Good Sleep Wakes Up Memory

Besides helping you feel well-rested, getting your zzz's may also sharpen your memory, a new study shows.

Researchers found that sleep not only protects memories from outside interferences, it also helps strengthen them.

"There was a very large benefit of sleep for memory consolidation, even larger than we were anticipating," said study author Dr. Jeffrey Ellenbogen, an associate neurologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and a postdoctoral fellow in sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The research is scheduled to be presented May 2 at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Boston.

In the study, the researchers focused on sleep's impact on "declarative" memories, which are related to specific facts, episodes and events.

"We sought to explore whether sleep has any impact on memory consolidation, specifically the type of memory for facts and events and time," Ellenbogen said. "We know that sleep helps boost memory for procedural tests, such as learning a new piano sequence, but we're not sure, even though it's been debated for 100 years, whether sleep impacts declarative memory."

The study involved 48 people between the ages of 18 and 30. These participants had normal, healthy sleep routines and were not taking any medications. They were all taught 20 pairs of words and asked to recall them 12 hours later. However, the participants were divided evenly into four groups with different circumstances for testing: sleep before testing, wake before testing, sleep before testing with interference, or wake before testing with interference.

Two of the groups (the wake groups) were taught the words at 9 a.m. and then tested on the pairings at 9 p.m., after being awake all day. The other two groups (the sleep groups) learned the words at 9 p.m., went to sleep, and were then tested at 9 a.m.

Also, prior to testing, one of the sleep groups and one of the wake groups were given a second list of 20 word pairs to remember. These groups were then tested on both lists to help determine memory recall with interference (competing information).

The result: Sleep appeared to help particpants recall their learned declarative memories, even when they were given competing information.

According to the researchers, people who slept after learning the information performed best, successfully recalling more words whether or not there was interference. Those in the sleep group without interference were able to recall 12 percent more word pairings from the first list than the wake group without interference (94 percent recall for the sleep group vs. 82 percent for the wake group).

When presented with interference, those who slept before testing did significantly better at remembering the words (76 percent for the sleep group vs. 32 percent for the wake group).

"We were surprised to find the order of magnitude by which the data demonstrated our effects," Ellenbogen said.

Jan Born, a professor of neuroendocrinology at the University of Lbeck in Germany, said the study offers more proof of the importance of sleep for memory consolidation.

"Considering that learning in every educational setting (schools, colleges, etc.), is centrally based on hippocampus-dependent memory function [declarative memories], people should realize that optimal learning conditions require proper sleep," he said.

Proper sleep may have other benefits, too, added Michael Perlis, director of the Sleep Research Laboratory at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. Research has shown that in addition to memory, sleep may be related to physical functioning, good immune function, physical and cognitive performance, and mood regulation, he said.

"These are all theories. The only thing we know is that when we're deprived of sleep, we do less well. Is that a lack of sleep or sustained wakefulness? It's very difficult to figure out how to crack that nut," he said. "We spend 30 percent of our time on sleep. What is sleep for? This is a riddle we're still working on."

For more on the importance of sleep, visit the National Sleep Foundation.

Genes May Predict Elderly Blindness Risk

Genes May Predict Elderly Blindness Risk

Two genes could determine an older person's vulnerability to an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), researchers report.

People who smoked or were overweight faced an even greater risk for the potentially blinding eye condition, the study found.

"The two genetic variants are related and predict to a certain extent which individuals who have earlier-intermediate forms of macular degeneration progress to the advanced form and visual loss," explained the study's lead author, Dr. Johanna M. Seddon, director of the Ophthalmic, Epidemiology and Genetics Service in the department of ophthalmology at Tufts-New England Medical Center and New England Eye Center.

"Genetic variants are part of the way we can differentiate who gets worse, coupled with environmental factors like a high body mass index and smoking," said Seddon, whose team published its results in the April 25 issue of theJournal of the American Medical Association.

The findings have implications for the prevention of AMD, one expert said.

"They've actually identified specific genes and specific abnormalities in specific genes that prove that macular degeneration has a strong genetic component," said Dr. Robert Cykiert, clinical associate professor of ophthalmology at New York University School of Medicine in New York City. "What this says is if you have someone in your immediate family such as parents or siblings with AMD, then you need to see an ophthalmologist and be carefully followed, because there are things that can be done to prevent progression."

Down the line, there may even be a blood test to detect these genes, further brightening the picture for prevention and early treatment, Cykiert said.

But it's too early to recommend widespread screening, the authors stated.

"Some individuals who progress do not have these genetic variants or have never smoked," Seddon said. "We need to refine this predictive measure, add more genetic variants and maybe even more environmental factors."

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) involves damage to the inner lining of the eye and can lead to visual impairment and even legal blindness.

"There are several million people who have the earlier-intermediate stages of AMD once they reach the age of 75 or older, but [only] 6 to 8 percent of individuals have advanced disease, so the question is, how do we predict or identify those people who are at higher risk?" Seddon said.

AMD has previously been associated with variations in two genes:CFHandLOC387715. But previous studies exploring this relationship had been cross-sectional in nature, not prospective as the current one is.

For this study, Seddon and her colleagues looked at almost 1,500 white adults aged 55 to 80 with the earlier intermediate signs of macular degeneration. During an average of more than six years of follow-up, 281 individuals progressed to advanced AMD in one or both eyes.

Genotypic analysis revealed that two specific genetic polymorphisms --CFH Y402HandLOC387715 A69S-- were linked with progression to more advanced AMD.

The risk of progression was 2.6 times higher for those with theCFHvariant and 4.1 times higher for those with theLOC387715variant, after controlling for other factors.

For people who had one of the genotypes, smoking and being overweight increased the risk 19-fold, making a strong argument for lifestyle changes in people who are identified as having the genetic risk factors.

Via Google:Source Washington Post

Young adults at risk of heart disease

Young adults at risk of heart disease

New findings reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology show young adults with several risk factors may show problems in their arteries by their 40s, and even an 18-year-old's cholesterol and blood pressure should be monitored.

Researchers discovered that among more than 3,000 black and white men and women, those with more heart disease risk factors in their 20s were two to three times more likely to have calcium build-up in their arteries 15 years later.

Calcium is a component of the artery-clogging plaques that lead to coronary heart disease. CT scans detect calcium in the arteries, and the extent of calcification has been shown to forecast a person's risk of future heart attack.

"As this study illustrates, we are learning more and more about the beginnings of heart disease and how to prevent it," lead study author Dr. Catherine M. Loria, a researcher at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, said in a statement.

"Young men and women should work with their doctors to learn about their risk, and then do everything they can to reduce it, such as eating a healthy diet and being physically active," she added.

The findings are based on data from 3,043 adults who were between the ages of 18 and 30 in 1985 and 1986. At study entry and periodically thereafter, the study participants were assessed for various heart disease risk factors, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking.

They also underwent CT scans to detect coronary artery calcium 15 years after the start of the study, when they were between the ages of 33 and 45.

Overall, Loria’s team found that nearly 10 percent showed calcium build-up in their arteries, with participants in their 40s at higher risk than those in their 30s. When the researchers looked at other risk factors for coronary calcium, they found that blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking in young adulthood were key.

For every 10 cigarettes participants smoked per day in early adulthood, their risk of coronary calcium buildup later in life rose by 50 percent. The risk also climbed in tandem with their blood pressure, LDL (”bad”) cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Via Google News

New prostate cancer test Blood protein check more exact than PSA

New prostate cancer test Blood protein check more exact than PSA

A new prostate cancer test that relies on measuring levels of a blood protein found cancer 94 percent of the time, a significant improvement over the current PSA test, according to a study released Wednesday.

Each year, about 1.6 million men undergo biopsies because they test positive on a PSA test -- but only about 230,000 of them have cancer.

The new test for the blood protein, EPCA-2, not only detects prostate cancer, but also can determine if it has spread to other parts of the body, according to the study published in the journal Urology.

"It could allow us to help patients decide if they need a biopsy or if it's tame or has the ability to invade outside the prostate," said Robert Getzenberg, director of research at James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author of the study.

The test must undergo large-scale clinical trials and review by the Food and Drug Administration, but it could be available early next year, said Getzenberg, who is a consultant to Onconome Inc., a Seattle biomedical company that is developing the test.

Each year, about 230,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed and about 27,000 men die, according to the American Cancer Society.

Digital rectal examination and the test for the prostate-specific antigen (PSA), which was approved in 1994, have been the primary methods of detecting the cancer. But questions about the accuracy of the PSA test have been building over the years; it has a high level of false positives and misses about 15 percent of prostate cancers.

Many false-positive results require that patients undergo a biopsy, a surgical procedure in which prostate samples are taken for analysis. Another problem is the PSA test does not distinguish between the cancer's aggressive form, which is frequently fatal, and a slow-growing form that patients safely can live with. "The PSA is a flawed marker. Everybody agrees with that," says Dr. Laurence Klotz, chief of urology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto.

In hunting down a new marker, Getzenberg said his team found that EPCA-2 was structurally different in cancerous and normal prostate cells. The researchers measured the EPCA-2 levels in the blood of 385 men who were known to have cancer or were free of it. Men who had an elevated EPCA-2 test had cancer 94 percent of the time, compared with about 19 percent of men with an elevated PSA result, reported in previous studies.

The test falsely sounded an alarm 3 percent of the time, according to the report. The EPCA-2 test missed about 6 percent of existing cancers, but the PSA test misses about 15 percent of existing cancers, according to previous studies.

Via Google News