Asthma Worsens at Night, but Why? Influence of the Circadian System Pointed Out as Reason And Not Sleep!

For hundreds of years, people have observed that asthma severity often worsens in the nighttime. Researchers have pinned down the influence of the circadian system as the reason and not sleep and physical activities as traditionally thought.

As many as 75% of people with asthma report experiencing worsening asthma severity at night. Many behavioural and environmental factors, including  exercise, air temperature, posture and sleep environment, are known to influence asthma severity.

In the study, the team from Brigham and Women’s hospital and Oregon Health Science University wanted to understand the contributions of the internal circadian system to this problem.

The circadian system, is composed of a central pacemaker in the brain ( the suprachiasmatic nucleus) and “ clocks” throughout the body and is critical for the coordination of bodily functions and to anticipate the daily cycling environmental and behavioural demands.

This is one of the first studies to carefully isolate the influence of the circadian system, from the other factors that are behavioural and environmental, including sleep”, said Frank AJL Sheer, director of the Medical Chronobiology Programme in the Division of Sleep and Circadian disorders at the Birgham.

We observed that those people who have the worst asthma in general are the ones who suffer from the greatest circadian-induced drops in pulmonary function at night, and also had the greatest changes induced behaviours, including sleep,” added Steven A Shea, Prof. and director at Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences.

The findings are published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To understand the influence of the circadian system, the team enrolled 17 participants with asthma ( who were not taking steroid medication, but who did use bronchodilator inhalers whenever they felt asthma symptoms were worsening) into 2 complementary laboratory protocols where lung function, asthma symptoms and bronchodilator use were continuously assessed.

In the “ forced desynchrony” protocol, participants were placed on a recurring 28 hour sleep/wake cycle for a week under dim light conditions with all behaviours scheduled evenly across the cycle.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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Vegetarians and vegans are more likely to be depressed than meat eaters, claims study

A recent study conducted by the University of Alabama found that one out of three vegetarians have suffered from anxiety or depression in their lifetime.

According to the study, people on a plant based diet were twice are more likely to take prescribed drugs for mental illness and three times more likely to consider suicide as compared to meat eaters.

The study
The study was a collation of 18 other studies involving 160,257 people that scrutinized the link between eating meat and mental health. The study – entitled ‘Meat and Mental Health: A systematic review of meat abstention and depression, anxiety and related phenomena’, evaluated that people who did not eat meat were at significant higher rates of depression, anxiety and self-harm.
In fact it was suggested that turning to vegetarianism or veganism could itself be a 'behavioral marker', meaning that these individuals were already experiencing poor mental health.

However, this theory is not confirmed and needs more research. One of the authors of the study said: ‘While the risks and benefits of vegan and vegetarian diets have been debated for centuries, our results show that meat eaters have better psychological health.’

People need to consider their mental health while evaluating the benefits and risks of particular dietary patterns, said the author.

Why does that happen?
Without meat, a vegetarian's diet tends to have less vitamin B12 and greater intake of omega 6 fatty acids (found n nuts), which has been linked with inflammation and increased risk of mental health problems.

50 per cent vegans and 7 per cent vegetarians have low levels of vitamin B12, which is found in red meat and plays a major role in affecting one's mood.


Vegetarians and vegans also consume more plant estrogens, particularly if they eat a lot of soy products. The two categories also consume higher levels of pesticides, because their intake of plant based food is higher than average.

Verdict
To avoid increased risk of depression, anxiety and self-harm behavior, one should eat meat. If someone is a vegan or a vegetarian due to ethical reasons, they should invest extra in strategies to protect their mental health. 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.     

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https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
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