Stress-Busters For Better Sleep - I

That looming work deadline you're not close to meeting. Your crazy mother-in-law. The election.
Stress. We all have it -- and aside from being uncomfortable during the waking hours, it could be keeping you up at night. In fact, a full 65 percent of Americans report losing sleep because of stress, according to findings from the Better Sleep Council.

"[Stress] is the single most common thing that causes people to have trouble getting to sleep," says Joe Ojile, M.D., founder and CEO of the Clayton Sleep Institute in St. Louis, Mo. and a board member of the National Sleep Foundation.

But the good news, according to one new study, is that spending time undoing the day's stress before bed can help actually you sleep better. The findings, presented at the CHEST 2012 conference earlier this week, suggest that a 10-minute stress-reduction technique can help to alleviate stress and improve sleep quality.
Researchers from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. taught 334 study participants a bedtime technique involving deep breathing and imagery, which they dubbed a "tension tamer." Sixty-five percent of the volunteers reported decreased stress after trying out the new method -- and that group also reported better sleep.

"A novel stress reduction technique, the 10-minute Tension Tamer, can reduce perceived stress levels in a majority of subjects resulting in improved sleep quality, decreased sleep latency and improved fatigue," the authors wrote in their abstract.

While the findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal (meaning we should consider them preliminary), working to cut back on stress before bed is a great way to help you sleep better, Ojile explains. And while this study focused on imagery and deep breathing, that's definitely not the only effective option.

"The act of doing it is a much more important issue than which thing is done," he says. So we asked Ojile to talk through a few other 10-minute techniques worth trying. But first it's worth noting what not to do: Skip reading work emails from bed, which will only agitate you, and keep the television in another room. "The bedroom should be completely devoid of any stimulus," he says.

Read through these suggestions, then tell us: What do you do when you're too stressed to sleep?

Breakfast Eaters...

...Are Leaner

A 2003 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology showed that people who skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to be obese than those who take a morning meal.

The study, which included 499 people whose diets were tracked over a year-long period, also showed that eating out for dinner and breakfast are linked with obesity risk
.

Are All-Around Healthier 

A study presented in 2003 at the American Heart Association's annual conference showed that not only are breakfast-eaters less likely to be obese, they're also more likely to have good blood sugar levels and less likely to be hungry later on in the day, BBC News reported.

 "Our results suggest that breakfast may really be the most important meal of the day," study researcher Dr. Mark Pereira, of Harvard Medical School at the time, told BBC News. "It appears that breakfast may play an important role in reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

...Feel More Energized 

Eating a breakfast that's high in fiber and carbohydrates could help you feel less tired throughout the day, according to a 1999 study in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition.

 Researchers found that when people ate a high-fat, low-carb breakfast, they had more energy throughout the day compared with people who ate a high-fat breakfast, WebMD reported.

…Have Better Cholesterol Levels 

A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that breakfast-skippers are more likely to have worse cholesterol levels and insulin sensitivity than breakfast-eaters.

 The study also showed that the breakfast-eaters consume about 100 fewer calories a day, compared with people who skip their morning meal, CBS News reported.

...Remember Better 

Eating high-energy foods for breakfast could help to boost short-term memory, according to a study of 319 teens (between ages 13 and 20) in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Researchers also found that eating a high-calorie breakfast actually seemed to hinder concentration.

...Consume More Nutrients 

People who rarely eat breakfast consume more fat and fewer nutrients -- like calcium, potassium and fiber -- than regular breakfast-eaters and "often" breakfast-eaters, according to a 2011 study in the journal Nutrition Research and Practice.

…Have An Excuse To Eat Healthy Breakfast Foods 

Breakfast-eaters have an excuse to consume healthy breakfast-time foods like oatmeal, eggs, grapefruit and coffee.

Oatmeal has been shown in many studies to be good for cholesterol levels, and research has also shown that it could help improve children's memory and attention skills when eaten for breakfast, compared with ready-to-eat cereals.

 Grapefruit is high in vitamins C and A, and has also been shown in a Clinical Cancer Research study this year to boost the beneficial effects of cancer drugs, HealthDay reported.

Eating eggs for breakfast has been linked to increased satiety and less food consumed later in the day, compared with eating bagels for breakfast, according to a 2005 study in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. (The study was funded by the Egg Nutrition Center.)

And coffee, of course, has been linked to a whole host of health benefits, from a decreased risk of depression to a lower risk of some cancers and Type 2 diabetes.

Skipping Breakfast Could Make You Want More High-Calorie Foods, Study Suggests

If skipping breakfast has ever left you with a craving for some high-calorie mac and cheese or a big, juicy burger, a small new study might explain the reason why.

Researchers at the MRC Clinical Science Centre at Imperial College in London found that there is more brain activation in response to high-calorie items when a person has skipped breakfast, compared with when a person has had their morning meal.

"Through both the participants' MRI results and observations of how much they ate at lunch, we found ample evidence that fasting made people hungrier, and increased the appeal of high-calorie foods and the amount people ate," study researcher Dr. Tony Goldstone, M.D., Ph.D., said in a statement.

The study included 21 male volunteers who were asked not to eat anything before coming in for the study for two visits. On one visit, they were fed a 750-calorie breakfast before undergoing an MRI brain scan where they looked at images of high-calorie foods. They were then fed lunch.

The second visit, they weren't fed any breakfast before undergoing the brain scan where they looked at high-calorie foods. After the brain scans, they were fed lunch.

Researchers found that activity in the orbitofrontal cortex -- the part of the brain that plays a part in reward and pleasantness from food -- was different when the participants were fed breakfast, compared with when they fasted from breakfast.

Specifically, researchers found that the orbitofrontal cortex was more activated when the participants hadn't eaten breakfast.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscience; because it has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, its findings should be regarded as preliminary.

The findings back up prior research on negative ways skipping breakfast can affect your body and brain.

Take a Breath

How many times have you heard someone say that to you? Angry? "Take a breath." Confused? "Take a breath." Frustrated? "Take a breath." I think this is one of the greatest things we can do for our own mental and physical health. But how do you remember to take a breath when you're angry, confused or frustrated?

I've been teaching myself and others for more than 50 years, and in that time, a sort of user's manual for living a life on the earth has formed in my mind. I've spoken in thousands of seminars, written more books than I can count, and now here's this blog: a distillation of useful suggestions for living a life that fully expresses who each of us is.

OK, how do you remember to breathe? And why should you have to remember -- isn't it automatic? Like you, in times of stress I habitually hold my breath when I'd be better off putting my attention there rather than on what's bothering me. Focusing on my breath helps me relax so I can choose the next thing I need to do to handle the stress.

One time, swimming in a lake, I developed a cramp that was so severe that I had great difficulty staying on top of the water, much less swimming toward shore. I went down and came up. On about the fifth trip up for air, I realized that I really might drown. The intensity of that realization and the desire for life and for that next breath moved my consciousness in a way it had never been moved before. I focused my attention on staying alive. I remembered to breathe into the cramp, which allowed me to get moving. Then it was almost as if the shore reached out and pulled me in. I recognized the tremendous force of life that was within me and the great desire to continue with that life.

There's the formula. Focus on what you want; practice the habit of conscious breathing. Since that lake swim, I've practiced breathing, which is to say I've worked on building a habit of the kind of breathing that expands me, that relieves stress, focuses my mind and brings me immediately present.

Try it for yourself. Sit quietly for a moment. Let your body relax, take a slow, deep breath and feel the air gently filling your lower belly. Follow your breath in your imagination as it moves in and out. In a few moments you may begin to feel yourself "being breathed," with no effort on your part. You'll find more peace. Calm will be present in your life and likely, your awareness of the connection between breath and your essence -- spirit -- will increase.

Women who quit smoking live decade more

Smoking and women: Women who smoke nearly triple their risk of premature death, but women who quit the habit by age 40 eliminate most of that excess risk -- a difference that amounts to about an extra decade of life, a large new study shows.

Quitting even earlier is better and quitting later still helps. Bottom line: It's always a good time to stop smoking. (TIME)

Pharmacy crackdown: Massachusetts officials are cracking down on compounding pharmacies -- operations that mix their own medicines -- as a result of an outbreak of fungal meningitis linked to one such operation. In the latest development, the state closed down Infusion Resource in Waltham after an inspection found unsanitary conditions. No illnesses have been linked to that pharmacy. (NBC News)

Flu vaccine benefits: A flu vaccine prevents flu but may also prevent some heart attacks, new research suggests. One reason is that the flu may trigger heart attacks in some vulnerable people. (HealthDay)

Today's talker: One Texas mom has managed to feed hundreds, if not thousands, of premature babies -- by donating a record 86.8 gallons of breast milk to a milk bank, says Guinness World Records. Alicia Richmond pumped and donated the milk between June 2011 and March of this year, while also feeding her son. She said she got the idea when she ran out of room in her freezer. (New York Daily News)

Senators urge FDA to act on energy drinks

Two U.S. senators on Friday again called on federal regulators to close what they say are loopholes that allow energy-drink makers to sell products with additives and high levels of caffeine that the lawmakers say have not been proven safe.

The letter to the Food and Drug Administration from Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., comes after the agency said this week that it is investigating reports of five deaths in which the consumption of Monster drinks was cited.

Those claims say that people suffered adverse reactions after consuming Monster Energy Drink, which comes in 24-ounce cans and contains 240 milligrams of caffeine, seven times the caffeine in a 12-ounce can of traditional cola.

The FDA noted that the allegations, which date back to 2004, don't necessarily prove the drinks are linked to the deaths.

In a letter Friday, Durbin and Blumenthal also cited a recent study in Consumer Reports that found several popular energy drinks contained significantly more caffeine than the listed amount, while others did not disclose the amount of caffeine they had.

The FDA caps the amount of caffeine in soda to 0.02%, but there is no such limit for energy drinks.
Durbin and Blumenthal asked the FDA to look into the interactions between caffeine and the additives that are often found in energy drinks. The also called on the agency to assess the risks associated with caffeine consumption by teens.

They noted that this is the third time this year they have asked the agency to assess the safety of energy drinks.

A representative for Monster Beverage said the company was not commenting on the matter. A representative for the FDA did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Earlier this week, Monster Beverage issued a statement saying that its products are and have always been safe. The statement came in response to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in California by the parents of a 14-year-old girl who died after drinking two Monster Energy Drinks in 24 hours. The company said it does not believe its products are in any way related to her death.

This summer, New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also issued subpoenas to energy-drink makers as part of the state's investigation of the industry.

Energy drinks, which are often marketed at surfing and skateboarding contests and other sporting events, have grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. The top three companies — Monster, Red Bull and Rockstar — each logged double-digit sales-volume gains last year, according to Beverage Digest.

Shares of Monster Beverage, based in Corona, Calif., closed down nearly 3% at $45.86 Friday. They have lost more than 30% in the past three months and fell to a 52-week low of $40.06 on Tuesday.

Cheap colour test picks up HIV

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have come up with a test for the virus that causes AIDS that is ten times more sensitive and a fraction of the cost of existing methods, offering the promise of better diagnosis and treatment in the developing world.

The test uses nanotechnology to give a result that can be seen with the naked eye by turning a sample red or blue, according to research from scientists at Imperial College in London published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

"Our approach affords for improved sensitivity, does not require sophisticated instrumentation and it is ten times cheaper," Molly Stevens, who led the research, told Reuters.

Simple and quick HIV tests that analyze saliva already exist but they can only pick up the virus when it reaches relatively high concentrations in the body.

"We would be able to detect infection even in those cases where previous methods, such as the saliva test, were rendering a 'false negative' because the viral load was too low to be detected," she said.

The test could also be reconfigured to detect other diseases, such as sepsis, Leishmaniasis, Tuberculosis and malaria, Stevens said.

Testing is not only crucial in picking up the HIV virus early but also for monitoring the effectiveness of treatments.

"Unfortunately, the existing gold standard detection methods can be too expensive to be implemented in parts of the world where resources are scarce," Stevens said.

According to 2010 data from the World Health Organisation, about 23 million people living with HIV are in Sub-Saharan Africa out of a worldwide total of 34 million.

The virus is also spreading faster and killing more people in this part of the world. Sub-Saharan Arica accounted for 1.9 million new cases out of a global total of 2.7 million in the same year, and 1.2 million out of the 1.8 million deaths.

The new sensor works by testing serum, a clear watery fluid derived from blood samples, in a disposable container for the presence of an HIV biomarker called p24.

If p24 is present, even in minute concentrations, it causes the tiny gold nanoparticles to clump together in an irregular pattern that turns the solution blue. A negative result separates them into ball shapes that generate a red color.

The researchers also used the test to pick up the biomarker for Prostate Cancer called Prostate Specific Antigen, which was the target of previous work that Stevens did with collaborators at University of Vigo in Spain.

That sensor used tiny gold stars laden with antibodies that latched onto the marker in a sample and produced a silver coating that could be detected with microscopes.

Stevens and her collaborator on the new test, Roberto de la Rica, said they plan to approach not-for-profit global health organizations to help them manufacture and distribute the new sensor in low income countries.