Life Right Centre for the application of Behavioural Medicine

multi-morbidity guidelines – NICE to develop for GPs

Life Right Webmaster — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:53:26 +0000

Multi-morbidity - NICE to develop guidelines for GPs

NICE will for the first time develop guidelines to help GPs manage patients with multiple conditions, the institute’s chairman has said.

Speaking at the NICE’s annual conference in Birmingham on Tuesday, Sir Michael Rawlins said incorporating multimorbidity into NICE’s guidance was one of his six hopes for the institute in his last year as chairman.

He said he wanted to see NICE guidance ‘incorporate multi-morbidity or co-morbidities and move beyond giving advice on single conditions’.

Sir Michael said that although he was ‘very proud of NICE’s clinical guidance’, ‘there is a problem associated with them that we can’t ignore’.

‘Our guidelines, like virtually all others, are concerned with the management of single conditions, yet many patients have more than one condition simultaneously,’ he said.

Sir Michael cited research published last week found showing that multi-morbidity affects 65% of patients aged above 65 years and 23% of all patients

‘We need to start developing methods that will allow us to provide advice in our guidelines on our management of comorbidities, particularly for chronic conditions,’ he said. It won’t be easy, but that mustn’t deter us. The evidence base will be imperfect and there will be a limit to the number of comorbidities that a particular guideline can incorporate.’

Sir Michael said the guidance would be aimed at GPs and that NICE would first produce an overarching guideline on dealing with multimorbidity, before looking at groups of diseases that commonly co-occur.

Multi-Morbidity Research – NHS not ready…

Life Right Webmaster — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:11:04 +0000

Multi-morbidity research findings:
At Life Right we have always prided ourselves in looking at the whole person when treating illness and disease. We believe that we are so intrinsically linked that treating a single part of any person does not address the complete picture nor understand the contributing factors to help that person regain better health status.

In delivering healthcare solutions under one roof, we also know through our research that patients return to health with more education & knowledge about themselves to remain as well as they can and achieve a quality of life for their lifespan.

The latest goals from NICE project an expectation to achieve a refined and agreed treatment protocol for all GP by next year (2013) to ensure that when patients are assessed that they are seen as a whole person. In research from Dundee University, over 1.1 million people were suffering from 2 or more conditions when visiting their GP …….

Multi-morbidity: “The NHS is poorly set up to deal with multi-morbidity, even though most older people have at least two medical conditions”, UK researchers have warned.

Dr Karen Barnett and colleagues from Dundee University examined data on 40 disorders from more than 1.7m patients registered with 314 GP practices in Scotland.

They found multi-morbidity, defined as having two or more disorders, affected 65% of patients aged above 65 years and 23% of all patients

Multi-morbidity occurred 10-15 years earlier in people living in deprived areas compared with the most affluent.

Despite the prevalence of multi-morbidity, clinical advice is largely created for individual diseases, the researchers said.

‘Clinical guidelines rarely account for multi-morbidity or help clinicians to prioritise recommendations from several guidelines,’ they said.

‘A result is that patients with multi-morbidity might be prescribed several drugs, each of which is recommended by a disease-specific guideline, but the overall drug burden is difficult for patients to manage and potentially harmful.’

Multi-morbidity is ‘becoming the norm rather than the exception’, but evidence of how best to deliver care to people with several disorders is ‘scarce’, they said.

Dr Barnett and colleagues added: ‘Existing approaches focusing on patients with only one disease dominate most medical education, clinical research, and hospital care, but increasingly need to be complemented by support for the work of generalists, mainly but not exclusively in primary care, providing continuity, coordination, and above all a personal approach for people with multimorbidity.

‘This approach is most needed in socioeconomically deprived areas, where multi-morbidity happens earlier, is more common, and more frequently includes physical–mental health comorbidity.’

If you are suffering from poor health or worried about multi-morbidity and wish to make the most of your quality of life, contact Life Right for a comprehensive assessment, if you have a referral from your GP you will qualify for a half price appointment.

multi-morbidity

Exercise, change and learning can alter genetic expression of major diseases…

Life Right Webmaster — Mon, 14 May 2012 15:07:44 +0000

You may have heard of the term epigenetics which means the way in which a gene may or may not express due to environmental stimulus. This is where nurture can alter nature. Having a gene does not mean that it will express and give you a disease. Single gene studies that show we are carriers for particular types of genes will eventually have to give way to the field of epistasis which is the ability of one gene to inhibit another gene due to environmental effects.

A much studied chemical called brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which is produced for example through exercise has been shown to be able to inhibit depression. The findings of a recent paper (1) were able to show how depression is not all about the production of serotonin or lack of it. BDNF was shown to inhibit genes associated to causing depression of where depression runs in families. The findings of the study (1) showed how genes for depression altered neuroplasticity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala. Both are involved in the perception of pain, fight or flight and the stress response, which can mean that specific exercise and movement can alter the distress associated with many sufferings. Not only have important gene interactions been found for depression but also for coronary artery disease (2), diabetes (3), bipolar disorder (4) and autism(5).

It is not just exercise that promotes BDNF, but also learning, in particular new learning i.e. a new language or learning to play an instrument, confirming that any neuroplastic change will help to stimulate BDNF, changing brain functioning that causes depression, invalidity, temporary infirmary, pain (particularly chronic) and low coping levels.

At Life Right we offer a treatment pathway that encompasses, psychotherapy, specific exercise plans, lifestyle activity, increased pertinent movement plans, bespoke sessions in one of our multi-sensory therapy PODs, which will promote and allow change both within a one to one clinical session or group environment. The fields of epigenetics and epistasis are demonstrating real scientific evidence that it matters less and less about genes and more and more about what we experience and how we can change negative experiences, habits, patterns and lifestyles.

Reference:

Pezawas, L., et al (2008). Evidence of biologic epistasis between BDNF and SLC6A4 and implications for depression Molecular Psychiatry, 13 (7), 709-716
Tsai CT, et al (2007). Renin-angiotensin system gene polymorphisms and coronary artery disease in a large angiographic cohort: detection of high order gene-gene interaction. Atherosclerosis, 195 (1), 172-80
Wiltshire S, et al (2006). Epistasis between type 2 diabetes susceptibility Loci on chromosomes 1q21-25 and 10q23-26 in northern Europeans. Annals of human genetics, 70 (Pt 6), 726-37
Abou Jamra R, et al (2007). The first genome wide interaction and locus-heterogeneity linkage scan in bipolar affective disorder: strong evidence of epistatic effects between loci on chromosomes 2q and 6q. American journal of human genetics, 81 (5), 974-86
Coutinho AM et al (2007). Evidence for epistasis between SLC6A4 and ITGB3 in autism etiology and in the determination of platelet serotonin levels. Human genetics, 121 (2), 243-56

Antibiotics in Environment Fuel Drug Resistance?

Life Right Webmaster — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:43:53 +0000

Antibiotics found in river sediment, farmed soil, and other sources are polluting the environment and contributing to the rising rates of antibiotic resistance, a new report suggests.

Resistance to antibiotics occurs when a bacteria grows immune to the effect of an antibiotic or class of antibiotics. It has been called one of the world’s greatest health threats by the CDC, the FDA, and the World Health Organization.

New research in Environmental Health Perspectives analyzed how antibiotics in the environment affect illness-causing bacteria including E. coli. The researchers found that antibiotic pollution in the environment has led to the proliferation of resistant bacteria.

“This … reinforces previous studies which highlight that antibiotic contaminants in the environment may be leading to the development of antibiotic resistance,” says researcher Alfredo Tello in a news release. He is a PhD student from the University of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture in Scotland. “Antibiotics are being overused and we’re seeing the emergence of resistance to infections that we used to be able to treat.”

Their overuse has caused what’s called “selective pressure.” When exposed to antibiotics, bacteria can either die or survive. Selective pressure occurs when these bacteria survivors replicate and their offspring quickly become the dominant type of bacteria. As a result, an army of hard-to-treat germs can arise and spread to humans.

“This adds more science to the fact that antibiotic resistance doesn’t just happen at the animal level,” says Gail Hansen, senior officer with the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C. “It gets get into lagoons or the environment, in general, and has an additive effect on antibiotic resistance.”

She adds that “even lower levels of antibiotics can get into the environment and be high enough to cause resistance.”

Sometimes, antibiotics are given to food animals to speed growth and compensate for less-than-hygienic conditions. The FDA recently gave the food industry three years to voluntarily stop using antibiotics to make food animals grow faster.

The bottom line? “Antibiotics are having an effect even after they are outside of the animal,” Hansen says. “It doesn’t stop.”

Other Drivers of Antibiotic Resistance Matter, Too

Still, the inappropriate, indiscriminate use of antibiotics by doctors is one of the main drivers of antibiotic resistance, explains Philip M. Tierno Jr., PhD. He is director of clinical microbiology at NYU Langone Medical Center and a clinical professor at the NYU School of Medicine.

How do these antibiotics get into the environment? “Things go down the drain, get flushed or thrown in garbage, and leach into soil,” he says. “This is the first study that showed the effect of concentrations of antibiotics in the environment and how this leads to resistant strains of illness-causing bacteria.”

The public health consequences are significant. “If a person got one of these bugs and is in the hospital and being treated, the antibiotic therapy may fail and they may succumb to a once-treatable infection,” Tierno says. “The handwriting is on the wall, and these studies continue to remind us that we have to do something.”

“On an individual level, this means not eating antibiotic-riddled food, not throwing unused antibiotics in the garbage, and not begging your physicians for antibiotics.”

Antibiotic resistance is on the rise, agrees David Hirschwerk, MD. He is an attending physician in the division of infectious disease at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. “More bacteria are becoming resistant to more types of antibiotics,” he says.

SOURCES:

Tell, A. Environmental Health Perspectives, May 8, 2012.
Philip M. Tierno Jr., PhD, director, clinical microbiology, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York.
Gail Hansen, DVM, MPH, senior officer, The Pew Charitable Trust, Washington, D.C.
David Hirschwerk, MD, attending physician, division of infectious disease, North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, N.Y.

Homocysteine Blood Test – the one that really can stop you having a coronary

Life Right Webmaster — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:07:11 +0000

Homocysteine – an amino acid – how much you have in your blood could be a better indicator of heart disease than cholesterol levels.

While most people have heard of cholesterol – the ‘bad’ fat which clogs arteries and raises the risk of suffering a heart attack – few of us will have heard of homocysteine. In fact it is a naturally occurring amino acid which is being increasingly implicated in an alarming number of ailments, from heart disease and stroke to Alzheimer’s.

Homocysteine, it seems, may be a ‘quiet killer’, responsible for cell damage and inflammation which kick-starts a host of diseases. More than 100 medical conditions have been linked to high levels of homocysteine. The most recent evidence, published in the medical journal Stroke, revealed moderate rises in homocysteine lead to a fivefold increase in the risk of stroke, and almost triple the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Other studies suggest high levels of homocysteine may play a role in recurring miscarriage, infertility, arthritis, cancers of the breast, colon, thyroid and skin, hardening of the arteries, heart attacks, Raynaud’s disease, spina bifida, diabetes, osteoporosis, Parkinson’s and psoriasis.

Early signs of high homocysteine levels include fatigue, unexplained weight gain or weight loss, as well as aches and pains in muscles and joints.

About 70% of people who develop heart disease have normal levels of cholesterol, and research has shown homocysteine testing is more predictive than cholesterol in assessing heart disease risk.

Homocysteine is an amino acid – a building block of protein – produced by the body as it metabolises proteins from the diet. In healthy individuals, it is converted into important chemicals which are used to power the cells of the body and help them function properly.

A disruption in this process – which can be caused by vitamin deficiencies, smoking, lack of exercise, old age, menopause, drinking too much tea, coffee and alcohol, inflammatory bowel diseases, ulcers and poor kidney function – can cause homocysteine levels to rise.

Eating a diet overly rich in animal proteins – meat, poultry and dairy products – can also cause levels to rise. Animal proteins contain large amounts of amino acids,

leading to the production of excessive amounts of homocysteine and raising levels in the blood. High homocysteine levels may also occur as a result of deficiencies in B vitamins. Scientists have found that B-vitamin supplements comprising folic acid, B2 and B6 have helped to lower homocysteine.

Eating folate and B-vitamin rich foods such as spinach, wholegrains and liver may also help. Although hospital tests for homocysteine do exist, many GPs are not aware of them.

Life Right provide comprehensive homocysteine testing services which are quick and painless.

Levels as high as 20 micromoles per litre of blood had been recorded in some people, but ‘safe’ levels are about 9 micromoles per litre.

Brain Maintenance – The Secrets to Aging Success

Life Right Webmaster — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:20:47 +0000

Maintain Your Brain: The Secrets to Aging Success

Aging may seem unavoidable, but that’s not necessarily so when it comes to the brain. So say researchers in the April 27th issue of the Cell Press journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences based on counterintuitive evidence that it is what you do in old age that matters when it comes to maintaining a youthful brain rather than what you did earlier in life.

“Although some memory functions do tend to decline as we get older, several elderly show well-preserved functioning and this is related to a well-preserved, youth-like brain,” says Lars Nyberg, Professor of Neuroscience at Umeå University in Sweden.

Education won’t save your brain — PhDs are as likely as high school dropouts to experience memory loss with old age, the researchers say. Don’t count on your job either. Those with a complex or demanding career may enjoy a limited advantage, but those benefits quickly dwindle after retirement. Engagement is the secret to success. Those who are socially, mentally and physically stimulated reliably show greater cognitive performance with a brain that appears younger than its years.

“There is quite solid evidence that staying physically and mentally active is a way towards brain maintenance,” Nyberg says.

The researchers say this new take on successful aging represents an important shift in focus for the field. Much attention in the past has gone instead to understanding ways in which the brain copes with or compensates for cognitive decline in aging. The research team now argues for the importance of avoiding those age-related brain changes in the first place. Genes play a role, but life choices and other environmental factors, especially in old age, are critical.

Elderly people generally do have more trouble remembering meetings or names, Nyberg says. But those memory losses often happen later than many often think, after the age of 60. Older people also continue to accumulate knowledge and to use what they know effectively, often to very old ages.

“Taken together, a wide range of findings provides converging evidence for marked heterogeneity in brain aging,” the scientists write. “Critically, some older adults show little or no brain changes relative to younger adults, along with intact cognitive performance, which supports the notion of brain maintenance. In other words, maintaining a youthful brain, rather than responding to and compensating for changes, may be the key to successful memory aging.”

At Life Right Centre for the application of Behavioural Medicine, we understand the relationship between physical and mental dexterity and absorb this in to our clinical practices for neuro-degenerative decline and changes, so if you notice that your memory recall, physical or mental agility is suffering call us for a health assessment and take the first step to training your brain back to health and wellbeing

Content? People With ‘Balanced Time Perspective’ More Likely to Call Themselves Content

Life Right Webmaster — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:09:56 +0000

People With ‘Balanced Time Perspective’ More Likely to Call Themselves Content

Do you look fondly at the past, enjoy yourself in the present, and strive for future goals? If you hold these time perspectives simultaneously and don’t go overboard on any one of them — you’re likely to be a happy person.

A new study by San Francisco State University researcher Ryan Howell and his colleagues demonstrates that having this sort of “balanced time perspective” can make people feel more vital, more grateful, and more satisfied with their lives. Their findings are reported online in the Journal of Happiness Studies.

“If you are too extreme or rely too much on any one of these perspectives, it becomes detrimental, and you can get into very destructive types of behaviors,” Howell said. “It is best to be balanced in your time perspectives.”

While it may seem obvious that people who have a positive attitude about their past, enjoy the present, and focus on goals for the future would be the happiest, Howell said that a sense of well-being depends on the balance between these elements.

“If you’re really dominant in one type of perspective, you’re very limited in certain situations,” he added. “To deal well when you walk into any situation, you need to have cognitive flexibility. That is probably why people with a balanced time perspective are happiest.”

It can be fine to have fond memories of childhood, for instance, but spending too much time remembering the past can keep you from enjoying the present. It might be great to treat yourself to a nice dinner, but “living in the moment” like that every night could keep you from achieving future goals. There is some evidence that people can “rebalance” their time perspectives, Howell said, while noting that “there hasn’t been a lot of work that’s tried to change time perspectives explicitly.” But in general, “if you’re too future-oriented, it might be good to give yourself a moment to sit back and enjoy the present,” Howell suggested. “If you’re too hedonistic and living for the moment, maybe it’s time to start planning some future goals

Do you recognise yourself in this study…would thinking in a more balanced way benefit your life if so and you wish to change your life perspectives call now for a health assessment and way forward to work with changing your perspectives and therefore recalibrating your thinking.

Breathing the right way…

Life Right Webmaster — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:32:15 +0000

Breathing the Right Way

Abdominal Breathing…
Breathing into the belly is thought of as being a relaxed breathing state and is even taught in yoga classes, however it’s only in a recent study that the real effect of abdominal breathing has on our body’s blood supply.

In the centre of our body we have all of our blood return to our heart & get re-oxygenated by passing through the heart, pumped through the lungs to then returned to the heart to be pumped around the body. The returning veins of greatest importance are the vena cavas inferior and superior. Abdominal breathing does not have an effect on the collapse of the superior vena cava but does collapse the inferior vena cava. This means that blood is stopped from getting to your heart to be pumped around the lungs.

A group of medical doctors and PhD doctors were able to show that abdominal breathing occludes the inferior vena cava meaning greater strain is placed on the right side of the heart. This illuminating study is able to show us that there are more features to the blood circulation than just the heart to pump it round.

A complementary study showed that by changing the RF component of heart rate variability, hypertension can be reduced and normalised once there is feedback on reducing abdominal breathing and gaining correct functioning of the ribs and diaphragm. Not only can faulty breathing patterns lead to high blood pressure but it can also give feelings of anxiety and put more pressure on your heart.

Life Right offer a complementary heart rate variability test. In addition to this, we can also offer an assessment to measure your breathing pattern and blood pressure, plus learn how you can naturally combat one of the most important risk factors for poor health with just your breathing!

To book a free HRV test or breathing pattern assessment, contact us

breathing/breathing therapy

breathing/Health4You

References

Byeon K et al (2012). The Response of the Vena Cava to Abdominal Breathing. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 18 (2) 153-157.

Lin G et al (2012). Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Decreases Blood Pressure in Pre-hypertensive Subjects by Improving Autonomic Function and Baro-reflex . The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 18 (2) 143-152.

Behavioural Problems in Childhood…

Life Right Webmaster — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:03:08 +0000

Behavioural Problems in Childhood Doubles the Risk of Chronic Widespread Pain in Adult Life

Bad behaviour in childhood is associated with long-term, chronic widespread pain in adult life, according to the findings of a study following nearly 20,000 people from birth in 1958 to the present day.

Chronic widespread pain is a common complaint that can have a major adverse effect on quality of life, often requiring referral to a hospital specialist for investigation and treatment. The research, published online in the journal Rheumatology in March 2012, found that children with severe behaviour disturbances had approximately double the risk of chronic widespread pain by the time they reached the age of 45 than children who did not have behaviour problems.

The researchers found that this association was not explained by social class, early reporting of symptoms or an already-known link between adult psychological distress and chronic widespread pain (CWP). Instead, they believe that a dysfunction in the interaction between the nervous system and hormones, occurring in early life, may have long-term consequences for adult health.

The lead author of the study, Dr Dong Pang, an epidemiologist at the University of Aberdeen (UK), said: “We know already that severe adverse events in childhood such as hospitalisation after a road traffic accident and separation from mothers are linked to CWP in adulthood. In addition, aspects of childhood behaviour are strongly related to children reporting CWP. However, until now, it was unknown whether maladjusted behaviour in children was a long-term marker for CWP in adulthood. Our study shows that it is.

If you know of a young person who you consider is suffering from behavioural problems, anxiety and developmental concerns, refer them to Life Right Centre for the application of Behavioural Medicine, to avoid this trajectory towards ill health in their future.

“We are not sure what underlying biological mechanism underpins this relationship, but one possible explanation might be that both the childhood behaviour and the adult CWP are due to a long-term neuroendocrine dysfunction beginning in early life. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, the primary neuroendocrine stress response system, has been shown to be associated with childhood behaviour. Similarly, altered HPA axis function has been reported to be associated with CWP. Early life experience, such as emotional stress due to past trauma, may have a lifelong impact on the neuroendocrine system (HPA axis), which in turn leads to behavioural problems in childhood and CWP in adulthood as well as other mental problems. Further research at molecular and genetic level are needed to clarify this.”

The researchers followed a group of 18,558 children who were born in one week in 1958 in England, Scotland and Wales, and an additional 920 children who were born in the same week overseas and who came to the UK before the age of 16. Information was collected at regular intervals, including at the ages of 7, 11 and 16, and at 42 and 45 in adulthood. Parents and teachers independently assessed the children’s behaviour on aspects such as restlessness, worrying, solitariness, ability to make friends, obedience, stealing, sucking thumbs and biting nails, lying, bullying, truanting etc. At the age of 42 the participants completed a questionnaire asking about psychological distress in adult life, and at the age 45 they completed another one about pain.

The study found that CWP was slightly more common in women than in men (12.9% versus 11.7%). Children whose teachers had reported severe persistent behaviour problems at all ages (7, 11 and 16) had more than double the risk of CWP in adulthood compared with children without behaviour problems at all ages. If the children had severe behaviour problems at 11 and 16, then they had nearly double the risk of CWP in later life. Similar, but weaker associations were shown for parent-reported behaviour, which the researchers believe is because teachers tend to be better at providing objective assessments of behaviour as they have more children to compare.

The researchers say that it is not just CWP that is associated with bad behaviour in childhood. Other adult problems that are associated with childhood behavioural problems include long-term psychiatric problems such as depression and anxiety, suicidal behaviour, substance abuse and treatment for psychiatric illness. They suggest that all these problems may be outcomes of the chain of events set in motion by the dysfunctioning neuroendocrine system. If further research proves this to be the case, then it might be possible to intervene in early life to prevent these problems occurring later.

Professor Gary Macfarlane, the leader of the research group, said: “This study helps us to understand the factors in childhood that can lead someone to get on a trajectory of ill-health, including chronic pain. The disruption to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (stress-response) axis is one biological marker of the effect of such experiences and this could help to identify persons at higher risk of chronic pain. Interventions would be lifestyle focussed and would include identification and treatment of behavioural and emotional factors, but would also address lifestyle factors.

If you know of a young person who you consider is suffering from behavioural problems, anxiety and developmental concerns, refer them to Life Right Centre for the application of Behavioural Medicine, to avoid this trajectory towards ill health in their future.

Sleep – Deprivation means higher risk of Diabetes & Anxiety

Life Right Webmaster — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 08:30:39 +0000

Sleep Deprivation (or even disruption) Means Higher Risk of Diabetes and Obesity

ScienceDaily (Apr. 11, 2012) — A study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) reinforces the finding that too little sleep or sleep patterns that are inconsistent with our body’s “internal biological clock” may lead to increased risk of diabetes and obesity. This finding has been seen in short-term lab studies and when observing human subjects via epidemiological studies. However, unlike epidemiological studies, this new study provides support by examining humans in a controlled lab environment over a prolonged period, and altering the timing of sleep, mimicking shift work or recurrent jet lag.

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The study will be electronically published on April 11, 2012 in Science Translational Medicine.

Researchers hosted 21 healthy participants in a completely controlled environment for nearly six weeks. The researchers controlled how many hours of sleep participants got, as well as when they slept, and other factors such as activities and diet. Participants started with getting optimal sleep (approximately 10 hours per night). This was followed by three weeks of 5.6 hours of sleep per 24-hour period and with sleep occurring at all times of day and night, thereby simulating the schedule of rotating shift workers. Thus, during this period, there were many days when participants were trying to sleep at unusual times within their internal circadian cycle-the body’s “internal biological clock” that regulates sleep-wake and many other processes within our bodies. The study closed with the participants having nine nights of recovery sleep at the usual time.

The researchers saw that prolonged sleep restriction with simultaneous circadian disruption decreased the participants’ resting metabolic rate. Moreover, during this period, glucose concentrations in the blood increased after meals, because of poor insulin secretion by the pancreas.

According to the researchers, a decreased resting metabolic rate could translate into a yearly weight gain of over 10 pounds if diet and activity are unchanged. Increased glucose concentration and poor insulin secretion could lead to an increased risk for diabetes.

“We think these results support the findings from studies showing that, in people with a pre-diabetic condition, shift workers who stay awake at night are much more likely to progress to full-on diabetes than day workers,” said Orfeu M. Buxton, PhD, BWH neuroscientist and lead study author. “Since night workers often have a hard time sleeping during the day, they can face both circadian disruption working at night and insufficient sleep during the day. The evidence is clear that getting enough sleep is important for health, and that sleep should be at night for best effect.” If your mind is racing and you find it difficult to get to sleep or if you are waking in the night, you may ne suffering from stress and a hormonal imbalance..book in with one of our practitioners for a baseline health check to avoid it becoming a life changing issue for you

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sleep/The Pod