Autumn 2019
HEALTH & HAPPINESS 4 YOU
Walking after a meal controls blood sugar
Read books to reduce stress How to do Chair Yoga
Is sugar the new tobacco?
Ginger may help in muscle pain
Why do we get dreams and nightmares?
tobacco?
HEALTH & HAPPINESS 4 YOU: SERVING THE COMMUNITY FOR THE LAST EIGHT YEARS
Breathing exercise to reduce stress In the daily race for life we often ignore the importance of breathing. When we are in a rush, or worried or even working on your computer, we inadvertently slump into a tendency of shallow breathing. The NHS recommends the following calming breathing technique for stress, anxiety and panic takes just a few minutes and can be done anywhere. You will get the most benefit if you do it regularly, at least for 3 to 5 minutes, as part of your daily routine. You can do it standing up, sitting in a chair that supports your back, or lying on a bed or yoga mat on the floor. Make yourself as comfortable as you can. If you can, loosen any clothes that restrict your breathing. - Let your breath flow as deep down into your belly as is comfortable, without forcing it. - Try breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth. - Breathe in gently and regularly. Some people find it helpful to count steadily from 1 to 5. You may not be able to reach 5 at first. - Then, without pausing or holding your breath, let it flow out gently, counting from 1 to 5 again, if you find this helpful.
Vijay Rana Editor, Health & Happiness 4 You
CONTENTS Autumn 2019, Issue 33 5 - Is Sugar the New Tobacco? 6 - Want to reduce stress? Read books 7 - Children told lies by parents lie more as adults 8 - High blood pressure cure may slow cognitive decline 9 - How Can HALT help you lose weight 10 - Walk after a meal to control blood sugar level 12 - Chair yoga helps to reduce pain in osteoarthritis 13 - Group exercise improves quality of life 14 - Why do we have dreams and nightmares? 15 - Daily use of ginger eases muscle pain by 25 percent 17 - Lifestyle, not genetics, leads to most premature heart disease 18 – Community News
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“Is Sugar the New Tobacco?”
BMJ study explores tobacco industry’s role in marketing children’s sugary drinks Tobacco industry giants built some of the leading sugary drink brands that have been marketed to children over the past 50 years, reveals a major study published in The BMJ. The study, which analyses archives of industry correspondence recently opened to the public as part of a landmark US court settlement, focuses on how the two largest US-based tobacco industry conglomerates, Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds, began acquiring soft drink brands in the 1960s, and used know-how gained from tobacco to develop some of the leading sugary drink brands marketed to kids, including Hawaiian Punch, Kool-Aid, Capri Sun and Tang. “Tobacco executives transferred their knowledge of marketing to young people and expanded product lines using colours, flavours, and marketing strategies originally designed to market cigarettes,” notes the BMJ study, co-authored by four researchers from the University of California, San Francisco Institute of Health Policy Studies, Department of Medicine, and elsewhere.
The tobacco firms eventually sold these brands to globalised food and drink corporations. The corporations pledged in 2006 to promote “responsible children’s advertising,” through the US industry’s Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), including commitments “to shift the mix of advertising primarily directed to children (‘child-directed advertising’) to encourage healthier dietary choices.” However, despite the CFBAI pledge, most of the corporations that acquired the popular children’s brands “were continuing in 2018 to implement some of the tobacco companies’ integrated marketing campaigns to reach very young children,” the BMJ study says. Sugar sweetened beverages are a risk factor for obesity as well as diabetes and other diseases. Young children are particularly susceptible to the persuasive influence of adverts for sugary drinks, notes the BMJ study, and the World Health Organization has urged governments to tighten food and drink marketing restrictions to protect children. 5 HEALTH & HAPPINESS 4 YOU
Want to reduce stress? Read books "Over the past year or two, I've noticed something about my mood and ability to focus: when I scroll through social media, like Instagram, I find things that catch my interest. Some are funny, some are meaningful, some give me pause,” says writer and activist Melanie Curtin. “Yet once I log off, I feel restless. A little empty inside. Even if what I've looked at was nourishing, I don't feel nourished. Actually, I feel some anxiety, she wrote in an article published in inc.com. There's plenty of scientific evidence to back up this feeling. Social media and bite-sized content tend to keep your brain in more of an activated, alpha state. The constant switching of attention (even just from one post to the next) forces you to scatter your attention, which keeps you in an elevated brain state, which is where anxiety lives. By contrast, I've noticed that when I choose to read my book, I feel different. After a few minutes, my shoulders start to relax. I'm breathe a little more deeply. I feel more settled into my body, settled into the space. And when I complete a reading session, I feel ... better. I don't feel drained; I feel nourished. I didn't have to manage my texts and DMs and emails and GroupMe notifications all at the same time. New research now quantifies that feeling of relaxation and nourishment. In fact, a study conducted at the University of Sussex now shows that a mere six minutes of reading can reduce a person's stress level by 68 percent. Imagine cutting your stress or anxiety in half in just six minutes. What's even more striking is that this one activity (reading) beat out several others you might think would have won: • • •
Listening to music reduces stress and anxiety by 61 percent. Drinking tea/coffee results in the reduction of stress and anxiety by 54 percent. Taking a walk leads to a 42 percent reduction in stress/anxiety.
In other words, if you want to truly relax body and mind, reading a book works better and faster than almost anything else. Or in the words of head researcher and
neuroscientist Dr. Lewis, "Losing yourself in a book is the ultimate relaxation." The study had participants engage in a range of tests and exercises to evaluate their stress levels and heart rate. Participants were then asked to do a variety of relaxation activities, and re-evaluated. Subjects had only to read for six minutes before their heart rates began to slow, and their muscle tension eased. In fact, reading consistently had participants relax to levels beyond those they came in with. "This is particularly poignant in uncertain economic times when we are all craving a certain amount of escapism," said Dr. Lewis. "It really doesn't matter what book you read, by losing yourself in a thoroughly engrossing book you can escape from the worries and stresses of the everyday world and spend a while exploring the domain of the author's imagination." Curling up with a good book has long been known as a relaxing activity, but you may not have realized the extent to which it is relaxing. Why does it work so well? Some psychologists believe it's because your mind has to concentrate on what you're reading, which leaves the body free to relax. You simply focusing on relaxing often doesn't work; you need another point of focus to truly let go. Interesting characters and a good story gives you just that. You may have tried acupuncture, NLP, meditation, deep breathing exercises, walking, and more to reduce stress and lower anxiety. Turns out the most effective tool for relaxation might've been sitting on your bookshelf the whole time. 6 HEALTH & HAPPINESS 4 YOU
Children told lies by parents lie more as adults “If you don’t behave, I’ll call the police,” is a lie that parents might use to get their young children to behave. Parents’ lies elicit compliance in the short term, but a new psychology study led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) suggests that they are associated with detrimental effects when the child becomes an adult. The research team asked 379 Singaporean young adults whether their parents lied to them when they were children, how much they lie to their parents now, and how well they adjust to adulthood challenges. Adults who reported being lied to more as children, were more likely to report lying to their parents in their adulthood. They also said they faced greater difficulty in meeting psychological and social challenges. Adjustment difficulties include disruptiveness, conduct problems, experience of guilt and shame, as well as selfish and manipulative character. The research was published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology in September. Lead author Assistant Professor Setoh Peipei from NTU Singapore’s School of Social Sciences said, “Parenting by lying can seem to save time. But our research suggests that parenting by lying is a practice that has negative consequences for children when they grow up. Parents should be aware of these potential downstream implications and consider alternatives to lying, such as acknowledging children’s feelings, giving information so children know what to expect, offering choices and problem-solving together, to elicit good behaviour from children.” The analysis found that parenting by lying could place children at a greater risk of developing
problems that the society frowns upon, such as aggression, rule-breaking and intrusive behaviours. Another area yet to be investigated would be the nature of the lies or goals of the parent. Asst Prof Setoh said, “It is possible that a lie to assert the parents’ power, such as saying ‘If you don’t behave, we will throw you into the ocean to feed the fish’, may be more related to children’s adjustment difficulties as adults, compared to lies that target children’s compliance, e.g. ‘there is no more candy in the house’. “Authority assertion over children is a form of psychological intrusiveness, which may undermine children’s sense of autonomy and convey rejection, ultimately undermining children’s emotional well-being. Future research should examine the nature of the lies and goals of the parents so that researchers can suggest what kind of lies to avoid, and what kind of truth-telling parents should engage in.”
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High blood pressure treatment may slow cognitive decline
High blood pressure appears to accelerate cognitive decline among middle-aged and older adults and treating high blood pressure may slow down the process, according to a preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association's Hypertension 2019 Scientific Sessions. The findings are important because high blood pressure and cognitive decline are two of the most common conditions associated with aging, and more people are living longer worldwide. According to the American Heart Association's 2017 Hypertension Guidelines, high blood pressure is a global health threat, affecting approximately 80 million U.S. adults and one billion people globally. Moreover, the relationship between brain health and high blood pressure is a growing interest as researchers examine how elevated blood pressure affects the brain's blood vessels, which in turn, may impact memory, language and thinking skills. In this observational study, researchers from Columbia University analysed data collected on nearly 11,000 adults from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) between 2011-2015, to assess how high blood pressure and its treatment may influence cognitive decline. High blood pressure was defined as having a systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or higher and a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mmHg or higher, and/or taking antihypertensive medications.
Researchers in China interviewed study participants at home about their high blood pressure treatment, education level and noted if they lived in a rural or urban environment. They were also asked to perform cognitive tests, such as immediately recalling words as part of a memory quiz. Participants ages 55 and older who had high blood pressure showed a more rapid rate of cognitive decline compared with participants who were being treated for high blood pressure and those who did not have high blood pressure; and the rate of cognitive decline was similar between those receiving high blood pressure treatment and those who did not have high blood pressure. The study did not evaluate why or how high blood pressure treatments may have contributed to slower cognitive decline or if some treatments were more effective than others. "We think efforts should be made to expand high blood pressure screenings, especially for at-risk populations, because so many people are not aware that they have high blood pressure that should be treated," said presenting study author Shumin Rui, a biostatistician at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University in New York. "This study focused on middle-aged and older adults in China, however, we believe our results could apply to populations elsewhere as well." 8 HEALTH & HAPPINESS 4 YOU
Hungry, angry, lonely and tired? How Can HALT help you lose weight According to nutrition expert, Malia Frey of verywellfit.com, health and nutrition experts have used HALT as a tool for addiction recovery and prevent relapses. But more recently, some weight loss professionals have begun to use HALT for weight loss. If you frequently eat or overeat unhealthy foods, consider taking five minutes before each eating occasion to examine your physical and emotional needs. Frey suggests, ask yourself a few questions to find out if eating will help you to feel better.
Are you hungry? It's normal to get hungry. And it is healthy to satisfy your hunger with nutritious food. It's even normal to indulge in empty calorie foods now and then. But if you find that you get overly hungry and binge eat or choose junk food as a result, then it might be helpful to examine your schedule and your food choices to lose weight. Ask yourself a few questions when you feel the signs of hunger. When is the last time I ate? What did I eat at my last meal or snack? How much did I eat during my last meal or snack? If you find that you are eating every 3-4 hours and still getting hungry, then you might be choosing the wrong foods or not eating enough. Try consuming snacks and meals that provide more fibre to help you to feel full longer. Foods with protein and a small amount of healthy fat can also boost satiety.
Are you angry? Feelings of frustration and madness often lead us the refrigerator or to the vending machine. Eating provides comfort and a brief respite from feelings of helplessness or irritation. If your anger comes from a sense of entitlement or a feeling of being shortchanged, eating can help you to feel as if you are getting your needs met or that you are getting what you deserve. But food won't solve whatever problem you're dealing with. And if you overeat as a result of your anger, you may end up feeling angry with yourself as well. If you use HALT before eating and realize that you are angry, try a quick stress-relief method to calm your emotions. Deep breathing, mindful meditation, and journaling may be able to provide some relief.
worker’s cubicle, or even use social media to reach out to a friend.
Are you tired?
Fatigue is likely to hit when you cut back on calories. If you cut back on your energy (caloric) intake, it is only reasonable that you might feel a bit tired. But there are ways to increase your energy levels without eating more than you need. First, make sure that you remain wellhydrated throughout the day. It is not uncommon to mistake thirst for hunger and grab food when your body needs water. Also, dehydration causes fatigue, so you'll nip it in the bud if you drink enough water during the day. Next, examine your sleep habits. Researchers are Studies have shown that people who are obese are more increasingly finding a link between lack of sleep and poor likely to be isolated and have low emotional trust. If you eating behaviour. Some researchers believe that lack of eat when you are lonely, you may compound the problem. sleep may affect your hunger hormones. Others believe Alternatively, overweight and obese individuals who that exhaustion simply causes us to be less disciplined in have social support are generally more likely to lose our food habits. What we do know, however, is that a weight. Studies have shown that support from family good night's sleep is risk-free and provides other health members, co-workers, and even from children can help benefits. So if you use HALT and find that you are dieters stick to a program of healthy eating and exercise. tired often, it might be worth your while to take steps to If you don't feel signs of hunger, you're not angry or sleep better at night. tired, and you still feel the urge to eat, take a few minutes 9 HEALTH & HAPPINESS 4 YOU to connect with a friend. Make a phone call, visit a co-
Are you lonely?
Walking after a meal helps to control blood sugar level
Before TV and Internet made them immobile, many Indians used to have a light walk after evening meals. “Italians have been walking after meals for centuries,” says Loretta DiPietro, a professor of exercise science at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, “so it must be good.” One small study co-authored by DiPietro found that when older adults at risk for type-2 diabetes walked on a treadmill for 15 minutes after a meal, they had smaller blood sugar spikes in the hours afterwards. In fact, the researchers found that these short post-meal walks were even more effective at lowering blood sugar after dinner than a single 45minute walk taken at mid-morning or late in the afternoon. The human digestive system converts food into the sugar glucose, which is one of the body’s primary energy sources—so after a meal, glucose floods a person’s bloodstream. Hormones like insulin help pull that glucose into cells, either to be used immediately or stored away for later use. But for people with diabetes and impaired insulin activity, too much glucose can remain in the blood, which can cause heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and other health problems. Many of us eat our largest meal of the day in the evening, and we also tend to sit around afterward. As a result, “blood glucose levels will rise very high and will stay elevated for hours,”
“The muscles we use to walk use glucose as energy, drawing it out of circulation and therefore reducing how much is floating around,” says Andrew Reynolds, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Reynolds coauthored a 2016 study of people with type-2 diabetes and found that just 10 minutes of walking after a meal helped control their blood sugar levels. “We saw the biggest differences with walking after dinner time,” compared to other times of the day, Reynolds says. Research has also found that walking helps speed up the time it takes food to move from the stomach into the small intestines. There’s also evidence that links this type of faster digestion with lower rates of heartburn and other reflux symptoms. Walking isn’t the only type of post-meal exercise that provides these benefits. “Whether it is resistance exercise or aerobic exercise, both have a similar impact on lowering blood glucose levels,” says Jill Kanaley, a professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri. One small study by Kanaley and others found that for people with obesity and type-2 diabetes, doing a weight training session with leg presses, calf raises, chest flies and back extensions 45 minutes after dinner lowered their triglycerides and blood sugar. 11 HEALTH & HAPPINESS 4 YOU
Photo: Shivananda Yoga
Chair yoga helps to reduce pain in osteoarthritis For the millions of older adults who suffer from osteoarthritis in their lower extremities (hip, knee, ankle or foot), chair yoga is proving to be an effective way to reduce pain and improve quality of life while avoiding pharmacologic treatment or adverse events. A new study, conducted by researchers at Florida Atlantic University and published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, is the first randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of chair yoga on pain and physical function in older adults with osteoarthritis. For the study, researchers randomly assigned 131 older adults with osteoarthritis to either the "Sit 'N' Fit Chair YogaŠ" program developed by Kristine Lee or a health education program. Participants attended 45-minute sessions twice a week for 8 weeks. Researchers measured pain, pain interference (how it affects one's life), balance, gait speed, fatigue and functional ability, before, during and after the sessions. Results from the study found that participants in the chair yoga group, compared to those in the health
education program, showed a greater reduction in pain and pain interference during their sessions, and that reduction in pain interference lasted for about three months after the 8-week chair yoga program was completed. The 8-week chair yoga program also was associated with reductions in fatigue and improvement in gait speed during the study session, but not post session. Regular exercise has proven to help relieve osteoarthritis pain, however, the ability to participate in exercise declines with age, and many dropout before they can even receive benefits. Although the Arthritis Foundation recommends yoga to reduce joint pain, improve flexibility and balance, and reduce stress and tension, many older adults cannot participate in standing exercises because of lack of muscle strength, pain and balance as well as the fear of falling due to impaired balance. Chair yoga is practiced sitting in a chair or standing while holding the chair for support, and is well suited to older adults who cannot participate in standing yoga or exercise.
What happens to those who watch TV more than four hours a day Researchers interviewed 3,592 African American adults about their daily activities and followed them for roughly eight years. About one-third watched fewer than two hours of TV a day. Another third watched two to four hours daily, while the remaining third watched more than four hours. People in the latter group had a 49% higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and death than those in the first group.
Group exercise improves quality of life and reduces stress
Researchers found working out in a group lowers stress by 26 percent and significantly improves quality of life, while those who exercise individually put in more effort but experienced no significant changes in their stress level and a limited improvement to quality of life, according to a study published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. "The communal benefits of coming together with friends and colleagues, and doing something difficult, while encouraging one another, pays dividends beyond exercising alone," said Dayna Yorks, DO, lead researcher on this study. Dr. Yorks and her fellow researchers at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine recruited 69 medical students -- a group known for high levels of stress and self-reported low quality of life -- and allowed them to self-select into a twelve-week exercise program, either within a group setting or as individuals. A control group abstained from exercise other than walking or biking as a means of transportation. Every four weeks, participants completed a survey asking them to rate their levels of perceived stress and quality of life in three categories: mental, physical and
emotional. Those participating in group exercise spent 30 minutes at least once a week in CXWORX, a core strengthening and functional fitness training program. At the end of the twelve weeks, their mean monthly survey scores showed significant improvements in all three quality of life measures: mental (12.6 percent), physical (24.8 percent) and emotional (26 percent). They also reported a 26.2 percent reduction in perceived stress levels. By comparison, individual fitness participants were allowed to maintain any exercise regimen they preferred, which could include activities like running and weight lifting, but they had to work out alone or with no more than two partners. On average the solitary exercisers worked out twice as long, and saw no significant changes in any measure, except in mental quality of life (11 percent increase). Similarly, the control group saw no significant changes in quality of life or perceived stress. "Medical schools understand their programs are demanding and stressful. Given this data on the positive impact group fitness can have, schools should consider offering group fitness opportunities," said Dr. Yorks.
YOUR COMMUNITY NEWS: If you are organising a health and happiness activity or working with a community group and charity or engaged in any social, arts or cultural activity we would like to cover your event. We now have a dedicated page for community engagement. Please see page 18.
Why do we have dreams and nightmares? Dreams are the stories the brain tells during sleep— collections of clips, images, feelings, and memories that involuntarily occur during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of slumber. Humans typically have multiple dreams per night that grow longer as sleep draws to a close. It’s hypothesized that everyone dreams, but a small subsection of the population reports that they never remember experiencing dreams. Dreams typically involve elements from waking lives— known people or familiar locations—but often take on a fantastical feel. Dreams are frequently interesting, and can allow people to act out certain scenarios that would never be possible in real life, but they aren’t always positive— negative dreams, referred to as "nightmares," can create feelings of terror, anxiety, or despair, and can lead to psychological distress or sleep problems like insomnia. Why humans dream remains one of behavioural science's great unanswered questions. Researchers have offered many theories—including memory consolidation or emotional regulation—but a verifiable one remains elusive. Nevertheless, people continue mining their nighttime reveries for clues to their inner lives, for creative insight, and even for premonitions.
particularly vivid dream and wonder what message it was trying to tell them.
Why do we get nightmares
In a study researchers, Ross Levin from Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University, New York and Tore Nielsen of Dream and Nightmare Laboratory, Scare-Coeur Hospital, Montreal, say that nightmares are vivid, emotionally dysphoric dreams that do not awaken the dreamer. They are quite common and are associated with a broad range of psychiatric conditions. However, the origin of such dreams remains largely unexplained, and there have been no attempts to reconcile repetitive traumatic nightmares with nontraumatic nightmares, dysphoric dreams. Based on recent research in cognitive neuroscience, sleep physiology, fear conditioning, and emotional-memory regulation, the researchers proposed a multilevel neurocognitive model that united waking and sleeping as a conceptual What dreams mean framework for understanding a wide spectrum of The ancient Egyptians believed that dreams were communications from the gods, or prophecies of what was disturbed dreaming. They were of the view that normal dreaming serves a fear-extinction function and that to come. Dream interpretation as a field of psychological study nightmares reflect failures in emotion regulation. The researchers further suggested that nightmares occur as a took off in 1899, when Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams, laying the foundation for many result of two processes that the called affect load—a of his theories of the unconscious mind. consequence of daily variations in emotional pressures— Today, many experts disagree with Freud’s and affect distress—a disposition to experience events conclusions—and some don’t believe that dreams signify with high levels of negative emotional reactivity. anything at all—but most people still wake up after a 14 HEALTH & HAPPINESS 4 YOU
Daily use of ginger eases muscle pain by 25 percent
For centuries, ginger root has been used as a folk remedy for a variety of ailments such as colds and upset stomachs. But now, researchers at the University of Georgia have found that daily ginger consumption also reduces muscle pain caused by exercise. While ginger had been shown to exert antiinflammatory effects in rodents, its effect on experimentally-induced human muscle pain was largely unexplored, said Patrick O'Connor, a professor in the College of Education's department of kinesiology. It was also believed that heating ginger, as occurs with cooking, might increase its pain-relieving effects. O'Connor directed two studies examining the effects of 11 days of raw and heat-treated ginger supplementation on muscle pain. Collaborators included Chris Black, an assistant professor of kinesiology at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, UGA doctoral student Matt Herring and David Hurley, an associate professor of population health in UGA's College of Veterinary Medicine. Participants in the studies, 34 and 40 volunteers, respectively, consumed capsules containing two grams of
either raw or heat-treated ginger or a placebo for 11 consecutive days. On the eighth day they performed 18 extensions of the elbow flexors with a heavy weight to induce moderate muscle injury to the arm. Arm function, inflammation, pain and a biochemical involved in pain were assessed prior to and for three days after exercise. The studies showed that daily ginger supplementation reduced the exercise-induced pain by 25 percent, and the effect was not enhanced by heat-treating the ginger. "The economic and personal costs of pain are extremely high," said O'Connor. "Muscle pain generally is one of the most common types of pain and eccentric exercise-induced muscle pain specifically is a common type of injury related to sports and/or recreation (e.g., gardening). Anything that can truly relieve this type of pain will be greatly welcomed by the many people who are experiencing it." The study is published in the September 2019 issue of The Journal of Pain. It was funded by the McCormick Science Institute. 15 HEALTH & HAPPINESS 4 YOU
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Lifestyle, not genetics, leads to most premature heart disease When a 70- or 80-year-old suffers coronary heart disease (CAD), it gets little attention — but eyes widen when a 30- or 40-year-old is stricken. In the U.S., the average age for a first heart attack in men is 65. That's why coronary artery disease is labelled a disease of senior citizens. But as many as 4% to 10% of all heart attacks occur before age 45, and most of these strike men. Physical inactivity, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol play a greater role than genetics in many young patients with heart disease, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2019 together with the World Congress of Cardiology. The findings show that healthy behaviours should be a top priority for reducing heart disease even in those with a family history of early onset. According to the study author Dr Joao A. Sousa of Funchal Hospital, Portugal. "In our clinical practice, we often hear young patients with premature heart disease 'seek shelter' and explanations in their genetics/family history," he added. "However, when we look at the data in our study, these young patients were frequently smokers, physically inactive, with high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure -- all of which can be changed." The study enrolled 1,075 patients under 50, of whom 555 had coronary artery disease. Specific conditions included stable angina, heart attack, and unstable angina. The average age was 45 and 87% were men. Risk factor levels and genetics in patients were compared to a control
group of 520 healthy volunteers (average age 44, and 86% men). Five modifiable risk factors were assessed: physical inactivity, smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of patients had at least three of these risk factors compared to 31% of controls. In both groups, the likelihood of developing CAD increased exponentially with each additional risk factor. The probability of CAD was 3, 7, and 24 times higher with 1, 2, and 3 or more risk factors, respectively. All participants underwent genome sequencing. These data were used to develop a genetic risk score containing 33 variants thought to contribute to CAD or risk factors such as high blood pressure. The average score was higher in patients than controls. The score was also an independent predictor for premature CAD. Dr Sousa said: "The findings demonstrate that genetics contribute to CAD. However, in patients with two or more modifiable cardiovascular risk factors, genetics play a less decisive role in the development of CAD." He concluded: "Our study provides strong evidence that people with a family history of premature heart disease should adopt healthy lifestyles, since their poor behaviours may be a greater contributor to heart disease than their genetics. That means quit smoking, exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, and get blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked."
Inspiring Indian Women: Lift, Support and Rise
Besides watching trains timetable or having a hurried unhealthy snack you could do very little on a train station. But a group of Indian women in London has recently changed that. They are determined to transform a stressful station into a cultural hub by staging a variety of Indian dances. Rail travellers at London’s Waterloo station were recently treated to colourful performances of Indian dance by a voluntary group, Inspiring Indian Women. IIW was formed about four years ago. The aim was to reach out and inspire each other with their success stories. The group not only aims to help and promote Indian culture but also provides a healthy platform for Indian women to motivate and support each other. Their motto is: Lift, Support and Rise. They also aim to create opportunities and help to fulfil the talent, dreams and desires of Indian women. “When we raised the idea of staging Indian dance at Kings Cross and Waterloo stations the concerned authorities and the police, they were extremely supportive”, says one of the organisers of the group, Rashmi Mishra.
Story of India’s Sacred City Banaras at the Bhavan
Banaras – Story of India’s Sacred City is a remarkable visual narrative of the past and present of India’s ‘Eternal City’. Thousands of years of history is presented in hurricane speed and the city’s spiritual sights and sounds captured with reverence. The film was screened at the Bhavan London on Sunday, October 6 to a packed auditorium.. London based NRI journalists Vijay Rana started filming the colourful people and places of Banaras almost three years ago. “While filming, the words of famous Banaras photographer Richard Lannoy were ringing in my ears, “it seems that colours here have sound and sounds colour”, and that’s what I wanted to capture,” says Vijay Rana. In the backdrop of a remarkable culture fostered by India's most revered river Ganga, the film traces the origins and evolution of the city, which was also known as Kashi or the city of light and Anand Kanan or the city of bliss. With the permission of temple authorities Vijay Rana was able to film some of the most beautiful moments in the daily life of Lord Vishwanath. Important rituals like morning and evening prayers or Mangala and Shayan artis of Lord Vishwanath have been filmed right inside the temple sanctum sanctorum. Never before people had seen Lord Vishwanath so closely and vividly. “It was like filming the soul of Banaras. Many of those who have seen the film have said to me, it brought tears to their eyes,” says Vijay Rana. This is the story of the world's oldest surviving city that has remained unafraid of the ravages of history and thrived on spirituality, imagination, and creativity.
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