Sleep duration affects risk for ulcerative colitis
2014-10-21
(Press-News.org) Bethesda, MD (Oct. 21, 2014) — If you are not getting the recommended seven-to-eight hours of sleep each night, you may be at increased risk of developing ulcerative colitis, according to a new study1 in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association.
"Both short and long durations of sleep have important health implications and are associated with increased overall mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer," said lead study author Ashwin N. Ananthakrishnan, MD, MPH, Massachusetts General Hospital. "Our findings indicate that ulcerative colitis may potentially be added to this list. We found that less than six hours of sleep per day and more than nine hours of sleep per day are each associated with an increased risk of ulcerative colitis."
Researchers conducted a prospective study of women who were enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) I since 1976 and NHS II since 1989 and followed through detailed biennial questionnaires with greater than 90 percent follow-up. The large size of the cohorts, prospective design and prolonged duration of follow-up provide a unique opportunity to examine the association between sleep duration and incident disease with sufficient power to adjust for potential confounders.
The results demonstrated that there is a "U-shaped" relationship between sleep duration and risk of ulcerative colitis, with both short and long duration of sleep being associated with an increased risk of disease. These observed associations were independent of other known environmental risk factors.
In a previous study2, also published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology last year, Ananthakrishnan and colleagues had reported that poor sleep quality, even while in remission, resulted in a two fold increase in risk of Crohn's disease flares at six months. "All these data together support a growing recognition of the impact of sleep disruption on the immune system, and the need for providers to frequently inquire about sleep duration and quality as an important parameter of health in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases," said Dr. Ananthakrishnan.
The authors acknowledge several study limitations. First, the study population consisted predominantly of white female nurses and is thus not representative of the gender and ethnic distribution in the general population. Sleep duration was also self-reported. However, the size of the study and quality of data substantiate these findings.
Future studies are warranted to better understand mechanisms by which sleep may influence intestinal inflammation.
INFORMATION:
To learn more about ulcerative colitis, review the AGA patient brochure on inflammatory bowel disease.
1 Ananthakrishnan, A. N., Sleep Duration Affects Risk for Ulcerative Colitis: A Prospective Cohort Study. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2014: 12(11): 1879-1886
2 Ananthakrishnan, A. N., Sleep Disturbance and Risk of Active Disease In Patients With Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2013: 11(8): 965-971
About the AGA Institute
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, the AGA has grown to include more than 16,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. http://www.gastro.org.
About Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology
The mission of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology is to provide readers with a broad spectrum of themes in clinical gastroenterology and hepatology. This monthly peer-reviewed journal includes original articles as well as scholarly reviews, with the goal that all articles published will be immediately relevant to the practice of gastroenterology and hepatology. For more information, visit http://www.cghjournal.org.
Like AGA and Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology on Facebook.
Join AGA on LinkedIn.
Follow us on Twitter @AmerGastroAssn.
Check out our videos on YouTube.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2014-10-21
A team of UC San Francisco researchers has found that a tiny segment of genetic material known as a microRNA plays a central role in the transition from moderate drinking to binge drinking and other alcohol use disorders.
Previous research in the UCSF laboratory of Dorit Ron, PhD, Endowed Chair of Cell Biology of Addiction in Neurology, has demonstrated that the level of a protein known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, is increased in the brain when alcohol consumed in moderation. In turn, experiments in Ron's lab have shown, BDNF prevents the development ...
2014-10-21
(Vienna, October 21, 2014) Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may at last be able to hope for a brighter future as innovative new treatments emerge and researchers clarify the role of current therapies. Dr Alexander C. Ford from the Leeds Gastroenterology Institute in Leeds, UK, tells journalists attending the 22nd United European Gastroenterology Week (UEG Week 2014) in Vienna, Austria, that significant progress was being made in drug development for IBS, thanks to the intense research efforts of scientists around the world. "Researchers have dedicated many years ...
2014-10-21
A new study shows that survival and neurological outcomes for patients in cardiac arrest can be improved by adding extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) when performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The study abstract was released today in an online supplement of the journal CHEST and will be presented at CHEST 2014, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Austin, Texas held October 25-30.
Despite advances in medical care, less than 20% of people who experience a cardiac arrest make a full recovery. An alternate approach to traditional ...
2014-10-21
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Scientists think of CD8 T cells as long-lived cells that become tuned to fight just one pathogen, but a new study finds that once CD8 T cells fight one pathogen, they also join the body's "innate" immune system, ready to answer the calls of the cytokine signals that are set off by a wide variety of infections.
Think of CD8 T cells as soldiers who are drafted and trained for a specific mission, but who stay in service, fighting a variety of enemies throughout a long career.
CD8 T cells therefore have more utility than researchers ...
2014-10-21
Eliminating subsidies that help low- and moderate-income people purchase coverage through government-run health insurance marketplaces would sharply boost costs for consumers and cause more than 11 million Americans to lose their health insurance, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
Modeling the likely effects of ending subsidies offered to individuals under the federal Affordable Care Act, researchers found that such a move would increase premium costs in the individual marketplaces by as much as 43 percent and cause enrollment to drop by 68 percent.
"If subsidies ...
2014-10-21
Two Michigan high school students, sisters Ilina and Medha Krishen, have developed screening tools using electronic stethoscopes to detect lung and heart disease. The sisters will present their findings at CHEST 2014 in Austin, Texas next week.
Ilina Krishen became aware of the dangers of smoking and chemical air pollution when she saw the effects of lung disease on family members. Curious to find a way to detect early lung damage in people exposed to noxious air pollutants, Ilina, a high school senior at Port Huron Northern High School in Michigan, developed a screening ...
2014-10-21
Adults typically believe that life gets better — today is better than yesterday was and tomorrow will be even better than today. A new study shows that even depressed individuals believe in a brighter future, but this optimistic belief may not lead to better outcomes. The findings are published in Clinical Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
The research shows that middle-aged adults who had a history of depression tended to evaluate their past and current lives in more negative terms than did adults without depression, ...
2014-10-21
TORONTO, Oct. 21, 2014--Controlling the Ebola virus outbreak at the source in West Africa is the most effective way to decrease international risk of transmission, according to a research paper published today in The Lancet.
If the epidemic persists and grows, it's likely there will be more cases of the deadly virus exported to other countries, including Canada, via air travel, said Dr. Kamran Khan, a physician and researcher at St. Michael's Hospital.
Dr. Khan, who examines global airline travel patterns to predict the spread of diseases, said that every month, three ...
2014-10-21
VIDEO:
In this video, a Salk researcher explains how cancer evolves to become drug resistant.
Click here for more information.
LA JOLLA—Like a colony of bacteria or species of animals, cancer cells within a tumor must evolve to survive. A dose of chemotherapy may kill hundreds of thousands of cancer cells, for example, but a single cell with a unique mutation can survive and quickly generate a new batch of drug-resistant cells, making cancer hard to combat.
Now, scientists ...
2014-10-21
PENSACOLA, Fla. – Ospreys do not carry significant amounts of human pharmaceutical chemicals, despite widespread occurrence of these chemicals in water, a recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Baylor University study finds. These research findings, published by Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management is the first published study that examines the bioaccumulation of pharmaceuticals in the water-fish-osprey food web.
Pharmaceuticals have been finding their way into the environment, primarily through wastewater, urban runoff and even biosolids applied ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Sleep duration affects risk for ulcerative colitis
