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The smart side
PEOPLE WITH high levels of cholesterol do better on a variety of tests measuring mental ability, researchers from Boston University have found. The study was led by Penelope K. Elias.
The findings grow out of information compiled by the long-term Framingham Heart Study, and are based on the medical histories of 789 men and 1,105 women over 18 years.
Although high cholesterol increases the risk of serious illness, including heart disease, the researchers found that when it comes to the brain, it may be a different matter.
When the volunteers were tested to measure mental skills like memory, concentration, abstract reasoning and organisation, those with cholesterol levels that were borderline-high or greater (200 and above) scored somewhat better.
The researchers were able to look only at the total cholesterol levels, and so could not tell whether the so-called bad and good cholesterol had different effects, Dr. Merrill F. Elias, one of the authors, said.
The researchers said the link appeared clear, but expressed concern that people might make the mistake of ignoring high cholesterol or going off medication for it.
Almost none of the participants in the study was taking cholesterol drugs, and no one knows whether someone whose cholesterol had been lowered medically would have weaker skills. And, in any case, Merrill Elias said, the trade-off is not worth it.
Attack time
FOR MOST people, the hours just after rising, from 6 a.m. to noon, are the most likely times for heart attacks, while the sleeping hours are the safest.
But for the millions of people who have obstructive sleep apnoea, a breathing disorder, heart attacks are much more likely in the sleeping hours, a new study finds.
Researchers from the Mayo Clinic say that for reasons that are unclear, people with the disorder are much more likely to have heart attacks from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
For people who have sleep apnoea, the likelihood of heart attacks' occurring in the sleeping hours makes sense, given the tremendous stresses the disorder places on the body.
People with sleep apnoea may be wrenched awake hundreds of times a night — often without their knowledge — when their airways collapse and they stop breathing.
The problem, he said, is that so many people do not realise they have the disorder. Snoring is often a symptom. "The vast majority of sleep apnics are still not diagnosed or treated,.
Lens lesson
IT IS widely known that people who sleep wearing contact lenses could end up with a serious infection.
But a newer generation of contact lenses has a much lower risk, a study finds, and researchers studying them suggest that people who insist on wearing contacts in their sleep should use them.
The researchers said that among people using extended-wear contact lenses made from silicone hydrogel, the risk of serious infection was only about a fifth as great as it was for people wearing lenses made from just hydrogel.
The doctors examined patients' corneas for injury and infection, comparing the severity of injury with patients' lens-wearing habits.
While the patients who slept in silicone hydrogel lenses unquestionably did better than those who slept in other lenses, the findings were hardly an endorsement for leaving lenses in at night.
The study found a significantly higher incidence of serious infection among all people who wore contacts while they slept, compared with those who used them only in waking hours.
Though disposable contact lenses are becoming increasingly popular, the study did not find them any safer in terms of infection.
The New York Times
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