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June 11th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MONDAY, June 11 (HealthDay News) — Middle-aged and older people
who regularly sleep less than six hours a night may be significantly
raising their risk of stroke, a new study suggests.
As much as a fourfold increased risk was seen among normal-weight
people who didn’t suffer from sleep apnea but got fewer than six hours of
sleep each night, the researchers found. Both obesity and sleep apnea are
known risk factors for stroke.
“Sleep is important,” said lead researcher Megan Ruiter, a postdoctoral
fellow at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Medicine.
“There is evidence that insufficient sleep … increases all sorts of
abnormal responses in the body.”
Lack of sleep increases inflammation and causes increases in blood
pressure and the release of certain hormones, all creating a greater
stress response that can increase the risk for stroke, Ruiter said.
The results of the study were scheduled to be presented Monday at the
annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Boston.
The data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published
in a peer-reviewed journal.
For the study, Ruiter’s group collected data on more than 5,600 people
who took part in a larger study on geographical and racial differences in
stroke.
Over three years of follow-up, the researchers found that sleeping
fewer than six hours a night was associated with an increased risk of
stroke in normal-weight people beyond that related to other risk
factors.
They didn’t find any association between stroke and short sleep among
overweight and obese people.
Although the study found an association between shorter sleep and
stroke, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
Dr. Michael Frankel, director of vascular neurology at Emory University
and director of the Marcus Stroke Neuroscience Center at Grady
Hospital, both in Atlanta, commented that “although difficult to define
why this may be occurring, one can speculate about a possible mechanism
linked to changes in cortisol levels, an important stress hormone that may
be in higher levels in people who have shortened sleep.”
Elevated levels of this hormone may trigger dysfunction of the cells
that line and protect people’s blood vessels and set in motion the
cascade of events that leads to stroke, he explained.
This finding may explain why people without traditional vascular risk
factors such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes occasionally have a
stroke, he added.
“We know that in about a third of patients with ischemic stroke,
doctors are unable to define a cause,” Frankel said. “Reduction in sleep
may be contributing in some of these patients.”
“For those of us who chronically work long hours, we may need to listen
closely to these findings and adjust our lifestyle to reduce our risk of
stroke,” he added.
Controlling blood pressure; eating a low-calorie, balanced diet;
exercising; not smoking; not drinking heavily; having regular checkups;
and closely following doctors’ advice remain critical for vascular health,
Frankel said.
“But attention to proper sleep may be equally important,” he added.
Another expert, Dr. Keith Siller, medical director of the NYU
Comprehensive Stroke Care Center in New York City, agreed that sleep is an
important factor.
“I see this as part of a general message that along with exercise and a
proper diet, a good night’s sleep should be included in a healthy
lifestyle,” he said.
More information
To learn more about stroke, visit the U.S.
National Library of Medicine.
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