For people with heart disease, new research suggests loneliness, social isolation and living alone can shave years off your life. This trio puts people with established cardiovascular disease at greater risk of premature death, according to the international study. Cardiovascular disease refers to heart disease and stroke. “Social health factors such as loneliness and social isolation have gained a significant amount of attention recently and are really important to think of within the context of cardiovascular health,” said lead author Róisín Long, a clinical psychologist and a doctoral candidate at University of Limerick in Ireland. “What was unclear is to what degree they impact how long people live when they have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease,” Long said in a university news release. “Our review found that each of these factors are critically important to consider in the treatment of cardiovascular disease, as increased levels of loneliness, social isolation and living alone appears to lead to premature death,” Long added. There are likely several reasons for this, Long added, ranging from support from another person to how an individual biologically responds to stress. For the report, researchers reviewed 35 studies done in Europe, North America and Asia over many decades. The effects of living alone appeared stronger in European countries. This may be a reflection of the large number of people living alone in parts…  read on >  read on >

U.S. communities with higher Hispanic, American Indian or Black populations also have the highest concentrations of metal in public water systems, new research reveals. Researchers from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City found significantly higher arsenic and uranium levels in public drinking water in Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native communities nationwide, as well as in Black communities in the West and Midwest. These areas have more arsenic and uranium. The researchers said this study could be done now only because estimates of contaminant concentrations are finally available for the majority of public water systems. “Our findings are particularly relevant to public health because there is no safe level of exposure to inorganic arsenic and uranium,” said first study author Dr. Irene Martinez-Morata, a PhD candidate in environmental health sciences. “These findings support that inequalities in public water contaminant exposures are more severe in regions with more residents from communities of color relying on public drinking water and higher concentrations of specific contaminants in source water,” she explained in a university news release. Arsenic and uranium exposure are associated with cancer, heart disease and other adverse health outcomes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sets a maximum contaminant level of 30 µg/L for uranium and 10 µg/L for arsenic. But its non-enforceable goal for both metals is 0 µg/L, because there…  read on >  read on >

TUESDAY, Dec. 27, 2022Living in an area with easy access to parks and rivers appears to slow the progression of devastating neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. That’s the conclusion of a new study based on more than a decade and a half tracking disease risk among nearly 62 million Americans 65 years old and up. “Prior research showed that natural environments — such as forests, parks and rivers — can help to reduce stress and restore attention,” noted lead author Jochem Klompmaker, a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “In addition, natural environments provide settings for physical activity and social interactions, and may reduce exposure to air pollution, extreme heat and traffic noise.” To build on such observations, his and his colleagues looked at hospital admissions for Alzheimer’s and related dementia, as well as Parkinson’s disease. By focusing on hospital admission, Klompmaker stressed that his team was not assessing the initial risk for developing either disease. Instead, researchers wanted to know if increased exposure to nature lowered the odds that either disease would progress quickly. And on that front, Klompmaker said, researchers observed significant protective links: The greener an older individual’s surrounding environment, the lower their risk of hospitalization for either neurological illness. The finding could have bearing on millions of Americans, given that Alzheimer’s…  read on >  read on >

Stress is rarely a good thing for your health, but new research warns that it significantly raises the risk of a stroke. The study found that increased stress at home or work and recent stressful life events — like getting divorced or a major family conflict — were associated both with increased risk of stroke due to a clot, known as an ischemic stroke, and a stroke due to bleeding in the brain, called a hemorrhagic stroke. What to do to lower that risk? “Optimal approaches to managing, and preventing, psychosocial stress are uncertain. Previous studies have looked at interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques, client-led discussion, stress management, exercise regimens and anger management,” said study author Dr. Catriona Reddin, of the University of Galway College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, in Ireland. “The most effective approach may vary from person to person. It’s important that everyone has a strategy that works for them,” Reddin said. Her team studied stress around the world using data from a retrospective study known as INTERSTROKE in more than 26,000 people in 32 countries in North and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. People who had severe work stress were more than twice as likely to have an ischemic stroke as those with no work stress, the investigators found. They were more…  read on >  read on >

If you need another reason to quit smoking, researchers have one: your mid-life brain health. Not only does smoking harm lung and heart health, but it increases the chances of middle-aged memory loss and confusion, a new study shows. The likelihood of mental (“cognitive”) decline is lower for those who quit — even if they did so only recently, according to researchers at Ohio State University, in Columbus. Past research has established a connection between smoking and Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia. This new study used a one-question self-assessment to ask participants if they were experiencing worsening or more frequent memory loss or confusion (also known as “subjective cognitive decline”). Using the 2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey, the researchers compared subjective cognitive decline measures for current smokers, recent former smokers and those who had quit years earlier, analyzing more than 136,000 people aged 45 and older. About 11% reported subjective cognitive decline. “The association we saw was most significant in the 45 to 59 age group, suggesting that quitting at that stage of life may have a benefit for cognitive health,” said senior study author Jeffrey Wing, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Ohio State. The researchers did not find a similar difference in the oldest group in the study, which could mean that quitting earlier is more beneficial, Wing suggested.…  read on >  read on >

Depression can be tricky to detect in some people, and Black women may exhibit different symptoms, leading to missed care, researchers say. Black women report sleep disturbances, self-criticism and irritability more often than the stereotypical low mood, according to a new study. As a result, standard screening tools may underdiagnose depression in Black women, the study authors said. “Based on our findings, it’s possible that health care providers may miss depression symptoms in Black women, resulting in underdiagnosis and undertreatment,” said lead author Nicole Perez. She’s a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and postdoctoral associate at New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing in New York City. In general, depression symptoms are low mood, loss of interest in activities, changes in appetite or sleep, and feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness. But more than 1,500 possible combinations of symptoms exist that meet criteria for a depressive disorder, according to the study. Research on depression has primarily been conducted in white people, increasing the chances that it will be missed among racial and ethnic minority populations, the authors noted. For this study, researchers analyzed data from 227 Black women who were screened for depression. In addition to a category called somatic symptoms that includes fatigue, insomnia and decreased libido, researchers found that Black women with depression were more likely to be self-critical, irritable and to have an…  read on >  read on >