Study Finds Shortage of Surgeries in World’s Poorest Countries

TUESDAY, March 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The number of surgeries worldwide increased over the last decade, but only about one-third are performed in poor countries, a new study reports.

“Clearly, there are huge disparities in the provision of surgery around the world, and this points to an unmet need for surgical and anesthetic care in many countries,” said study author Dr. Thomas Weiser. He is an assistant professor of surgery of Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif.

Globally, the number of operations rose 38 percent between 2004 and 2012 — reaching nearly 313 million procedures in 2012, according to the study published Feb. 29 in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

But in 2012, only 30 percent of surgeries occurred in the 104 nations with health-care spending of less than $400 per person a year (U.S. dollars). Those countries have 5 billion people, or 71 percent of the world’s population, according to background notes in a journal news release.

“Surgical care can be lifesaving and also helps prevent long-term disability due to injuries, infections, cancers and maternal conditions,” Weiser said in the news release.

“In addition to the disparities in access, the safety of surgical care is of utmost concern, in light of the huge and growing volume of operations being performed annually around the world,” Weiser said.

The study also raises questions about whether countries are providing the most essential operations, said Dr. Walter Johnson, coordinator of the World Health Organization’s Emergency and Essential Surgical Care Program.

For example, cesarean deliveries accounted for about 30 percent of all surgeries in poor nations, and less than 3 percent of surgeries in 44 rich countries, he said.

“The study findings suggest that while countries may be providing more cesarean sections per capita than a decade ago, other emergency and lifesaving surgical care is simply not available for the majority of people in need in low- and middle-income countries,” Johnson said.

More information

The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality lists the most common operating room procedures in the United States.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1ngfyil

Earthquake Survivors With PTSD Show Brain Differences

TUESDAY, March 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — There appear to be significant differences in the brains of earthquake survivors with and without post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new study by Chinese researchers finds.

The research included 67 survivors who had PTSD and 78 who didn’t. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that develops after a traumatic event. All of the study volunteers had MRI brain scans.

The researchers saw changes in the thickness and volume of the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the brain — also called gray matter, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

People with PTSD had more thickness in the gray matter in certain areas of the brain than people who didn’t have PTSD. The researchers also noted less volume in other areas of the brain in people with PTSD than in those without the disorder.

The study was published online March 1 in the journal Radiology.

“Our results indicated that PTSD patients had alterations in both gray matter and white matter in comparison with other individuals who experienced similar psychological trauma from the same earthquake,” senior study author Dr. Qiyong Gong said in a journal news release. Gong is from the Huaxi MR Research Center at the West China Hospital of Sichuan University in Chengdu, China.

One of the areas of the brain that changed in people with PTSD plays an important role in visual processing. This area is more active in people with PTSD when doing memory tasks, Gong said.

The researchers noted that these changes may be related to the visual flashback symptoms that occur in PTSD.

These findings may help identify people who are more likely to develop chronic PTSD after a traumatic event, the researchers said.

“It is particularly important to compare PTSD patients to similarly stressed individuals in order to learn about the specific brain alterations directly related to PTSD that occur above and beyond general stress responses,” Gong said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more on PTSD.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1ngfy1Z

Traffic Pollution Tied to Preterm Birth Risk for Asthmatic Women

TUESDAY, March 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Exposure to high levels of certain traffic air pollutants may increase the risk of preterm birth in pregnant women with asthma, a new study suggests.

Both short- and long-term exposure to pollution from vehicles was linked to a higher risk of preterm birth in women with asthma. This was especially true when women were exposed to pollutants just before conceiving, in early pregnancy and the last six weeks of pregnancy, the study found.

“Preterm birth is a major public health problem in this country, affecting more than one in 10 infants born in the United States,” said study author Pauline Mendola, an investigator at the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Preterm birth is considered to be a birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy.

“Our study found that air pollution appears to add to the preterm birth risk faced by women with asthma. These findings set the stage for further studies designed to help prevent preterm birth in this at-risk group,” she added in an agency news release.

However, the new study only found a link between traffic pollution and preterm birth in this group of women. It did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Asthma affects about 9 percent of women of reproductive-age in the United States. It is known to increase the risk of pregnancy complications and health problems in infants, the study authors said.

The study included data from more than 223,000 single-child births. The babies were born at 19 hospitals across the United States between 2002 and 2008. The researchers also examined air quality data in the regions around the hospitals. They measured six types of pollutants, including nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide exposure.

An increase in nitrogen oxide exposure in the three months before pregnancy was linked to a higher risk of preterm birth. The increase in risk was higher for women with asthma than those without the airway disease, the study found.

Higher levels of carbon monoxide exposure during the same period raised preterm birth risk by 12 percent for women with asthma, but had no effect on those without asthma, the study said.

The researchers also found that exposure to high levels of particulate-matter air pollution was associated with higher risk of preterm birth in women with asthma. Particulate matter consists of tiny particles of substances such as metals, dust and acids, the researchers said.

“Early environmental exposures can have significant effects on later health,” Mendola said.

She added that early exposure to air pollution may set off inflammation or other internal stresses. These problems could affect the development of the fetus and lead to preterm delivery down the road.

The study was published online March 1 in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on preterm birth.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1ngfzTC

Lawn Mowers Can Cause Severe Injuries to Kids

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, March 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Despite long-standing safety guidelines, U.S. children continue to suffer severe injuries from both regular power lawn mowers and ride-on mowers, a new Pennsylvania-based study finds.

In more than half of such cases, children required an amputation, the research showed.

“People don’t realize how dangerous lawn mowers are,” warned senior study author Dr. Douglas Armstrong. He’s a professor of orthopedic surgery and division head of pediatric orthopedics at Penn State Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Penn.

“All lawn mowers have a tremendous amount of kinetic energy given off at the tip of the lawn mower blade. It’s higher than a bullet leaving the muzzle of a 357 Magnum, which means that the injuries we see are not just lacerations, they’re the result of something more like an explosion or blast injury,” he explained.

The researchers looked at information from all children with lawn mower-related injuries treated at Pennsylvania trauma centers between 2002 and 2013. The investigators found an average of about 16 accidents a year.

In all, the study found that nearly 200 children under the age of 18 were injured because of a lawn mower. The majority of those injured (81 percent) were boys, and the average age was 8 years. Nine in 10 accidents occurred during warm weather months (April through September), according to the study.

More than half of the cases (55 percent) involved “ride-on” lawn mowers, the investigators found. Ride-on lawn mowers are small vehicles outfitted with a seat, versus standard lawn mowers you need to walk behind and push.

The researchers said nearly two-thirds of the injuries involved the lower extremities. Slightly more than half of the kids had to have an amputation because of the injury. One child (age 1) died due to an incident involving a ride-on lawn mower, the study authors reported.

“The vast majority of the injuries could have been prevented if safety guidelines had been followed,” Armstrong said.

Those guidelines, outlined in 2001 by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), recommend that no child under the age of 16 should operate a ride-on mower, while no child under 12 should operate a powered or non-powered push mower.

The advisory further cautions parents — whether on farmland or in the suburbs — to keep all children under the age of 6 indoors when any mower is in operation. Kids shouldn’t ride along as passengers on mowers operated by adults, the pediatric group said.

Following that advice would have prevented almost 70 percent of the Pennsylvania accidents, Armstrong said.

A child’s maturity level likely plays an important role in the risk of injury, Armstrong said. “Young children often lack the ability to anticipate, to learn, to engage in manual coordination, and to pay attention. They’re easily distracted from their task,” he said.

“It’s not until they’re older that they can really attend to what they’re doing, and be taught and retain information. And, most importantly, understand that bad things can happen, which many younger kids don’t even consider,” he added.

The AAP agreed, stating that “children should not operate lawn mowers until they have displayed appropriate levels of judgment, strength, coordination, and maturity necessary for their safe operation.”

Dr. Kevin Shea, an orthopedic surgeon and professor of orthopedic surgery at UConn Health in Farmington, Conn., agreed with AAP policy.

“Limiting use to older, adequately trained adolescents and adults is important,” he said, while stressing the need for parents to keep children at a safe distance altogether.

Armstrong and his colleagues are scheduled to present their findings Tuesday at a meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in Orlando, Fla. Findings presented at meetings are generally viewed as preliminary until they’ve been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about lawn mower safety.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1ngfxLA

Zika Virus Tied to Rare Disorder That Can Cause Paralysis

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Feb. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The Zika virus may cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the nervous system, new research suggests.

Blood samples from 42 patients diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome during a Zika virus outbreak in French Polynesia provide the first hard evidence that the mosquito-borne Zika virus might cause this severe neurological disorder, researchers said.

“The risk for a Zika-infected individual of developing Guillain-Barre syndrome is small — less than [one] case per 1,000 Zika infections. So, individuals with acute Zika infection should not be greatly alarmed by the fear of developing of Guillain-Barre syndrome,” said researcher Dr. Hugh Willison. He’s a professor of neurology at the University of Glasgow College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences in Scotland.

The study can’t prove cause-and-effect, but as Zika cases increase, health officials need to plan to deal with the rise in cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome as well, he said.

Zika virus infections in pregnant women have been linked to a birth defect called microcephaly, a condition in which the brain and skull are significantly underdeveloped. Since the Zika epidemic began last spring, it’s believed there have been more than 5,600 suspected or confirmed cases of microcephaly in Brazil, the World Health Organization reported Friday.

“Since Zika infection may affect millions of persons, there will be a surge of Guillain-Barre syndrome cases for health services to cope with, even though the risk is small,” Willison added.

Despite the new findings, one expert said “it is difficult to conclusively prove Zika virus infection in all of these patients, because many also had been infected with the closely related dengue virus, which is common in French Polynesia. And interpretation of the antibody tests was difficult,” said David Smith, a clinical professor at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

“We need to look closely at future cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome occurring in Zika-affected areas to gather more data so we can better estimate the risk,” Smith said.

Guillain-Barre syndrome was uncommon in this study — less than 0.1 percent of the people estimated to be infected with Zika virus — and may turn out to be rarer than that, said Smith, who co-authored an accompanying journal editorial.

“Zika virus is very likely to be able to trigger Guillain-Barre syndrome, but we don’t yet know exactly how low that risk is,” he said. “This does not alter the advice about the precautions people should take to avoid mosquito exposure when traveling to Zika-affected areas.”

The report was published in the Feb. 29 online edition of The Lancet.

From October 2013 to April 2014, French Polynesia experienced the largest Zika outbreak reported to date. About 32,000 people saw a doctor about a Zika virus infection.

Guillain-Barre syndrome is the leading cause of non-trauma paralysis, according to the study authors. Symptoms develop quickly and include weakness in the legs and arms, muscle weakness and pain, the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke says.

The syndrome is usually triggered by an infection, such as herpes, influenza or dengue fever, the researchers said.

To see if there was a link between Guillain-Barre syndrome and Zika, researchers compared three groups of patients. One group had 42 patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome. Another group had 98 patients who were in the same hospital but didn’t have a fever (the “control” group). And the third group had 70 patients diagnosed with Zika infection but who didn’t have Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Most patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome (88 percent) reported symptoms of Zika about six days before neurological symptoms appeared, the study found. The most common symptoms of Zika include fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (“pink eye”).

Blood tests showed that 100 percent of the people with Guillain-Barre syndrome showed a specific immune system response for Zika. By comparison, just 56 percent of those in the control group with the non-fever illness showed this response, the study said.

Most people with Guillain-Barre syndrome — 95 percent — also had signs of past dengue infection. A majority of patients in the other two groups also showed signs of past dengue infection. Dengue is another mosquito-borne illness and it’s endemic to the area, the study authors noted. They added that past infection with dengue didn’t increase the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome among patients with Zika.

All of the Guillain-Barre syndrome patients likely had a type of the disorder called acute motor axonal neuropathy, the study authors said. In addition, those with Zika-related Guillain-Barre syndrome recovered faster than is expected.

Among the patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome, 16 were admitted to the intensive care unit, and 12 needed breathing assistance. Patients were hospitalized for about 11 days, but those in intensive care remained for an average of 51 days, the study found. Three months after leaving the hospital, 57 percent of the patients were able to walk without assistance. None of the patients died, the investigators reported.

Based on the experience in French Polynesia, Willison estimates that the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome in the general population during the outbreak in French Polynesia was 0.24 per 1,000 Zika virus infections. That works out to 24 people per 100,000 infections, according to Willison.

“Public health officials, neurologists and critical care and emergency medicine specialists need to be alert to the likely rise in Guillain-Barre syndrome cases that will occur in other parts of the world that are currently going through epidemics of acute Zika infection,” Willison said.

Since it first surfaced last spring, the virus has spread to over 34 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean. The World Health Organization now estimates there could be up to 4 million cases of Zika in the Americas in the next year.

More information

For more on Guillain-Barre syndrome, visit the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

To see the CDC list of sites where Zika virus is active and may pose a threat to pregnant women, click here.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1Uv9FLZ

FDA Orders ‘Black Box’ Warning Label on Essure Long-Acting Contraceptive

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Feb. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A special “black box” warning should be added to packaging for the Essure implantable birth control device, based on concerns over serious complications, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Monday.

The FDA also ordered Essure’s manufacturer, Bayer, to conduct a new clinical study to gather more data about the health risks the device might pose for “in a real-world environment.”

Essure is a permanent and nonsurgical form of birth control for women. It consists of flexible coils that are inserted through the vagina and cervix into the fallopian tubes, the FDA explained in a statement.

Scar tissue forms naturally around the coils, creating a barrier intended to prevent sperm from reaching the egg as they travel down the fallopian tubes into the uterus.

However, since the FDA approved Essure in 2002, the agency says it has received about 10,000 complaints about the device.

Complications from using Essure can include pain, abnormal bleeding, allergic reaction and tearing of the uterus or fallopian tubes if the device migrates, the FDA said.

Dr. William Maisel, deputy director for science and chief scientist at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, spoke about Essure during a news briefing late Monday. He said that the agency has also received 631 reports of women becoming pregnant while using the product, and 294 reports of pregnancy losses.

Still, Maisel said, “it’s important for women to know that Essure is extremely effective at preventing pregnancy. However, in order for it to be effective, the device must be placed properly and women must rely on an alternative form of birth control until they undergo an Essure confirmation test.”

According to Maisel, “like all forms of birth control, Essure is not perfect and women may become pregnant despite use of the device. The lack of an Essure confirmation test is the most common factor contributing to unintended pregnancies in women with Essure.”

Some have alleged that clinical trial records that led to Essure’s approval were altered to favor the device, but Maisel said that an FDA re-analysis of the evidence has concluded these charges are baseless.

“In the end, our analysis did not find evidence of systematic or intentional modifications of study subject responses,” he said. “The agency believes the original clinical data relied upon represents valid scientific evidence.”

In addition to the boxed warning, the FDA also wants Bayer to include a “patient decision checklist” in Essure’s packaging, “to ensure women receive and understand information regarding the benefits and risks of this type of device.”

The checklist would be reviewed and signed by the patient and her doctor. It goes over a series of health issues that should deter a woman from using Essure, and requires that she promise to return to her doctor in three months to make sure the device has been properly placed.

The clinical trial ordered by the FDA will assess rates of complications with Essure and compare them to the complications associated with tubal ligation.

The study also will evaluate how complications affect a patient’s quality of life, and identify reasons why women don’t come back for follow-up testing three months after insertion to make sure that Essure has been properly placed.

The public and industry will have 60 days to comment on this draft guidance from the FDA, the agency said.

More information

Visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for more on Essure.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1SdCtrN

Young Athletes Pressured by Parents May Resort to ‘Doping’

MONDAY, Feb. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Young male athletes under parental pressure to succeed are more likely to use banned substances to boost their sports performance, a new study finds.

Researchers at the University of Kent in England asked 129 young male athletes, average age 17, about their attitudes on “doping” — the use of prohibited drugs, such as steroids, hormones or stimulants, to boost athletic ability.

These substances, sometimes called performance-enhancing drugs, can potentially alter the human body and biological functions. However, they can be extremely harmful to a person’s health, experts warn.

In addition, the study participants were also asked about four different aspects of perfectionism. The four areas were: parental pressure; self-striving for perfection; concerns about making mistakes; and pressure from coaches.

Only parental pressure was linked to positive feelings about doping among the athletes, the study authors found.

The findings suggest parents need to recognize the consequences of putting too much pressure on young athletes, said lead researcher Daniel Madigan, a Ph.D. student in the university’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences.

“The problem of pressure from parents watching their children play sports is widely known, with referees and sporting bodies highlighting the difficulties and taking steps to prevent it,” Madigan said in a university news release.

“With the rise of so-called ‘tiger’ parenting — where strict and demanding parents push their children to high levels of achievement — this study reveals the price young athletes may choose to pay to meet their parents’ expectations and dreams,” Madigan added.

The study findings are scheduled for publication in the April print issue of the Journal of Sports Sciences.

The researchers plan to investigate if the same problem occurs in young female athletes, and if there are differences between athletes in team versus individual sports.

More information

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency outlines the side effects of performance-enhancing drugs.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1SdCv2S

How to Sculpt a Waist and Booty Like Sofia Vergara’s

Photo: Getty Images

For some, Sofia Vergara left her fashion mark on the Academy Awards red carpet in that gorgeous navy Marchesa dress. For others, it was all about that white, body-hugging Mark Zunino number she donned at Vanity Fair’s post-Oscars bash. Either way, one thing is clear: Vergara sure does know how to play up her, ahem, assets.

Longing for the Modern Family star’s killer curvy frame? We’ve got moves from two of her trainers for you to try. Ready, set, sweat!

For your waist

Trainer: Anna Kaiser

Go-to move: The Waist Cincher, because “a small waist helps accentuates those gorgeous curves,” says Kaiser.

How to do it: Stand with feet a little wider than hip-width and hands at sides. Bend knees slightly and then reach right hand over as far as possible to the left as you rest your left forearm on left thigh. Reverse motion; as you return to start, bend left knee, lifting left foot behind right leg so that your right hand and left sole touch. Simultaneously, reach left hand over to right as far as possible. This is one rep. Continue alternating sides. Do 10 total reps.

RELATED: The Hilarious Way Sofia Vergara Stays Motivated to Work Out

For your booty

Trainer: Gunnar Peterson

Go-to move: High Knee Step-Ups, because they challenge your balance, forcing each butt muscle to work individually, says Peterson.

How to do it: Stand facing a bench and step your left foot up onto it. Press into your left foot to come to standing one-legged on the bench while quickly raising right knee to chest level. Swiftly lower right leg back down. Perform 10-20 reps, then switch legs and repeat. Do 2-5 sets two to three times a week for a stronger, firmer booty in two to three weeks.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1SdCv2N

Lack of Sleep May Give You the ‘Munchies’

MONDAY, Feb. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Lack of sleep may give you the “munchies,” a small study suggests.

Sleep deprivation appears to boost levels of a chemical that makes eating more pleasurable — similar to the effects of marijuana, University of Chicago researchers said.

“We found that sleep restriction boosts a signal that may increase the hedonic aspect of food intake, the pleasure and satisfaction gained from eating,” Erin Hanlon, a research associate in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism, said in a university news release.

Previous research has linked too little sleep with overeating, unhealthy food choices and weight gain, but the reasons for the connection were unclear, the researchers explained.

This study found that sleep loss increases blood levels of a chemical signal called endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG). It enhances the joy of eating, particularly sweet, salty and fatty snack foods, according to background notes with the study.

For the study, 14 young and healthy volunteers were monitored. The researchers tracked their hunger and eating habits in two time periods: four days when the participants received about 7.5 hours of sleep nightly, and four days when they averaged only 4.2 hours of sleep.

When sleep-deprived, the volunteers’ 2-AG blood levels rose and remained high through the evening. When they had access to snacks, they couldn’t resist cookies, candy and chips, even though just two hours earlier they had had a meal that provided 90 percent of their daily caloric needs. They also consumed twice as much fat as when they had gotten a good night’s sleep, the researchers said.

Their appetites for unhealthy treats were strongest in the late afternoon and early evening, times of the day when snacking has been linked to weight gain, according to the study published Feb. 29 in the journal Sleep.

“Sleep restriction seems to augment the endocannabinoid system, the same system targeted by the active ingredient of marijuana, to enhance the desire for food intake,” Hanlon said.

The findings support previous research and apply to “normal life conditions,” she added.

For example, “if you have a [candy] bar, and you’ve had enough sleep, you can control your natural response,” Hanlon explained. “But if you’re sleep-deprived, your hedonic drive for certain foods gets stronger, and your ability to resist them may be impaired. So you are more likely to eat it. Do that again and again, and you pack on the pounds.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about sleep.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1TirQ8o

Daylight Saving Time Tied to Brief Spike in Stroke Risk

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Feb. 29, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Changing the clocks for daylight saving time may cause a short-lived spike in some people’s risk of suffering a stroke, a preliminary study hints.

Looking at a decade’s worth of stroke data, Finnish researchers found that the national incidence of stroke tended to rise slightly over the two days following daylight saving time transitions — whether the clocks were turned forward or back.

The findings do not prove that daylight saving time is to blame.

On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine other factors that would explain such a specific pattern, said researcher Dr. Jori Ruuskanen, a neurologist at Turku University Hospital.

Plus, he said, there is a known link between disruptions in the body’s circadian rhythms and stroke risk. Circadian rhythms refer to the shifts in the body’s biological processes that happen over 24 hours — largely in response to light and darkness.

Those rhythms can be thrown off in different ways, Ruuskanen said. Shift work and insomnia are two examples, he noted, and both have been tied to increased risks of health conditions, including stroke.

Ruuskanen is scheduled to present the findings in April at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada. Research presented at meetings is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Dr. Andrew Lim is a neurologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, in Toronto, who studies sleep and circadian rhythms. He agreed that daylight saving time could plausibly affect stroke risk.

“Sleep is associated with many physiological changes that are normally thought of as being relatively protective against stroke, like lower blood pressure,” explained Lim, who was not involved in the new study.

When sleep is disrupted, he said, there may also be shifts in those protective biological processes.

For the study, Ruuskanen’s team looked at Finnish stroke figures for the years 2004 to 2013. The investigators then compared just over 3,000 people who’d been hospitalized for an ischemic stroke during the week after a daylight saving transition with nearly 12,000 people who’d suffered a stroke in the two weeks before or after a transition week.

Ischemic strokes are caused by a blood clot in an artery supplying the brain, and they account for 87 percent of all strokes, according to the American Stroke Association.

Overall, the researchers found, stroke incidence was 8 percent higher during the first two days after a daylight saving transition.

Adults older than 65 and people with cancer seemed particularly vulnerable: They were 20 percent to 25 percent more likely to have a stroke right after a daylight saving transition, versus the other time periods studied.

Ruuskanen emphasized that the study found a small increase in strokes at the population level — which means that for any one person, daylight saving time transitions would not have a big impact on stroke risk.

And it’s not that a clock change would trigger a stroke in someone who would otherwise have remained healthy. “This probably means that any ‘extra’ strokes occurring after the daylight saving change would otherwise have occurred some time later,” Ruuskanen said.

Lim agreed that the risk has to be kept in perspective. “In the big scheme of things, the increase in risk is small and transient,” he said, “and the effect of other factors, such as managing blood pressure, is more important.”

That said, Lim added, some planning may help people minimize any sleep disruptions. “It may be generally helpful to adjust gradually to daylight saving time rather than all at once,” he said.

March 13 is the day when clocks spring forward an hour this year. So, people could try going to bed and waking up 15 minutes earlier than normal on the Thursday before, Lim said. On that Friday, bump that up to 30 minutes, and then aim for 45 minutes on that Saturday, he added.

According to Ruuskanen, there is one way to prove whether daylight saving time truly contributes to strokes: “If we, in our country, abandoned daylight saving time and, in a follow-up of several years, saw that the small increase in stroke incidence disappears, it would make a strong argument that it actually is the clock change that raises stroke risk,” he said.

More information

The American Stroke Association has more on stroke risk factors.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1TirQp1