Health and Fitness News and Notes
GUNS PLAY OVERSIZE ROLE IN RURAL SUICIDES
Suicide rates are higher in rural counties, according to a new study, and the reason is firearm use by men.
The report, in the American Journal of Public Health, used data on 6,196 suicides of Maryland residents over age 15. They found that the rate of firearm suicides was 66 percent higher in the most thinly populated counties than in metropolitan areas with populations greater than 1 million. Nonfirearm suicide rates in rural and urban counties were roughly the same.
Rates of firearm suicide by women were no different in rural and urban areas, but total suicides by women were 37 percent greater in urban areas.
Men accounted for about 80 percent of all suicides, and nearly 90 percent of gun suicides. The suicide rate in rural settings, the authors conclude, is primarily driven not by lack of access to mental health care or economic disparities, but by men’s preference for suicide by gun, and the wider availability of guns in rural areas.
“Patients with mental health issues should be assessed for gun availability,” said the lead author, Dr. Paul S. Nestadt, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins. “We give out condoms and clean needles to people at risk for HIV. Why not give out trigger locks to family members of patients at risk for suicide?”
WALNUTS FOR WEIGHT LOSS?
A handful of walnuts may be an effective weight loss tool.
Walnuts are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and other substances and, in moderation, have been linked to reduced risk of obesity and diabetes. They may also efficiently reduce appetite.
Researchers now may have found out why. They had nine hospitalized obese patients drink, on five consecutive days, either a smoothie containing 48 grams of walnuts (1.7 ounces, or about 14 walnut halves and 315 calories) or a placebo smoothie identical in taste and calorie content. Then, after a month on their regular diet, the patients returned for a second five-day trial, with placebo drinkers on the first trial receiving a walnut smoothie, and vice versa.
The participants underwent MRI brain exams while looking at pictures of high-fat food (cake, for example), low-fat food (vegetables) or neutral pictures of rocks and trees.
The study, published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, found that when people looked at pictures of high-fat food, activation in the insula, a part of the brain involved in appetite and impulse control, increased among those who drank the walnut smoothie, but not among placebo drinkers. The study was funded in part by the California Walnut Commission.
“Walnuts can alter the way our brains view food and impact our appetites,” said the lead author, Olivia M. Farr, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “Our results confirm the current recommendations to include walnuts as part of a healthy diet.”
LESS SLEEP TIED TO DIABETES RISK IN CHILDREN
Children who sleep less may be at increased risk for Type 2 diabetes, researchers report.
Earlier studies found a link between shorter sleep and diabetes in adults, but the connection has been little studied in children.
British researchers studied 4,525 9- and 10-year olds from varying ethnic backgrounds. On average, their parents reported they slept 10 hours a night, with 95 percent sleeping between eight and 12 hours.
The study, in Pediatrics, found that the less sleep, the more likely the children were to have higher body mass indexes, higher insulin resistance and higher glucose readings. All three are risk factors for Type 2 diabetes.
Overall, increasing weekday sleep duration by an hour was associated with a 0.2 lower BMI and a 3 percent reduction in insulin resistance. The reasons for the link remain unclear, but the researchers suggest that poor sleep may affect appetite regulation, leading to overeating and obesity. This observational study could not establish cause and effect.
Still, the senior author, Christopher G. Owen, a professor of epidemiology at St. George’s University of London, said that for children, the more sleep the better — there is no threshold.
“Increasing sleep is a very simple, low-cost intervention,” he said. “We should be doing our utmost to make sure that children sleep for an adequate amount of time.”
MARIJUANA LINKED TO HYPERTENSION RISK
Marijuana use may be a cause of high blood pressure, a new study reports.
Researchers studied 332 deaths among 1,213 people participating in a larger health study, of whom 57 percent were marijuana users. They had used marijuana for an average of 12 years, and the longer they used it, the more likely they were to have hypertension. The study is in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
After controlling for many health and behavioral variables, including a prior diagnosis of high blood pressure, they found that compared with nonusers, marijuana users had more than three times the risk of death from hypertension-related causes.
In addition to being a risk for heart disease, hypertension can lead to kidney disease, heart failure and aneurysm. The scientists also noted a link to cardiovascular disease and stroke, both also caused by hypertension, but it was not statistically significant.
The researchers acknowledge the difficulty of measuring frequency and quantities of marijuana use, and the likelihood that illegal use is underreported. The lead author, Barbara A. Yankey, an epidemiologist at Georgia State University, urged caution in interpreting what she called “an exploratory study.”
Still, she said, “There is a possibility that marijuana use is related to deaths with hypertension as an underlying cause. People who use marijuana should have regular medical checkups to assess their cardiovascular health.”