Novel 5-minute workout improves blood pressure, may boost brain function
April 8, 2019
Science Daily/University of Colorado at Boulder
Could working out five minutes a day, without lifting a single weight or jogging a single step, reduce your heart attack risk, help you think more clearly and boost your sports performance?
Preliminary results from a clinical trial of Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST), presented this week at the Experimental Biology conference in Orlando, suggest "yes."
"IMST is basically strength-training for the muscles you breathe in with," said Daniel Craighead, a postdoctoral researcher in the the University of Colorado Boulder Integrative Physiology department who is leading the study. "It's something you can do quickly in your home or office, without having to change your clothes, and so far it looks like it is very beneficial to lower blood pressure and possibly boost cognitive and physical performance."
Developed in the 1980s as a means to wean critically ill people off ventilators, IMST involves breathing in vigorously through a hand-held device -- an inspiratory muscle trainer -- which provides resistance. Imagine sucking hard through a straw which sucks back.
During early use in patients with lung diseases, patients performed a 30-minute, low-resistance regimen daily to boost their lung capacity.
But in 2016, University of Arizona researchers published results from a trial to see if just 30 inhalations per day with greater resistance might help sufferers of obstructive sleep apnea, who tend to have weak breathing muscles.
In addition to more restful sleep, subjects showed an unexpected side effect after six weeks: Their systolic blood pressure plummeted by 12 millimeters of mercury. That's about twice as much of a decrease as aerobic exercise can yield and more than many medications deliver.
"That's when we got interested," said principal investigator Professor Doug Seals, director of CU Boulder's Integrative Physiology of Aging Laboratory.
Systolic blood pressure, which signifies the pressure in your vessels when your heart beats, naturally creeps up as arteries stiffen with age, leading to damage of blood-starved tissues and higher risk of heart attack, cognitive decline and kidney damage.
While 30 minutes per day of aerobic exercise has clearly been shown to lower blood pressure, only about 5 percent of adults meet that minimum. Meanwhile, 65 percent of mid-life adults have high systolic blood pressure.
"Our goal is to develop time-efficient, evidence-based interventions that those busy mid-life adults will actually perform," said Seals, who was recently awarded a $450,000 National Institute of Aging grant to fund the clinical trial of IMST involving about 50 subjects.
Craighead presented preliminary results Sunday and Monday at Experimental Biology 2019 showing that:
With about half the tests done, the researchers have found significant drops in blood pressure and improvements in large-artery function among those who performed IMST with no changes in those who used a sham breathing device that delivered low-resistance.
The IMST group is also performing better on certain cognitive and memory tests.
When asked to exercise to exhaustion, they were also able to stay on the treadmill longer and keep their heart rate and oxygen consumption lower during exercise.
Some cyclists and runners have already begun to use commercially-available inspiratory muscle trainers to gain a competitive edge.
But Seals and Craighead stress that their findings are preliminary and curious individuals should ask their doctor before considering IMST.
That said, with a high compliance rate (fewer than 10 percent of study participants drop out) and no real side-effects, they're optimistic.
"High blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is the number one cause of death in America," said Craighead. "Having another option in the toolbox to help prevent it would be a real victory."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/04/190408161643.htm
Dutch study estimates 1 in 2 women and 1 in 3 men set to develop dementia/parkinsonism/stroke
Preventive strategies could, in theory, more than halve lifetime risk for those aged 85-plus, say researchers
Science Daily/October 1, 2018
BMJ
One in two women and one in three men will likely be diagnosed with dementia, Parkinson's disease, or stroke in their lifetime, estimate Dutch researchers in an observational study.
But preventive strategies, which delay the onset of these common diseases by even a few years, could, in theory, cut this lifetime risk by between 20 and more than 50 per cent, they say.
The global costs of dementia, stroke, and parkinsonism are thought to amount to more than 2 per cent of the world's annual economic productivity (GDP), a figure that is set to rise steeply as life expectancy continues to increase.
But while the lifetime risks of other serious illnesses, such as breast cancer and heart disease are well known and used to raise public awareness, the same can't be said of dementia, stroke, parkinsonism, say the researchers.
To try and redress this, they tracked the neurological health of more than 12,000 people taking part in the Rotterdam Study between 1990 and 2016. This study has been looking at the incidence of, and influential factors behind, diseases of ageing in the general population.
All the participants were aged at least 45 years old when they were recruited, and more than half (just under 58 per cent) were women.
When they joined, participants were given a thorough health check, which was repeated every four years. Family doctor health records were also scrutinised for signs of disease or diagnoses arising between the four yearly check-ups.
Monitoring for dementia, parkinsonism, and stroke continued until death, or January 1 2016, whichever came first.
Between 1990 and 2016, 5291 people died, 3260 of whom had not been diagnosed with any neurological disease. But 1489 people were diagnosed with dementia, mostly Alzheimer's disease (just under 80%); 1285 had a stroke, nearly two thirds of which (65%) was caused by a blood clot (ischaemic); and 263 were diagnosed with parkinsonism.
A higher prevalence of high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythm (atrial fibrillation), high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes was evident at the start of the monitoring period among those subsequently diagnosed with any of the three conditions.
Unsurprisingly, the risk of developing any of them rose steeply with age, but based on the data, the overall lifetime risk of a 45 year-old developing dementia, parkinsonism, or having a stroke was one in two for a woman (48%) and one in three for a man (36%).
This gender difference was largely driven by women being at heightened risk of developing dementia before men. But there were other gender differences in risk.
While 45 year-olds of both sexes had a similar lifetime risk of stroke, men were at substantially higher risk of having a stroke at younger ages than women.
And women were twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with both dementia and stroke during their lifetime.
The researchers calculated that if the onset of dementia, stroke, and parkinsonism were delayed by 1 to 3 years, the remaining lifetime risk could, in theory, be reduced by 20 per cent in 45 year-olds, and by more than 50 per cent in those aged 85+.
A delay of only a few years for one disease could also have a significant impact on combined lifetime risk, suggest the researchers.
"For instance, delaying dementia onset by 3 years has the potential to reduce lifetime risk of any disease by 15 per cent for men and women aged 45, and by up to 30 per cent for those aged 85 and older," they write.
The researchers point out that their study included only people of European ancestry with a relatively long life expectancy, so might not be applicable to other ethnicities/populations, and that they weren't able to measure the severity of any of the diagnosed conditions.
This research is observational, so no definitive conclusions can be drawn. But the researchers nevertheless conclude: "These findings strengthen the call for prioritising the focus on preventive interventions at population level which could substantially reduce the burden of common neurological diseases in the ageing population."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181001190712.htm
Study found people would rather pop a pill or sip tea than exercise to treat high blood pressure
April 8, 2018
Science Daily/American Heart Association
Survey respondents were more likely to choose a daily cup of tea or a pill over exercise to 'treat' high blood pressure in an imaginary scenario, but many didn't think the interventions were worth the benefits. When the perceived gain of treating hypertension was higher -- one or five extra years of life versus one extra month, for example -- survey respondents were more likely to say they would.
Researchers wanted to find out how people weigh the benefits of high blood pressure treatment options against its inconvenience. They asked survey respondents to imagine that they had high blood pressure and then asked about their willingness to adopt any of four "treatments" to gain an extra month, year or five years of life. In this survey, the "treatments" proposed were: a daily cup of tea, exercise, pills or monthly or semi-annual injections.
Results showed that taking a pill or drinking a daily up of tea were the preferred treatments, though some were unwilling to adopt any intervention even if it meant gaining an additional year or five years of life. For each treatment, participants were more likely to say they would adopt it if the benefit were greater:
· 79 percent of respondents said they would be willing to take a pill for an extra month of life, 90 percent would for an extra year of life and 96 percent would for an extra five years of life;
· 78 percent said they would drink a daily cup of tea for one extra month of life, 91 percent would for one extra year of life and 96 percent would drink it for an extra five years of life;
· 63 percent would be willing to exercise for an extra month of life, 84 percent would for an extra year of life and 93 percent would exercise if it meant an extra five years of life;
· A shot was the least preferred of the options -- 68 percent would take a shot every six months if it would give them an extra month of life, 85 percent would do it for an extra year of life and 93 percent would be willing if it gave them another five years, but only about half (51 percent) would take a monthly shot for an extra month of life, 74 percent would for an extra year and 88 percent would opt for an injection every month if it gave them five extra years of life.
In addition, at least 20 percent of respondents wanted to achieve gains in life expectancy beyond what any of the individual interventions could provide.
"Our findings demonstrate that people naturally assign different weights to the pluses and minuses of interventions to improve cardiovascular health," said Erica Spatz, M.D., M.H.S., the study lead author and an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine in the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. "I believe we need to tap into this framework when we are talking with patients about options to manage their blood pressure. We are good about discussing side effects, but rarely do we find out if other inconveniences or burdens may be impacting a person's willingness to take a lifelong medication or to exercise regularly."
From March to June 2017, 1,284 U.S. adults recruited through Amazon MTurk and 100 patients attending an outpatient health clinic completed the survey. Most survey respondents were under 45 years old, and half were female. Roughly three-quarters of respondents were non-Hispanic white, 10 percent were African American, 7 percent were Hispanic or Latino, and 8 percent were Asian. Most had high blood pressure.
A study limitation is that most respondents were relatively young. Since cardiovascular disease is more common among older people, they may have different responses than younger people. Another limitation is that survey respondents were not told the true life-extending ability of each intervention.
High blood pressure is a leading risk factor for heart and blood vessel, or cardiovascular, disease. Yet, it is often called the silent killer because it causes no symptoms. To prevent high blood pressure, the American Heart Association recommends getting regular physical activity, in addition to other lifestyle changes. These changes include eating a healthy diet, limiting alcohol, managing stress, maintaining a healthy weight, and quitting smoking. It is also important to work with a healthcare provider and to properly take medications, if prescribed, to reduce blood pressure.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180408190404.htm
High blood pressure reasons differ by gender in teens; young adults
September 17, 2017
Science Daily/American Heart Association
Gender matters when it comes to what's most likely to elevate blood pressure in young to middle-aged adults. The volume of blood pumped from the left ventricle during heartbeats, i.e., stroke volume, is the main determinant of blood pressure levels in women, while blood pressure in men is more likely to be determined by the amount of resistance in the body's blood vessels.
There are marked gender differences in what drives blood pressure in middle-age in adulthood, suggesting the need for gender-specific treatments for high blood pressure, according to research presented today at the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Hypertension, AHA Council on Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease, American Society of Hypertension Joint Scientific Sessions 2017, in San Francisco.
Background
"Blood pressure is determined mainly by three factors: heart rate; stroke volume, which is the volume of blood pumped by the heart; and the resistance to blood flow through the vessels, called total peripheral resistance. An increase in any one of the three factors can lead to an increase in blood pressure," said study author Catriona Syme, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. "The key takeaway from this study is that, for young and middle-aged women, stroke volume was the main determinant of blood pressure, while, in men, vascular resistance was the main determinant of blood pressure."
Syme and colleagues studied 1,347 Canadians from the Saguenay Youth Study, including 911 adolescents and 426 adults ages 36 to 65 years. The researchers used a device that measures beat-by-beat blood pressure and the underlying forces of heart rate, stroke volume and total peripheral resistance. In the approximately hour-long protocol, they measured these variables at rest, and during posture changes and a mental stressor -- all designed to mimic daily life activities, according to Syme.
Researchers found:
In females, stroke volume explains 55 percent of the variance in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading), versus only 35 percent in males.
In males, the major determinant of systolic blood pressure was total peripheral resistance, which explained 47 percent of the variance, versus only 30 percent in females.
These gender differences were seen across most of the 52-minute protocol, being most prominent during standing and least evident during mental stress, according to the abstract.
This study is novel in that it looks at the relative contributions of the three parameters determining blood pressure, which have not been evaluated in a large population-based study, and it assesses these factors over time, in a way that mimics daily life activities. The study also looks at high blood pressure culprits in adolescents and young to middle aged adults, who are not frequently studied despite being affected by hypertension, according to Syme.
"For example, there have been many studies looking at sex differences in the usefulness of blood pressure medications. But, most of those studies have been done in people whose average age was 60-70 years -- many of the women being post-menopausal," Syme said. "We think pre-menopausal women and men of a similar age may have elevated blood pressure for different reasons, and thus may need to be treated for hypertension differently. After menopause, when the production of female sex hormones decreases, reasons for hypertension may be more similar in men and women."
While current treatment recommendations for hypertension do not differ by gender across all ages, this study suggests potential benefits to prescribing blood pressure-lowering medications with consideration for gender differences in the underlying physiology of elevated blood pressure in young and middle-aged adults.
This study was conducted in Caucasians. Future studies should investigate whether the relative contributions of these parameters differ by race.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170917151002.htm
Obesity, Depression Found to Be Root Causes of Daytime Sleepiness
June 13, 2012
Science Daily/American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Three new studies conclude that obesity and depression are the main culprits making Americans excessively sleepy while awake. Researchers examined a random population sample of 1,741 adults and determined that obesity and emotional stress are the main causes of an "epidemic" of sleepiness and fatigue plaguing the country. Insufficient sleep and obstructive sleep apnea also play a role; both have been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, depression, diabetes, obesity and accidents.
Wake up, America, and lose some weight -- it's keeping you tired and prone to accidents. Three studies being presented June 13 at sleep 2012 conclude that obesity and depression are the two main culprits making us excessively sleepy while awake.
Researchers at Penn State examined a random population sample of 1,741 adults and determined that obesity and emotional stress are the main causes of the current "epidemic" of sleepiness and fatigue plaguing the country. Insufficient sleep and obstructive sleep apnea also play a role; both have been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, depression, diabetes, obesity and accidents.
"The 'epidemic' of sleepiness parallels an 'epidemic' of obesity and psychosocial stress," said Alexandros Vgontzas, MD, the principal investigator for the three studies. "Weight loss, depression and sleep disorders should be our priorities in terms of preventing the medical complications and public safety hazards associated with this excessive sleepiness."
In the Penn State cohort study, 222 adults reporting excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) were followed up 7½ years later. For those whose EDS persisted, weight gain was the strongest predicting factor. "In fact, our results showed that in individuals who lost weight, excessive sleepiness improved," Vgontzas said.
Adults from that same cohort who developed EDS within the 7½-year span also were studied. The results show for the first time that depression and obesity are the strongest risk factors for new-onset excessive sleepiness. The third study, of a group of 103 research volunteers, determined once again that depression and obesity were the best predictors for EDS.
"The primary finding connecting our three studies are that depression and obesity are the main risk factors for both new-onset and persistent excessive sleepiness," Vgontzas said.
In the Penn State cohort study, the rate of new-onset excessive sleepiness was 8 percent, and the rate of persistent daytime sleepiness was 38 percent. Like insufficient sleep and obstructive sleep apnea, EDS also is associated with significant health risks and on-the-job accidents.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120613091037.htm
Mentally stressed young women with heart disease have reduced blood flow to heart
November 16, 2014
Science Daily/American Heart Association
Young women with stable coronary heart disease are more likely than men of the same age to develop reduced blood flow to the heart if they're under emotional stress. Women 55 years and younger under mental stress had three times greater reduction in blood flow to the heart than men.
Compared to men of the same age, when subjected to a mental stress test, women:
· age 55 and younger had three times greater reduction in blood flow to the heart;
· age 56-64 had double the reduction in blood flow to the heart; and
· age 65 and older had no difference in blood flow to the heart.
"Women who develop heart disease at a younger age make up a special high-risk group because they are disproportionally vulnerable to emotional stress," said Viola Vaccarino, M.D., Ph.D., study author and chairwoman of Cardiovascular Research and Epidemiology at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, Georgia.
Women generally develop heart disease later in life than men. However, younger women who have premature heart attacks are more likely to die than men of similar age. Risk factors, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, don't explain these mortality differences.
Young and middle-age women may be more vulnerable to emotional stress because they face considerable burden of stressors in everyday life such as managing kids, marriage, jobs and caring for parents, Vaccarino said. Biology may also play a role -- for example, a greater propensity towards abnormal blood vessel function during emotional stress, such as exaggerated constriction of coronary or peripheral blood vessels.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141116094330.htm
Service members diagnosed with chronic insomnia may face increased risk of type II diabetes, high blood pressure
November 4, 2014
Science Daily/Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC)
Service members diagnosed with chronic insomnia had a two times higher risk of developing hypertension and type II diabetes than military personnel who had not been diagnosed with the condition, according to a newly released health surveillance report of a study of the associations between these diseases.
Insomnia is a common complaint among service members due to career-related stress factors, such as frequent deployments with demanding military operations, varying work shifts, and the challenges of maintaining relationships with their spouses and families.
"This type of analysis has military relevance because it supports the notion that adequate sleep among our service members is important not only for accident prevention and work performance, but also for additional long-term health benefits," said Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Paul E. Lewis, the author of the study and a preventive medicine resident at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
The association of chronic insomnia with hypertension was seen both in service members younger than 30 years of age and in those aged 30 years or older, with adjusted hazard ratios of 2.32 and 1.94, respectively. By gender, chronic insomnia had a stronger association with hypertension in men (adjusted hazard ratio of 2.17) than in women (adjusted hazard ratio of 1.59).
The adjusted hazard ratio was also greater for white, non-Hispanics (ratio of 2.26) than for black, non-Hispanics (ratio of 1.72). Both obese subjects and non-obese subjects had significantly increased risks of hypertension related to insomnia, with adjusted hazard ratios of 2.09 and 1.86, respectively.
Previous studies on this topic have provided conflicting results, with some demonstrating a strong association and others finding minimal to no association. There are several reasons why the findings of this study may not be directly comparable to studies in civilian populations. Military members are generally younger and have less co-morbidity than their civilian counterparts.
This analysis employed a longitudinal study design that allowed for follow-up of individuals over time, whereas many previous study designs did not allow evaluation between an exposure to a risk factor and a subsequent outcome. The average follow-up time was 3.09 years in the insomnia cohort and 3.42 years in the control cohort. These differences in methodology might partially explain the observed increased risks of hypertension and diabetes associated with chronic insomnia in this study but not seen in some other studies.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141104111156.htm
With beetroot juice before exercise, aging brains look 'younger'
April 19, 2017
Science Daily/Wake Forest University
Drinking a beetroot juice supplement before working out makes the brain of older adults perform more efficiently, mirroring the operations of a younger brain, according to a new study.
"We knew, going in, that a number of studies had shown that exercise has positive effects on the brain," said W. Jack Rejeski, study co-author. "But what we showed in this brief training study of hypertensive older adults was that, as compared to exercise alone, adding a beet root juice supplement to exercise resulted in brain connectivity that closely resembles what you see in younger adults."
While continued work in this area is needed to replicate and extend these exciting findings, they do suggest that what we eat as we age could be critically important to the maintenance of our brain health and functional independence.
Rejeski is Thurman D. Kitchin Professor and Director of the Behavioral Medicine Laboratory in the Department of Health & Exercise Science. The study, "Beet Root Juice: An Ergogenic Aid for Exercise and the Aging Brain," was published in the peer-reviewed Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. One of his former undergraduate students, Meredith Petrie, was the lead author on the paper.
This is the first experiment to test the combined effects of exercise and beetroot juice on functional brain networks in the motor cortex and secondary connections between the motor cortex and the insula, which support mobility, Rejeski said.
The study included 26 men and women age 55 and older who did not exercise, had high blood pressure, and took no more than two medications for high blood pressure. Three times a week for six weeks, they drank a beetroot juice supplement called Beet-It Sport Shot one hour before a moderately intense, 50-minute walk on a treadmill. Half the participants received Beet-It containing 560 mg of nitrate; the others received a placebo Beet-It with very little nitrate.
Beets contain a high level of dietary nitrate, which is converted to nitrite and then nitric oxide (NO) when consumed. NO increases blood flow in the body, and multiple studies have shown it can improve exercise performance in people of various ages.
"Nitric oxide is a really powerful molecule. It goes to the areas of the body which are hypoxic, or needing oxygen, and the brain is a heavy feeder of oxygen in your body," said Rejeski.
When you exercise, the brain's somatomotor cortex, which processes information from the muscles, sorts out the cues coming in from the body. Exercise should strengthen the somatomotor cortex.
So, combining beetroot juice with exercise delivers even more oxygen to the brain and creates an excellent environment for strengthening the somatomotor cortex. Post-exercise analysis showed that, although the study groups has similar levels of nitrate and nitrite in the blood before drinking the juice, the beetroot juice group had much higher levels of nitrate and nitrite than the placebo group after exercise.
Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170419091619.htm