Do you want to avoid burnout at work? Then start exercising!
Just a regular afternoon like any other. You have been having a long and stressful day at work. You are trying to relax ant think about something else, but you can´t really take your mind of it. Your shoulders and neck are still aching from sitting fixed in front of the computer for many hours. Or maybe you have been running around in a store or on the factory floor and your legs are heavy and feeling like steel. You can´t wait to get home and relax or maybe go to the pub or maybe just go home and spend time with your family. But don´t. Put on your tracksuit and running shoes and go for a jog or go directly to the gym and sweat with the other people. This will make you feel better at work the new day. Strange, isn´t it. But maybe not.
Making the effort to go to the gym a few times each week can dramatically improve your mood scientists say. A team from Tel Aviv University found that employees who managed to exercise a few hours each week showed less signs of depression and burnout at work.
Burnout is defined as a physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. The researchers led by Dr. Sharon Toker say that burnout may contribute to a "spiral of loss" where the loss of one resource, such as a job, could lead to loss of other resources such as one´s home, marriage end sense of self-worth. Thus, burnout is a serious problem for those who are affected.
The research is published in a recent issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology. The article is called Job burnout and depression: Unraveling their temporal relationship and considering the role of physical activity. A total of 1.632 healthy Israeli workers, both in private and public sectors are followed for nine years. The participants were divided into four groups: one that did not engage in physical activity, a second that did 75 - 150 minutes of physical activity a week, a third that did 150 - 240 minutes a week, and a fourth that did more than 240 minutes a week. All participants completed questionnaires and came to a medical clinic for routine check-ups.
Depression and burnout rates were clearly highest among those who did not participate in physical activity. The more physical activity that participants engaged in, the less likely they were to suffer depression or burnout. Those who engaged in at least four hours of exercise displayed almost no symptoms of mental strain.
Dr. Toker added that employers would actually benefit by building a gym on company grounds or subsidising memberships to gyms in the community, and by allowing for flexible work hours to allow employees to make physical activity an integral part of their day. Such a strategy might pay business dividends in the long run.
Women may be getting worse treatment for heart attack than men
Feb 23/2012. Women are less likely than men to exeperience chest pain as a first symptom of heart attack. This may delay correct diagnosis. The risk of early death is higher in women compared to similarly aged men. These are the results of a recently published study that analyzed more than one million hospital admissions in the United States between 1994 - 2006 and was published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the original scientific paper can be found here. The study was based on data from the NRMI (National Registry for Myocardial Infarction).
About 42 percent of women didn't have chest pain when they were admitted to the hospital compared with about 31 percent of the men. Overall, about 15 percent of the women died in the hospital, compared with 10 percent of men. The researchers point out that it may be more difficult to diagnose heart attack if the patient does not have chest pain. This fact makes it more likely that diagnosis will be delayed among the women than among the men. The study also found that women are not as likely to get immediate treatment with things like clot-busting drugs and balloons that open arteries, which can stop a heart attack in progress.
Individuals without chest pain, women and men, came into hospital for treatment on average about two hours later than those who had chest pain and EKGs to check for signs of heart attack were taken about 15 minutes later than among those with chest pain. These patients were less likely to receive acute therapies aimed at restoring coronary blood flow and were significantly less likely to receive these lifesaving therapies in a timely manner compared with patients who had chest pain on admission.
Lead author Dr John Canto (Lakeland Regional Medical Center, FL) commented: "While chest pain is still the hallmark symptom of MI (heart attack) in women, more women than men present without chest pain, and this is particularly applicable to younger women. We need to be more aware that younger women with atypical symptoms could be having a MI."
The second major finding of the study was that younger women having an MI have a higher risk of death. "Younger women are not supposed to have an MI, but when do, they are at higher risk of death than the rest of the population," Canto commented.
Canto also suggested that the higher likelihood of atypical symptoms in younger women could contribute toward their high death rate. "If a young women presents without chest pain, it is easy not to realize that she is having an MI. Triage staff are less likely to think about MI in a younger woman, especially one without chest pain, so there is a higher probability of not receiving timely treatment. This could easily explain some of the increased mortality in this group."
He added: "Our results challenge the wisdom that one size fits all in terms of men and women and presenting MI symptoms. I would argue that we need to tailor the MI message and that young women are particularly at risk for an atypical presentation." Canto noted that the atypical symptoms of MI include pain in the jaw, neck, shoulder, arm, back, or stomach and unexplained shortness of breath.
Cardiologist Cam Pattersson at North Carolina University Chapel-Hill says, "When I ask my wife what is she most afraid of, she says breast cancer. And yet she is six times more likely to die of a heart attack. We have a desperate message to share about the risk of heart disease in women of all ages"
More recently, another NRMI study showed remarkable reductions in hospital mortality after MI during the past decade for both sexes, especially women, possibly in part because of better recognition and management of cardiovascular risk factors in women.
Brain plaques tied to Alzheimer's rapidly cleared in mice
Feb 11/2012. The exact cause of Alzheimer´s disease remains unknown. One of the leading theories involves so called beta-amyloid plaques that build up in the spaces between nerve cells in patients with the disease. Clearing these plaques is one of the major targets in Alzheimer´s research today and drugs are already being tested in human clinical trials. In the body, apolipoprotein E (ApoE) plays an important role in removing beta-amyloid plaques.
Scientists at the Case Western Reserve University in Ohio have been trying to find ways to boost the levels of ApoE which in theory might reduce beta-amyloid plaques. They recently tested a drug called bexarotene which has been approved for treatment of skin cancer. Within 72 hours of the administration of the drug to young mice, beta amyloid plaques were found to be significantly reduced. Furthermore, bexarotene stimulated a rapid reversal of cognitive, social and olfactory deficits, thus improving brain function. The results are published in a recent edition of the journal Science.
Researcher Page E Cramer said: This is an unprecedented finding. "Previously, the best existing treatment for Alzheimer´s disease in mice required several months to reduce plaque in the brain."
Fellow researcher Gary Landreth said the study "was particularly exciting and rewarding" and held the "potential promise of a therapy for Alzheimer´s disease". However, he stressed that the drug had been tested in only three mouse models which simulate the early stages of the disease and are not Alzheimer´s. He warned people not to "try this at home", as the drug had not been proven to work in Alzheimer´s patients and there was no indication of what any dose should be. "We need to be clear, the drug works quite well in mouse models of the disease. Our next objective is to ascertain if it acts similarly in humans," he said. His group is preparing to start trials in a small group of people to see if there is a similar effect in humans.
David Allsop, who is professor of neuroscience at Lancaster University has warned for to much optimism: "I would say that the results should be treated with cautious optimism. He adds: "It looks promising in the mouse model but in recent years, these types of experiments in mice had not translated well into humans."
Original Paper: ApoE-Directed Therapeutics Rapidly Clear β-Amyloid and Reverse Deficits in AD Mouse Models. Paige E. Cramer, John R. Cirrito, Daniel W. Wesson, C. Y. Daniel Lee, J. Colleen Karlo, Adriana E. Zinn, Brad T. Casali, Jessica L. Restivo, Whitney D. Goebel, Michael J. James, Kurt R. Brunden, Donald A. Wilson, Gary E. Landreth.
Smoking and dementia
Feb 09/2012. Men who smoke cigarettes suffer a more rapid decline in brain functioning than men who don’t smoke according to a recent study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The researchers analyzed data on 5,099 men and 2,137 women who underwent a series of clinical exams, cognitive tests, and questionnaires. The main findings were that the men who smoked showed cognitive decline as severe as non-smokers who were 10 years older than them. In other words, a 50-year-old male smoker will show similar cognitive decline to a 60-year-old male who has never smoked before, explains Severine Sabia, lead study author and research associate at University College London. These early dementia-like brain difficulties start showing up in men as early as 45 years old.
It has been suggested before that smoking is a possible risk factor for dementia, but its impact may have been underestimated in the elderly populations because of the shorter life span of smokers. This was a so called cohort study based on repeated cognitive assessments over a 12 year period. The study was performed by resarchers from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, and Centre de Gérontologie, Hôpital Ste Périne, Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris (Dr Singh-Manoux).
The cognitive test battery was composed of tests of memory, vocabulary, executive function and a global cognitive score summarizing performance across all 5 tests. Smoking status was assessed over the entire study period. Faster cognitive decline was observed among current smokers compared with never smokers in men .In ex-smokers with at least a 10-year cessation, there were no adverse effects on cognitive decline. In women, cognitive decline did not vary as a function of smoking status.
But why exactly could smoking be bad for the brain? It may be due to the negative effects of smoking on the vascular system, thus possibly affecting blood flow to important areas of the brain.
Maybe it is proper to qoute the famous American writer Kurt Wonnegut who said: "The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide". Vonnegut was indeed referring to his own habits, he smoked unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes.
Original article: Impact of Smoking on Cognitive Decline in Early Old Age
Diet soda linked to heart attack and stroke
Feb 08/2012. A recently published scientific study has found an association between diet soft drink consumption and vascular events such as stroke, heart attack (myocardial infarction) and vascular death. The study was performed by researchers from The University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Florida and Columbia University in New York. The results are published in a recent online edition of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
An association between sugar-sweetened soft drinks and obesity, insulin sensitivity and high blood pressure has commonly been attributed to their high caloric and sugar load as well as lack of nutrients. Their popularity and rising rates of obesity in the community underscore the need for healthier beverages. Therefore, artificially sweetened diet soft drinks have been marketed as healthier alternatives, mainly due to their lack of calories. However, recent studies have suggested that diet soft drink consumption may be associated with health consequences as well, such as type 2 diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. No previous studies have directly studied the association between diet soft drink consumption and the risk vascular events such as stroke and heart attack.
Interview with Hannah Gardener
The study was a so called population based cohort study of participants in the NOMAS (Northern Manhattan Study). Participants were older than 40 years (mean age 69) and had no previous history of stroke. Diet and regular soft drink consumption was assessed by frequency questionnaire. Over a mean follow-up period of 10 years there were 591vascular events (stroke, myocardial infarction, vascular death).
The association between soft drink consumption and vascular events was assessed after controlling for other possible risk factors for stroke and heart attack such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, BMI, daily calories, consumption of protein, carbohydrates, saturated fat and sodium.
The authors found no association between regular soft drink consumption and the risk of vascular events. However, daily diet soft drink consumption was associated with an elevated risk of vascular events. These individuals had a 43% increased risk of vascular events as compared to those who did not drink diet soft drinks at all.
The authors do not conclude directly that daily diet soda consumption by itself increases the risk of vascular events. Diet soft drink consumption was indeed associated with many other important risk factors such as diabetes, increased BMI, previous heart disease, high blood pressure, low HDL and elevated triglycerides. The authors suggest that these individuals may have been consuming diet soft drinks in an effort to reduce calories and sugar in order to lose weight. However, even after controlling for these confounding factors, daily diet soft drink consumption was associated with increased risk for vascular events. In contrast, consumption of regular soft drinks was not associated with such risks.
Since no other studies have found a link between diet soft drink consumption and heart attacks, more research is needed, explains lead researcher Hannah Gardener, PhD, from the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. Future studies in younger populations in which diet soft drink consumption is more prevalent may be particularly important, as are studies examining the associations between all beverages, including other non-soft drink sugar-sweetened and diet beverages, and vascular events.
Regular intake of vitamins and minerals may prevent colon cancer
Feb 07/2012. Could the use of vitamin and mineral supplements in a regular diet help to reduce the risk of colon cancer and protect against carcinogens? A study published in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology (CJPP) found that rats given regular multivitamin and mineral supplements showed a significantly lower risk of developing colon cancer when they were exposed to carcinogens.
“It has been unclear whether multivitamin supplementation to cancer patients is helpful, has no effect, or is even detrimental during therapy,” commented Dr. Grant Pierce, Editor of CJPP. “This study is important because it gives some direction to cancer patients in desperate need of guidance on the value of multivitamins and minerals administered during cancer.”
The authors studied rats that were fed a high-fat diet (20% fat) over a 32 week period. The rats were divided into 6 groups, which were exposed to different combinations of supplements and carcinogens; the colon carcinogenisis induced in the study rats has characteristics that mimic human colon cancer. Rats fed a high-fat plus low-fibre diet and exposed to carcinogens developed pre-cancerous lesions; whereas, rats undergoing similar treatment, but provided with daily multivitamin and mineral supplements, showed a significant (84%) reduction in the formation of pre-cancerous lesions and did not develop tumours.
The authors conclude that “multivitamin and mineral supplements synergistically contribute to the cancer chemopreventative potential, and hence, regular supplements of multivitamins and minerals could reduce the risk of colon cancer.”
The study “Multivitamin and mineral supplementation in 1,2-dimethylhydrazine induced experimental colon carcinogenesis and evaluation of free radical status, antioxidant potential, and incidence of ACF” appears in the January issue of CJPP.
Media Release - NRC Resarch Press - Regular use of vitamin and mineral supplements could reduce the risk of colon cancer
Full reference: Arul, A.B., Savarimuthu, I., Alsaif, M.A., Al Numair, K.S. 2012. Multivitamin and mineral supplementation in 1,2- dimethylhydrazine induced experimental colon carcinogenesis and evaluation of free radical status, antioxidant potential, and indicence of ACF. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, 90: 45–54.