Folks Must Exercise More for Same Results

Sleep Troubles Can Raise Your Blood Pressure: Study

ADHD Meds Tied to Heart Damage in Young Adult Users

Could Regular Exercise Cure Your Insomnia? New Research Says Yes