An egg a day may keep the doctor away, study claims

For decades, experts warned that eating eggs raises levels of unhealthy cholesterol. But a study claimed on Tuesday that an egg a day may actually reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

While outside experts cautioned against reading too much into the study, its authors claimed that Chinese adults who ate an egg every day had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

After studying half-a-million healthy adults aged 30-79 over almost nine years, researchers concluded that “compared with non-consumers, daily egg consumption was associated with lower risk of CVD.”

Risk of hemorrhagic stroke was 26 percent lower among egg-eaters, the Chinese-British research team also reported in the journal Heart.

And daily egg consumption was associated with an 18-percent lower risk of death from CVD, and a 28-percent lower risk for death from hemorrhagic stroke, it added.

CVD, a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels, is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, including in China.

According to the World Health Organization, about 17.7 million people die of CVDs each year, almost a third of all deaths worldwide.

Eighty percent of CVD deaths are caused by heart attacks and strokes.

Smoking, not exercising enough, and eating an unhealthy diet high in salt and low in fresh fruit and vegetables, increase the risk.

Chicken and egg

Eggs are rich in dietary cholesterol, long linked to a higher CVD risk, but also contain crucial protein and vitamins.

In the study group, 13 percent reported daily egg consumption while nine percent said they never or hardly ever ate them.

By the end of the study period, almost 84,000 cases of CVD and 10,000 CVD deaths were recorded and compared among the different egg-intake groups.

“The present study finds that there is an association between moderate level of egg consumption (up to 1 egg per day) and a lower cardiac event rate,” the authors concluded.

But experts not involved in the study, said the results fail to prove that eating eggs actively lowers CVD risk.

“An important limitation of this present study is that the people who consumed eggs regularly were much more affluent than those who avoided them,” University College of London nutrition specialist Tom Sanders said.

“Indeed, rates of stroke have been falling in Japan, Australia, North America, and Europe for several decades for reasons that remain uncertain but may be related to increasing affluence,” he also said via the Science Media Centre in London.

According to cardiology expert Gavin Sandercock, of the University of Essex, “to say that eating eggs is good (or bad) for you based on a study like this would be foolish as diet is much more complicated than picking on one foodstuff like eggs.”

A second paper published in Heart found that people who commute to work by walking or cycling had a risk of heart disease and stroke 11 percent lower than those who take the car.

Their risk of dying from CVD diseases was almost a third lower, found the seven-year study of more than 350,000 people in Britain.  /kga

source: technology.inquirer.net

New US diet rule gets mixed response on social media

NEW YORK  - A new health guideline suggesting people should cut consumption of sugar while increasing intake of meat, coffee and cholesterol-heavy foods drew heated response on social media on Friday.

Hashtag #DietaryGuidelines was among the top trending topics on Twitter after US government released a report late on Thursday suggesting people should keep their sugar and corn syrup intake to less than 10 percent of daily calorie consumption.

Currently the average American consumes about 270 calories a day in sweeteners, or 13 percent, the guidelines said.

The new rules allow up to five cups of coffee a day, drop a previous limit on the consumption of cholesterol-laden food (while still curbing saturated fats to less than 10 percent of calories per day) and allow a variety of meats.

Twitter user @NVGhost005 wrote cynically: "With all these new dietary guidelines coming out, EVERYTHING one eats/drinks puts one at risk. Might as well not care."

"After reading the full report, these guidelines are quite disappointing, IMHO #DietaryGuidelines", tweeted health coach Pam McGovern (@weavegirl40) on Friday.

Comedian Brian Parise (@bpcomedy) also tweeted an image sarcastically poking fun at the report: "People are being critical of the new dietary guidelines the government put out today, but I think they nailed it.”


  People are being critical of the new dietary guidelines the government put out today, but I think they nailed it. pic.twitter.com/pea8yHsyoe

 — Brian Parise (@bpcomedy) January 7, 2016

— Reuters

Too little sleep linked to heart disease risk

NEW YORK - In a large US study, people who tended to get less than six hours of sleep nightly were more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and to be obese.

The research is the first to look at differences in risk between racial and ethnic groups, and also finds the strongest effect among Black and Hispanic Americans.

"This is important, since racial minorities are generally at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity," Michael A. Grandner said. "And if they also tend to have more sleep difficulties, that could be making things worse."

Grandner led the study at the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Using nationwide survey data from 2008, researchers divided results from more than 5,000 respondents representing the US population into three groups. Very short sleepers got less than five hours per night, short sleepers got between five and six hours and long sleepers got more than nine hours.

Very short and short sleep were both linked to poor health, Grandner's team reports in the journal Sleep Medicine.

Very short sleepers were twice as likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, compared to people who slept around seven to eight hours. Very short sleepers were also 75 percent more likely to have diabetes and 50 percent more likely to be obese.

Short sleepers were about 20 percent more likely than normal sleepers to report high blood pressure and obesity.

Blacks were most likely to report sleeping less than five hours and very short sleep was most strongly linked to obesity among Blacks.

Short sleep was strongly linked to high blood pressure among Blacks, Whites and non-Mexican Hispanics, while people of Asian descent had the strongest link between short sleep and high cholesterol.

Long sleepers did not appear to experience any negative health effects once researchers adjusted for other factors.

There is no consensus on what the ideal minimum amount of sleep should be for good health, Kristen L. Knutson said.

Knutson studies sleep and heart health in different populations at the University of Chicago Department of Medicine. She was not involved in the new study.

There's no set number for sleep, in part "because there is likely to be some variability in how much sleep different people need," Knutson said. "Still, the majority of large studies have found that people who say they sleep between seven and eight hours are the healthiest."

Recommendations vary by age, with younger people generally needing more sleep than older people.

"Like most aspects of health, too little is bad for you and too much is also likely bad for you," Grandner said.

"It is hard to say that short sleep is worse than long—it's just that we currently have a better idea of why short sleep is detrimental to health," he said.

Quantity of sleep isn't the only important factor though, Grandner said. Insomnia, sleep apnea and waking frequently during the night may be related to heart disease, diabetes and obesity, he said.

"These data do suggest that short sleep, whatever the cause, is associated with important negative health outcomes," Knutson said.

Sleep and health are likely linked in a two-way relationship, Grandner said. Less sleep may negatively impact health, and certain health conditions like obesity might make sleep more difficult.

"Lack of sleep limits your body's ability to keep itself healthy, increasing risk for disease, which puts stress on the body, making sleep harder," he said. "It is likely a cycle like this." — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com