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Source: University of Cambridge

People genetically predisposed to sleep problems have greater risk of heart failure and stroke, say researchers. People who struggle with sleep might be at greater risk of developing cardiovascular problems, research suggests.

Scientists have found that people who are genetically predisposed to insomnia have a greater risk of heart failure, stroke and coronary artery disease.

Researchers say the study backs previous work that has found links between poor sleep and cardiovascular problems, with the latest study supporting the idea that insomnia could play a role in causing such conditions.

“If that really is the case, then if we can improve or reduce sleep disturbances, that might reduce the risk of stroke,” said Prof Hugh Markus, co-author of the research from the University of Cambridge.

The new study relies on previous findings that there are about 250 genetic variants, each of which slightly increases the risk of someone having insomnia.

“Most people don’t have all of them, people will have a number of them, a few or many of them,” said Markus.

The crucial point is the way the genetic variants are inherited. Whether an individual carries them is random: their presence does not depend on the rest of that person’s genetic makeup or environmental factors, such as where they live, their wealth or how much they exercise.

That means it is theoretically possible to look at whether an increased risk of insomnia could play a role in causing stroke, heart failure and coronary artery disease, while reducing the impact of other factors that can muddy the waters. This is a different approach to previous studies which could only show association, not causation.

Writing in the journal Circulation, researchers from the UK and Sweden report how they harnessed this approach by drawing on health and genetic information within a range of large-scale databases.

For each cardiovascular condition, data from hundreds of thousands of individuals was examined – for investigations into heart failure the team used data from almost 400,000 participants in the UK Biobank study alone.

While Markus noted it was not yet clear whether improving insomnia would improve cardiovascular health, he said there were interventions that could help those who struggle to sleep, including cognitive behavioural therapy.

However, the latest study had limitations including that it only looked at genetic predisposition to insomnia, rather than how much sleep individuals actually managed per night, and that the majority of the data was gathered from people with European ancestry.

Michael Holmes, of the University of Oxford, who is an expert in using genetics to unpick disease risk, urged caution, saying it was not clear whether sleep loss arising from the genetic variants increased the risk of cardiovascular disease, or whether the link was down to the genetic variants triggering other effects.

He said: “This study doesn’t allow us to conclude that insomnia causes cardiovascular disease. Rather, all we can say is that individuals carrying genetic variants linked to a higher risk of insomnia also have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.”

Prof Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “People who suffer from insomnia or disturbed sleep are often at increased risk of coronary heart disease – the leading cause of a heart attack. But it’s hard to know whether there’s a direct connection or if this is down to other behaviours that are common among people who struggle to sleep, such as a poor diet or living with high blood pressure.

“This study suggests that people whose genetic makeup predisposes them to insomnia also have a slightly increased risk of coronary heart disease. If this connection is proven in further research, it could pave the way for more precise ways of lowering the risk of heart disease in people who suffer from insomnia.”

Source: Stanford University

Matchmaking is now the primary job of online algorithms, according to new research from Stanford sociologist Michael Rosenfeld. His new study shows that most heterosexual couples today meet online.

Algorithms, and not friends and family, are now the go-to matchmaker for people looking for love, Stanford sociologist Michael Rosenfeld has found.

Online dating has become the most common way for Americans to find romantic partners. (Cover image credit: altmodern / Getty Images)

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Rosenfeld found that heterosexual couples are more likely to meet a romantic partner online than through personal contacts and connections. Since 1940, traditional ways of meeting partners – through family, in church and in the neighborhood – have all been in decline, Rosenfeld said.

Rosenfeld, a lead author on the research and a professor of sociology in the School of Humanities and Sciences, drew on a nationally representative 2017 survey of American adults and found that about 39 percent of heterosexual couples reported meeting their partner online, compared to 22 percent in 2009. Sonia Hausen, a graduate student in sociology, was a co-author of the paper and contributed to the research.

Rosenfeld has studied mating and dating as well as the internet’s effect on society for two decades.

Stanford News Service interviewed Rosenfeld about his research.

What’s the main takeaway from your research on online dating?

Meeting a significant other online has replaced meeting through friends. People trust the new dating technology more and more, and the stigma of meeting online seems to have worn off.

In 2009, when I last researched how people find their significant others, most people were still using a friend as an intermediary to meet their partners. Back then, if people used online websites, they still turned to friends for help setting up their profile page. Friends also helped screen potential romantic interests.

What were you surprised to find?

I was surprised at how much online dating has displaced the help of friends in meeting a romantic partner. Our previous thinking was that the role of friends in dating would never be displaced. But it seems like online dating is displacing it. That’s an important development in people’s relationship with technology.

What do you believe led to the shift in how people meet their significant other?

There are two core technological innovations that have each elevated online dating. The first innovation was the birth of the graphical World Wide Web around 1995. There had been a trickle of online dating in the old text-based bulletin board systems prior to 1995, but the graphical web put pictures and search at the forefront of the internet. Pictures and search appear to have added a lot to the internet dating experience. The second core innovation is the spectacular rise of the smart phone in the 2010s. The rise of the smart phone took internet dating off the desktop and put it in everyone’s pocket, all the time.

Also, the online dating systems have much larger pools of potential partners compared to the number of people your mother knows, or the number of people your best friend knows. Dating websites have enormous advantages of scale. Even if most of the people in the pool are not to your taste, a larger choice set makes it more likely you can find someone who suits you.

Does your finding indicate that people are increasingly less social?

No. If we spend more time online, it does not mean we are less social.

When it comes to single people looking for romantic partners, the online dating technology is only a good thing, in my view. It seems to me that it’s a basic human need to find someone else to partner with and if technology is helping that, then it’s doing something useful.

The decline of meeting partners through family isn’t a sign that people don’t need their family anymore. It’s just a sign that romantic partnership is taking place later in life.

In addition, in our study we found that the success of a relationship did not depend on whether the people met online or not. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how you met your significant other, the relationship takes a life of its own after the initial meeting.

What does your research reveal about the online world?

I think that internet dating is a modest positive addition to our world. It is generating interaction between people that we otherwise wouldn’t have.

People who have in the past had trouble finding a potential partner benefit the most from the broader choice set provided by the dating apps.

Internet dating has the potential to serve people who were ill-served by family, friends and work. One group of people who was ill-served was the LGBTQ+ community. So the rate of gay couples meeting online is much higher than for heterosexual couples.

You’ve studied dating for over two decades. Why did you decide to research online dating?

The landscape of dating is just one aspect of our lives that is being affected by technology. And I always had a natural interest in how new technology was overturning the way we build our relationships.

I was curious how couples meet and how has it changed over time. But no one has looked too deeply into that question, so I decided to research it myself.

Source: Harvard University

That said, certain foods in this overall scheme are particularly rich in healthful components like omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, and antioxidants, which are known to support brain health and often referred to as foods. Incorporating many of these foods into a healthy diet on a regular basis can improve the health of your brain, which could translate into better mental function.

Research shows that the best brain foods are the same ones that protect your heart and blood vessels, including the following:

• Green, leafy vegetables.Leafy greens such as kale, spinach, collards, and broccoli are rich in brain-healthy nutrients like vitamin K, lutein, folate, and beta carotene. Research suggests these plant-based foods may help slow cognitive decline.

• Fatty fish.Fatty fish are abundant sources of omega-3 fatty acids, healthy unsaturated fats that have been linked to lower blood levels of beta-amyloid—the protein that forms damaging clumps in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Try to eat fish at least twice a week, but choose varieties that are low in mercury, such as salmon, cod, canned light tuna, and pollack. If you're not a fan of fish, ask your doctor about taking an omega-3 supplement, or choose terrestrial omega-3 sources such as flaxseeds, avocados, and walnuts.

• Berries.Flavonoids, the natural plant pigments that give berries their brilliant hues, also help improve memory, research shows. In a 2012 study published in Annals of Neurology, researchers at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital found that women who consumed two or more servings of strawberries and blueberries each week delayed memory decline by up to two-and-a-half years.

• Tea and coffee. The caffeine in your morning cup of coffee or tea might offer more than just a short-term concentration boost. In a 2014 study published in The Journal of Nutrition, participants with higher caffeine consumption scored better on tests of mental function. Caffeine might also help solidify new memories, according to other research. Investigators at Johns Hopkins University asked participants to study a series of images and then take either a placebo or a 200-milligram caffeine tablet. More members of the caffeine group were able to correctly identify the images on the following day.

• Walnuts.Nuts are excellent sources of protein and healthy fats, and one type of nut in particular might also improve memory. A 2015 study from UCLA linked higher walnut consumption to improved cognitive test scores. Walnuts are high in a type of omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which helps lower blood pressure and protects arteries. That's good for both the heart and brain.

Source: University of Oxford

A global study of 12 million people has found diabetes increases the risk of heart failure and this increase is greater for women than men. Researchers from The George Institute for Global Health determined that this differential was greater in type 1 than type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is associated with a 47% excess risk of heart failure in women compared to men, whilst type 2 diabetes has a 9% higher excess risk of heart failure for women than men.

The findings published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]) highlights the need for further sex-specific research into diabetes and how the condition can potentially contribute to heart complications.

According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), currently 415 million adults world-wide live with diabetes – with approximately 199 million of them being women. The IDF expects by the year 2040 around 313 million women will be suffering from the disease. Diabetes is the ninth leading cause of death in women and claims 2.1 million female lives every year, more so than men. The number one leading cause of death for women is heart disease.

'It is already known that diabetes puts you at greater risk of developing heart failure but what our study shows for the first time is that women are at far greater risk – for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes,' said lead author and research fellow Dr Toshiaki Ohkuma from The George Institute.

'The increased risk of heart failure following a diabetes diagnosis is significantly greater in women than men which highlights the importance of intensive prevention and treatment of diabetes in women. Further research is required to understand the mechanisms underpinning the excess risk of heart failure conferred by diabetes [particularly type 1] in women and to reduce the burden associated with diabetes in both sexes.'

Key findings:
• Women with type 1 diabetes were associated with a more than 5-fold increased risk of heart failure compared with those without diabetes. For men, the risk was 3.5-fold higher.
• Corresponding increases in risks for heart failure associated with type 2 diabetes were 95% in women and 74% in men.
• Researchers also found that both type 1 and type 2 diabetes were stronger risk factors for heart failure in women than men.
• Type 1 diabetes was associated with a 47% greater excess risk of heart failure in women compared with men.
• Type 2 diabetes was associated with a 9% greater excess risk of heart failure in women than men.
*Data compiled from 10 countries: Australia, US, UK, Italy, Sweden, Canada, Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea.

According to Diabetes Australia, the prevalence of diabetes is now so widespread that it has become the major health crisis of the 21st Century. It is the largest challenge facing the Australian health system with around 1.7 million sufferers nationwide. More than 119,000 Australians are living with type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition, whereas 1.3 million Australians are living with type 2 diabetes, the effects of which can be exacerbated by lifestyle factors such as poor diet and lack of exercise. It’s estimated that the number of people suffering from diabetes globally will increase to 642 million by 2040.

Study co-author Dr Sanne Peters, of The George Institute for Global Health at the University of Oxford, said there are a number of reasons why women with diabetes are at greater risk of heart complications. 'Women were reported to have two years’ longer duration of prediabetes than men and this increased duration may be associated with greater excess risk of heart failure in women' said Dr Peters.

'Some major concerns are that women are also being undertreated for diabetes, are not taking the same levels of medications as men and are less likely to receive intensive care.'

The IDF reports that girls and women with diabetes experience a range of challenges. Gender roles, power imbalances, socioeconomic inequalities resulting in poor diet and lack of physical activity can all influence vulnerability to diabetes.

Women’s limited access to health services and lack of pro-activity when it comes to seeking treatment for health problems can also amplify the impact of diabetes, particularly in developing countries.

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease, blindness, kidney failure and lower-limb amputation. In pregnancy, poorly controlled diabetes increases the risk of maternal and foetal complications. Women with type 2 diabetes also have a significantly increased risk of depression in comparison to men.

The George Institute has been leading gender specific research and has already shown women with diabetes have a significantly greater excess risk of stroke and coronary heart disease as well as the non-cardiovascular complications of dementia and cancer than men. It is currently investigating gender differences in stroke as well as other chronic diseases.

The full paper, Diabetes as a risk factor for heart failure in women and men: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 47 cohorts including 12 million individuals can be read in Diabetologia.