PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Having a healthier heart is associated with better problem-solving and reaction time

People with healthier heart structure and function appear to have better cognitive abilities, including increased capacity to solve logic problems and faster reaction times, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London

2021-05-14
(Press-News.org) People with healthier heart structure and function appear to have better cognitive abilities, including increased capacity to solve logic problems and faster reaction times, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London and the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at University of Oxford.

Dr Zahra Raisi-Estabragh, BHF Clinical Research Training Fellow at Queen Mary University of London said: "Heart disease and dementia are important and growing public health problems, particularly in ageing populations.

"We already knew that patients with heart disease were more likely to have dementia, and vice versa, but we've now shown that these links between heart and brain health are also present in healthy people. We demonstrated for the first time, in a very large group of healthy people, that individuals with healthier heart structure and function have better cognitive performance.

"With more research, these findings may help us to establish strategies for early prevention and reduce the burden of heart and brain disease in the future."

The brain has previously been proposed as a target for damage from heart disease, and the risk factors leading to heart disease have also been associated with both vascular and Alzheimer's dementia. However, the mechanisms by which these associations occur are not well understood, and studies had not been carried out in large groups of people or those without disease.

The new study, published in the European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Imaging, examined links between heart health and cognitive function in over 32,000 UK Biobank participants. The team assessed heart health using measures of anatomy and function obtained from MRI scans. Cognitive function was assessed using tests of fluid intelligence (the capacity to solve logic-based problems) and reaction time.

The results show that, in this large group of mostly healthy individuals, those with healthier heart structure and function performed significantly better in tests of cognitive ability.

To investigate underlying mechanisms for the observed relationships, the team also considered whether the links between heart and brain health may be related to shared risk factors for vascular disease, such as diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure and obesity.

They found that although these factors were important in determining both heart and brain health, they did not provide a complete explanation for the observed associations. This suggests that alternative mechanism may be important in mediating interactions across the heart and brain.

For instance, other studies have shown that proteins which are abnormally deposited in the brain in Alzheimer's disease may also accumulate and cause disease in the heart muscle. Another possibility is that poorer brain and heart health may both be a consequence of accelerated ageing.

The researchers caution that, as this was an observational study, it is not possible to make any definitive inferences about causality and it cannot be stated that heart disease causes impaired cognition, or vice versa. It is also possible that there may be residual confounding (i.e. that brain and heart health may appear to be connected due to their common association with a third factor).

INFORMATION:

Researchers received funding from the British Heart Foundation, European Regional Development Fund, Barts Charity, UK Medical Research Council, Wellcome, National Institute for Health Research and the Alzheimer's Society.

For more information, please contact:

Joel Winston
Communications Manager (School of Medicine and Dentistry)
Queen Mary University of London
j.winston@qmul.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)7968 267 064

Notes to the editor

* Research paper: 'Associations of cognitive performance with cardiovascular magnetic resonance phenotypes in the UK Biobank'. Zahra Raisi-Estabragh, Amine M'Charrak, Celeste McCracken, Luca Biasiolli, Maddalena Ardissino, Elizabeth M. Curtis, Nay Aung, Claudia K. Suemoto, Clare Mackay, Sana Suri, Thomas E. Nichols, Nicholas C. Harvey, Steffen E. Petersen, Stefan Neubauer. European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Imaging. DOI 10.1093/ehjci/jeab075

Available here after the embargo lifts: https://doi.org/10.1093/ehjci/jeab075

About Queen Mary University of London

At Queen Mary University of London, we believe that a diversity of ideas helps us achieve the previously unthinkable.

In 1785, Sir William Blizard established England's first medical school, The London Hospital Medical College, to improve the health of east London's inhabitants. Together with St Bartholomew's Medical College, founded by John Abernethy in 1843 to help those living in the City of London, these two historic institutions are the bedrock of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Today, Barts and The London continues to uphold this commitment to pioneering medical education and research. Being firmly embedded within our east London community, and with an approach that is driven by the specific health needs of our diverse population, is what makes Barts and The London truly distinctive.

Our local community offer to us a window to the world, ensuring that our ground-breaking research in cancer, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and population health not only dramatically improves the outcomes for patients in London, but also has a far-reaching global impact.

This is just one of the many ways in which Queen Mary is continuing to push the boundaries of teaching, research and clinical practice, and helping us to achieve the previously unthinkable.

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation's largest funder of health and care research. The NIHR:

* Funds, supports and delivers high quality research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care * Engages and involves patients, carers and the public in order to improve the reach, quality and impact of research * Attracts, trains and supports the best researchers to tackle the complex health and care challenges of the future * Invests in world-class infrastructure and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services * Partners with other public funders, charities and industry to maximise the value of research to patients and the economy

The NIHR was established in 2006 to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. In addition to its national role, the NIHR supports applied health research for the direct and primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using UK aid from the UK government.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Depression and anxiety more common in heart failure than cancer patients

2021-05-14
Sophia Antipolis, 14 May 2021: Nearly one in four patients with heart failure is depressed or anxious, according to a study published during this week's Heart Failure Awareness Days. Patients with heart failure were 20% more likely to develop these mental health issues during the five years after diagnosis compared to those with cancer. The findings are published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 "The treatment of mental illnesses in cancer patients - psycho-oncology - is long-established but similar services ...

Ozone in air pollution is linked to fibroid development in Black women

Ozone in air pollution is linked to fibroid development in Black women
2021-05-14
Higher levels of ozone from air pollution are linked to an increased risk of developing fibroids among Black American women according to a large study published today (Friday) in Human Reproduction [1], one of the world's leading reproductive medicine journals. Fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in and around the womb. They are diagnosed in 25-30% of pre-menopausal women, but the true incidence is thought to be between 70-80%. Many fibroids do not cause symptoms but when they do, they are one of the main reasons women are admitted to hospital for inpatient care. Symptoms can include heavy or painful periods, stomach and back pain, constipation, frequent need to urinate, and pain or discomfort during sex. In some ...

New 2021 COVID-relevant fire safety and emergency evacuation guidelines for intensive care units and operating theaters launched

2021-05-14
The need to evacuate an intensive care unit (ICU) or operating theatre complex during a fire or other emergency is a rare event but one potentially fraught with difficulty: not only is there a risk that patients may come to significant harm but also that staff may be injured and unable to work. Therefore, the Association of Anaesthetists and the Intensive Care Society are today publishing new 2021 guidelines regarding fire safety and emergency evacuation of ICUs and operating theatres in Anaesthesia (a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists). These guidelines ...

Force-sensing PIEZO proteins are at work in plants, too

Force-sensing PIEZO proteins are at work in plants, too
2021-05-14
LA JOLLA, CA--A family of proteins that sense mechanical force--and enable our sense of touch and many other important bodily functions--also are essential for proper root growth in some plants, according to a study led by scientists at Scripps Research and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The discovery, published in the END ...

Immunocompromised pediatric patients showed T-cell activity and humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2

2021-05-13
According to data from a cohort of adult and pediatric patients with antibody deficiencies, patients that often fail to make protective immune responses to infections and vaccinations showed robust T-cell activity and humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins. The new study, led by researchers at Children's National Hospital, is the first to demonstrate a robust T-cell response against SARS-CoV-2 in immunocompromised patients. "If T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 are indeed protective, then it could suggest that adoptive T-cell immunotherapy might benefit more profoundly immunocompromised patients," said Michael Keller, M.D., director of the Translational Research Laboratory in the ...

Scientists invent a method for predicting solar radio flux for two years ahead

2021-05-13
Scientists at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and their colleagues from the University of Graz & the Kanzelhöhe Observatory (Austria) and the ESA European Space Operations Centre developed a method and software called RESONANCE to predict the solar radio flux activity for 1-24 months ahead. RESONANCE will serve to improve the specification of satellite orbits, re-entry services, modeling of space debris evolution, and collision avoidance maneuvers. The research results were published in the high-profile Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. Since the launch of Sputnik, the Earth's first artificial satellite, in ...

Study of nitinol deformations to enrich understanding of materials with targeted properties

Study of nitinol deformations to enrich understanding of materials with targeted properties
2021-05-13
The work was sponsored by Russian Science Foundation; the project, headed by Professor Anatolii Mokshin, is titled "Theoretical, simulating and experimental research of physico-mechanical traits of amorphous-producing systems with heterogeneous local visco-elastic properties". "We performed calculations for porous nitinol," shares first co-author, Associate Professor Bulat Galimzyanov. "It's widely used in various industries thanks to its unique physico-mechanical properties, such as low volume weight, high corrosion resistance, high biocompatibility and shape memory. Obtaining nitinol as amorphous foam is very labor-intensive, it requires high temperatures and extremely high melt cooling rate (over 1,000,000 K per second). Obviously, traditional experiments ...

Screening for ovarian cancer did not reduce deaths

2021-05-13
A large-scale randomised trial of annual screening for ovarian cancer, led by UCL researchers, did not succeed in reducing deaths from the disease, despite one of the screening methods tested detecting cancers earlier. Results from the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening (UKCTOCS) have been published in a report in the medical journal The Lancet. In the UK, 4,000 women die from ovarian cancer each year. It is not usually diagnosed until it is at a late stage and hard to treat. UKCTOCS was designed to test the hypothesis that a reliable screening ...

Epigenetic changes drive the fate of a B cell

2021-05-13
BOSTON - B cells are the immune cells responsible for creating antibodies, and most B cells, known as B2 cells, produce antibodies in response to a pathogen or a vaccine, providing defense and immunity against infections. But a small subset of long-lived B cells, known as B1 cells, are quite different from their short-lived cousins, the B2 cells. Instead of producing antibodies in response to invaders, they spontaneously make antibodies that perform vital housekeeping functions, such as removing waste like oxidized LDL cholesterol from the blood. Like all the cells in the body, B1 and B2 cells have the same DNA, and therefore the same starting set of instructions. It is through epigenetic modifications, which ...

Politically polarized brains share an intolerance of uncertainty

2021-05-13
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Since the 1950s, political scientists have theorized that political polarization -- increased numbers of "political partisans" who view the world with an ideological bias -- is associated with an inability to tolerate uncertainty and a need to hold predictable beliefs about the world. But little is known about the biological mechanisms through which such biased perceptions arise. To investigate that question, scientists at Brown University measured and compared the brain activity of committed partisans (both liberals and conservatives) as ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] Having a healthier heart is associated with better problem-solving and reaction time
People with healthier heart structure and function appear to have better cognitive abilities, including increased capacity to solve logic problems and faster reaction times, according to research led by Queen Mary University of London