Less shut-eye can trigger depression

Lack of sleep and having nightmares can trigger depression

People who do not get enough sleep and get nightmares are more likely to feel depressed, a US study suggests. Researches from the University of Florida enlisted 800 working and retired firefighters and asked them to respond to a series of questions. The findings revealed 52.7% suffered from insomnia, 39.6% from depression and 19.2% had nightmares. “The study suggests that people with sleep difficulties are likely to experience greater struggles accessing strategies to regulate their emotions, especially when feeling upset. This can lead to depression and low mood," said lead researcher Melanie Hom. The study was published in Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Read more here.

High cholesterol diet does not always lead to heart disease

High cholesterol food such as egg yolk does not always lead to heart disease, a Finnish study suggests. Researchers from University of East Finland studied the diet and health of 1,032 men between the ages of 42 and 60 for a period of 21 years. The participants consumed 2800mg of cholesterol every week, which is equivalent to eating four eggs. One-third of the men also carried a gene variant, ApoE4, which is responsible for heart diseases. The findings showed there was no link between cholesterol intake and heart disease among the participants, irrespective of the presence of Apoe4 gene. The study was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Read more here.

Motion-controlled video games help

Motion-controlled video games played using Wii or Playstation Move can help boost skills when it comes to playing the same game in real life. Researchers from Penn State University hired 161 university students and divided them to three groups. The first group was asked to play a motion-controlled golf game, the second a gamepad controlled golf game and the third played neither of the two. After 18 rounds of the video game, the three groups were asked to play golf in real life. The group that used a motion controller to simulate putting scored better than the group that played on button-based controller and those who had no video game training. The study was published in International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations. Read more here.

Sleep and exercise can cut stroke risk by up to 25%

Sleeping for 6 to 8 hours every day and exercising for 30 minutes three to four times every week can cut the risk of stroke by 22 to 25%, a US study claims. Researchers from the New York University School of Medicine went through the health records of about 288,888 adults who had volunteered for a previous survey. The researchers tracked the amount of sleep and exercise participants had every day. It was found that those who slept seven to eight hours a night were found to be 25% less likely to suffer a stroke. Read more here.

Having stroke or brain injury ups risk of seizures

People with a history of heart stroke are more likely to have seizures at some point in life, claims a study. Researchers examined the records of hospital visits in California, Florida and New York from 2005 and 2013 and identified 620,739 cases of stroke and 1,911,995 cases of traumatic brain injury. A follow-up with the patients revealed that 15.3% of patients with stroke and 5.7% of patients with traumatic brain injury suffered from seizure. The study was presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2016. Read more here.

Compiled by Abhijit Ahaskar