A healthy lifestyle — especially getting enough sleep — may offer substantial protection against depression, new research suggests. The study, of more than 287,000 British adults, found that several lifestyle factors seemed to curb the risk of developing depression over the next nine years. Among them were eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, staying socially active, not smoking and — most importantly — regularly having a good night’s sleep. Each healthy habit mattered on its own, the study found. People who exercised had a lower risk of future depression than couch potatoes did, for example. But the more good habits, the better: Study participants who adhered to at least five of seven healthy habits had a 57% lower risk of depression, versus those who followed none or only one. Major depression is a complex disease, with genetic vulnerability playing a key role. And one of the important findings in this study, the researchers said, was that a healthy lifestyle benefitted people, regardless of the genetic cards they’ve been dealt. “Lifestyle has a strong protective role across different levels of genetic risk for depression,” said study author Christelle Langley, a research associate at the University of Cambridge. The findings, published Sept. 11 in the journal Nature Mental Health, are based on data from the UK Biobank. It’s a huge research project collecting health and genetic…  read on >  read on >

Air pollution has long been known to harm the heart and lungs, but new research suggests it might also raise the risk of breast cancer. Researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) discovered that the largest increases in breast cancer incidence were among women who, on average, had higher levels of particulate matter pollution (PM2.5) near their home in the years before enrolling in the study. Particulate matter is released through motor vehicle exhaust, burning oil or coal, wood smoke/vegetation burning and industrial emissions. The particles are small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs. “We observed an 8% increase in breast cancer incidence for living in areas with higher PM2.5 exposure. Although this is a relatively modest increase, these findings are significant given that air pollution is a ubiquitous exposure that impacts almost everyone,” study author Alexandra White, head of the Environment and Cancer Epidemiology Group at NIEHS, said in an institute news release. “These findings add to a growing body of literature suggesting that air pollution is related to breast cancer.” For the study, the researchers used data from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, which enrolled more than 500,000 men and women between 1995 and 1996 in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina and Louisiana, as well as in the…  read on >  read on >

Certain combinations of bacteria found in dust in children’s day care settings may have an impact on their young lungs. Researchers are trying to understand whether attending day care can affect children’s lung health. Their aim is to lower the risk of asthma. “We find mixtures of different bacteria and other microbes living everywhere — outside, inside our homes, on our skin and even inside our bodies. These communities of bacteria, known as microbiota, can have beneficial or harmful effects on our health,” said Dr. Annabelle Bédard, a researcher at Inserm (the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research) in Paris, France. “Young children will come into contact with the bacteria living in day care centers via their skin and mouths and by breathing them in. So we might expect this exposure to have an impact on children’s developing lungs via the different microbiota that arise in children’s airway, gut or skin,” Bédard said in a news release from the European Respiratory Society. The findings are scheduled for presentation at the society’s annual meeting this week in Milan, Italy. In the United States, 6 million children — about 1 in 12 — have asthma, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is a serious disease causing wheezing, difficulty breathing and coughing. For this study, researchers used an adapted vacuum cleaner…  read on >  read on >

Seniors, pick up those knitting needles, some paintbrushes or that favorite novel, because new research suggests that having a hobby is linked to having lower depression in older people. Hobbies might include anything from gardening to playing games, arts and crafts, volunteering, reading or being part of a club, according to the study, which spanned numerous countries and included more than 93,000 people ages 65 and older. “Our study shows the potential of hobbies to protect older people from age-related decline in mental health and well-being. This potential is consistent across many countries and cultural settings,” said lead author Karen Mak, of University College London’s Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care. Data came from people who had enrolled in five studies in the United States, Japan, China, England and 12 other European countries. Researchers analyzed data spanning four to eight years, finding that having a hobby was linked to decreases in depressive symptoms and increases in happiness and life satisfaction. Although this observational study couldn’t prove cause-and-effect, it nevertheless suggests there might be an association between hobbies and happiness, according to the study. The results remained even after adjusting for other factors such as partnership status, employment and household income. “Of the four outcomes, life satisfaction was most strongly linked to hobby engagement. Hobbies may contribute to life satisfaction in our later years through many…  read on >  read on >