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LONGER SLEEP AND HEART DISEASE
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by wilfredjohn | December 24, 2008 at 06:12 pm
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Washington : Participants who slept an hour longer than others had a lower incidence of coronary artery calcification, linked with future heart disease.
Risk factors for coronary artery calcification (calcified plaques visible by computed tomography) include established heart disease risk factors like male sex, older age, glucose intolerance, tobacco use, high cholesterol levels and BP, obesity, raised inflammatory markers and the like.
Recent data suggest that sleep quantity and quality are connected to several of these risk factors. "However, some of these correlations have only been documented in studies in which sleep is measured by self-report, which may be biased or insufficiently accurate," the authors write.
Christopher Ryan King, of the University of Chicago (UC) and colleagues tested whether objectively measured sleep duration predicted the development of calcification over five-years of follow-up.
The study included 495 participants from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, who were black and white men and women age 35-47 years.
At the start of the study in 2000-2001, the participants had no evidence of detectable coronary calcification on computed tomography scans.
The incidence of calcification at five years was 12.3 per cent. After adjusting for age, sex, race, education, smoking and apnea risk, the researchers found that one hour more of sleep per night decreased the estimated odds of calcification by 33 per cent.
"We have found a robust and novel association between objectively measured sleep duration and 5-year incidence of coronary artery calcification," the authors write.
"This study further demonstrates the utility of a simple objective measure of sleep that can be used at home. Future studies will be needed for crucial extensions to these results, said an UC release.
These findings were published Wednesday in the Journal of American Medical Association.
SOURCE: OMNI NEWS
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at 18:29 on December 24th, 2008
A new study from the University of Chicago suggests that longer sleep durations can reduce a person's risk of coronary artery calcification, which is thought to be a predictor of future heart disease.
Published in the journal JAMA, the study report said that the participants who slept on average an hour longer per night than others had an associated lower incidence of coronary artery calcification.
Lead researcher Christopher Ryan King revealed that the study included 495 participants from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, who were black and white men and women age 35-47 yrs.
None of the participants had coronary calcification at the beginning of the study in 2000-01, as shown by computed tomography scans.
Following the participants for five years, the researchers observed that sleeping an extra hour per night decreased the estimated odds of calcification by 33%.
"We have found a robust and novel association between objectively measured sleep duration and 5-year incidence of coronary artery calcification," the authors write.
"This study further demonstrates the utility of a simple objective measure of sleep that can be used at home. Future studies will be needed for crucial extensions to these results. First, these results need confirmation in other cohorts. Second, does sleep moderate the rate at which calcification accumulates? Third, will objective sleep tie to coronary disease event outcomes over the long term?
While calcification predicts such outcomes, it is difficult to know how and if the predictors of calcification themselves will determine outcomes, or if their impact will be purely mediated by their effect on calcification. Finally, if this association is born out, interventional studies will be needed to guide clinical advice," they add. DR.JENNY PETERSON