Vision Leading Cause Of Anxiety

अमेरिकन हार्ट एसोसिएशन (एएचए) के अनुसार, उचित नींद को अब आदर्श हृदय और मस्तिष्क स्वास्थ्य के लिए एक आवश्यक घटक माना जाता है। एसोसिएशन ने इस सप्ताह अपने कार्डियोवैस्कुलर स्वास्थ्य स्कोर में नींद की अवधि को जोड़ा - जिसे लाइफ एसेंशियल 8 के रूप में जाना जाता है जिसमें आहार, शारीरिक गतिविधि, निकोटीन एक्सपोजर, वजन, कोलेस्ट्रॉल, रक्त शर्करा और रक्तचाप शामिल हैं। हृदय रोग (सीवीडी) विश्व स्तर पर मृत्यु का प्रमुख कारण हैं। 2019 में सीवीडी से अनुमानित 17.9 मिलियन लोगों की मृत्यु हुई, जो सभी वैश्विक मौतों का 32 प्रतिशत है। विश्व स्वास्थ्य संगठन के अनुसार, इन मौतों में से 85 प्रतिशत दिल का दौरा और स्ट्रोक के कारण हुईं। सीवीडी से होने वाली मौतों के तीन चौथाई से अधिक निम्न और मध्यम आय वाले देशों में होते हैं। पिछले दो दशकों में विभिन्न शोध अध्ययनों से संकेत मिलता है कि सभी कार्डियोवैस्कुलर घटनाओं में से 80 प्रतिशत से अधिक स्वस्थ जीवनशैली और ज्ञात कार्डियोवैस्कुलर जोखिम कारकों के प्रबंधन से रोका जा सकता है। डोनाल्ड एम लॉयड जोन्स, अहा के अध्यक्ष ने कहा- "नींद की अवधि की नई मीट्रिक नवीनतम शोध निष्कर्षो को दर्शाती है, नींद समग्र स्वास्थ्य को प्रभावित करती है, और स्वस्थ नींद पैटर्न वाले लोग वजन, रक्तचाप या टाइप 2 मधुमेह के जोखिम जैसे स्वास्थ्य कारकों को अधिक प्रभावी ढंग से प्रबंधित करते हैं।" लॉयड-जोन्स, जो नॉर्थवेस्टर्न यूनिवर्सिटी के फीनबर्ग स्कूल ऑफ मेडिसिन में हार्ट रिसर्च के प्रोफेसर भी हैं ने कहा, "इसके अलावा, नींद को मापने के तरीकों में प्रगति, जैसे पहनने योग्य उपकरणों के साथ, अब लोगों को घर पर उनकी नींद की आदतों पर मजबूती से और नियमित रूप से निगरानी करने की क्षमता प्रदान करती है।" लॉयड-जोन्स ने कहा, "इष्टतम हृदय स्वास्थ्य का विचार महत्वपूर्ण है, क्योंकि यह लोगों को जीवन के किसी भी चरण में काम करने के लिए सकारात्मक लक्ष्य देता है।" लाइ़फ्स एसेंशियल 8 के प्रत्येक घटक, जिसका मूल्यांकन माई लाइफ चैक टूल द्वारा किया जाता है, में 0 से 100 अंकों तक की एक अद्यतन स्कोरिंग प्रणाली है। 0 से 100 अंक तक का समग्र हृदय स्वास्थ्य स्कोर 8 स्वास्थ्य उपायों में से प्रत्येक के स्कोर का औसत है। 50 से नीचे के समग्र स्कोर 'खराब' हृदय स्वास्थ्य को इंगित करते हैं, और 50-79 को 'मध्यम' हृदय स्वास्थ्य माना जाता है। सकुर्लेशन जर्नल में प्रकाशित एडवाइजरी के अनुसार, 80 और उससे अधिक अंक 'उच्च' हृदय स्वास्थ्य का संकेत देते हैं। लॉयड-जोन्स ने कहा, "लाइफ्स एसेंशियल 8 यह पहचानने की हमारी क्षमता में एक बड़ा कदम है कि कब कार्डियोवैस्कुलर स्वास्थ्य को संरक्षित किया जा सकता है और कब यह उप-इष्टतम है। इसे सभी लोगों के लिए और हर जीवन स्तर पर कार्डियोवैस्कुलर स्वास्थ्य में सुधार के प्रयासों को सक्रिय करना चाहिए।" (एजेंसी) यह भी पढ़े► काम की थकान से बचने के लिए इन उपायों की लें मदद

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which accounts for 8.7 per cent of all blindness worldwide, is the most common cause of anxiety, and depression seen among people older than 60 years, health experts said on Monday. AMD is a disease where abnormal blood vessels grow in the macula - centre part of the retina - causing damage to the central vision and making it difficult to cope. Recent projections estimate that globally the number of individuals suffering with AMD will reach 288 million in 2040. In India, the overall prevalence of AMD currently ranges from 1.4 per cent to 3.1 per cent. The earliest symptom of AMD is difficulty in seeing at night. At a later stage, AMD patients see blind spots and their ability to read, watch television, drive and recognise faces gets affected. It later progresses to blindness. The impaired vision disturbs the routine of the patients, makes them dependent and also increases functional disability. "People suffering from AMD, who have lost over 80 per cent of their central vision are more likely to have anxiety and depression. This is mainly as they have plans to retire smoothly, and find it difficult to read and perform recreational activities at this stage in life, which causes frustration and discomfort. Their life involves multiple visits to hospital accompanied with expensive treatments, which adds to deterioration in the quality of life," Dr. Indu Singh, Consultant Retinal surgeon and Director, Dr Daljit Singh Eye Hospital, Amritsar, told IANS. A recent study by International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health also confirmed that AMD has a negative psychological impact, and it reduces the quality of life to levels comparable to severe illnesses like cancer and stroke. While it is important to go for walks, supervise things at home, to manage depression, Dr. Vishali Gupta, Professor, Vitreoretinal and Uvea, Advanced Eye Centre, PGIMER, Chandigarh suggested the patients to engage in activities that they can do within the comfort zone of their vision. "These patients should use magnifiers, iPads or other low vision aid devices that can help them read the script. Today there are apps that can read books to them. The idea is to keep oneself busy and feel useful," Gupta told IANS. Another way to fight AMD related stress is to go for regular screening in order to avoid worsening of vision. Early diagnosis of AMD can help early treatment and also halt progression to vision loss. Dr. Daraius Shroff, a retina specialist at Shroff Eye Centre in Delhi, suggested patients with AMD share with family and friends their anxieties to help relieve mental stress as well as to gain support to find solutions to alleviate depression. Read More► Fatty Liver Likely Causing A Surge in Serious Liver Diseases in India

New York: Longer and more frequent daytime napping among older adults maybe linked with poor cognitive performance - a sign of Alzheimer's disease, claims a study. In the study conducted over 1,000 adults with an average age of 81, published in Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, longer or more frequent daytime napping in a specific year predicted worse cognitive performance in the following year, and vice versa. "Daytime sleep behaviours of older adults are often ignored, and a consensus for daytime napping in clinical practice and health care is still lacking," said Peng Li, from Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the US. "Our results not only suggest that excessive daytime napping may signal an elevated risk of Alzheimer's dementia, but they also show that faster yearly increase in daytime napping may be a sign of deteriorating or unfavored clinical progression of the disease. "Our study calls for a closer attention to 24-hour sleep patterns - not only night-time sleep but also daytime sleep for health monitoring in older adults," Li said. Studies on daytime napping in older adults have had conflicting results, with showing that daytime napping has benefits on acute cognitive performance, mood, and alertness, others have highlighted the adverse outcomes on cognitive performance. In the current study, the team tested two hypotheses: participants nap longer and/or more frequently with ageing and the changes are even faster with the progression of Alzheimer's; and participants with excessive daytime napping are at an increased risk of developing the disorder. The participants were provided a watch-like device called Actical, to wear on their non-dominant wrist for up to 14 days. The team identified sleep episodes using a previously validated sleep scoring algorithm that considers wrist activity counts. After napping episodes were identified, the nap duration and frequency were calculated. Independent of known risk factors for dementia, including age and night-time sleep duration and fragmentation, longer and more frequent daytime naps were a risk factor for developing Alzheimer's dementia in cognitively normal older men and women. Besides, annual increases in napping duration and frequency were accelerated as the disease progressed, especially after the clinical manifestation of Alzheimer's. Ultimately, the authors describe the relationship between daytime napping and cognition to be a "vicious cycle." (agency) Read More► Can Painkillers Lead to Hearing Loss?

Scientists have discovered that "rogue" antibodies found circulating in the blood of Covid-19 patients have the potential to cause cells to lose their resistance to clotting. A team from the University of Michigan found higher-than-expected levels of antiphospholipid autoantibodies, which can trigger blood clots in the arteries and veins of patients with autoimmune disorders, including lupus and antiphospholipid syndrome. Antibodies typically help the body neutralise infections. Autoantibodies are antibodies produced by the immune system that mistakenly target and sometimes damage the body's own systems and organs. In a 2020 study, the research group found that autoantibodies from patients with active Covid-19 infections caused "a striking amount of clotting" in mice. For the new study the team studied the blood samples of nearly 250 patients hospitalised for Covid-19. The team found that the autoantibodies appear to stress the endothelial cells that make up the inner lining of blood vessels and, in doing so, cause the cells to lose their ability to prevent blood clots from forming. The results are published in Arthritis and Rheumatology. "This provides an even stronger connection between autoantibody formation and clotting in Covid-19," said Hui Shi, lead author and rheumatology research fellow at Michigan Medicine. "When endothelial cells are activated, they cause healthy blood vessels to become 'sticky', attracting other cells to the vessel walls and becoming more prone to thrombosis. This can affect many of the body's essential organs," Shi added. The researchers found that when they removed the antiphospholipid autoantibodies from Covid-19 blood samples, the endothelial cell activation that promotes clotting was lost. While the link is strong, future studies must be done to find whether these autoantibodies are the precise cause of thrombosis that contributes to clotting and increased severity of Covid-19, said Jason Knight, Associate Professor of rheumatology at Michigan Medicine. "We must do more research to decide if it is beneficial to screen patients with severe Covid-19 for these autoantibodies to evaluate their risk of clotting and progressive respiratory failure," Knight said. This may help to repurpose treatments used in traditional cases of antiphospholipid syndrome for Covid-19, he noted. (agency) Read More► Vitamins Cannot Reduce Death Risk From Covid-19: Study