Restless legs linked with heart problems

People with restless leg syndrome RLS are twice as likely to have a stroke or heart disease and those with the most severe symptoms are at a greater risk, a US research states. Restless leg syndrome is marked by a strong, irresistible urge to move the legs that is often associated with an itching or tugging feeling. These symptoms tend to worsen when resting, causing difficulty in falling or staying asleep. The researchers studied 3,433 men and women enrolled in a sleep study with an average age of 68. Of the participants, nearly seven per cent of the women and three per cent of the men had RLS. The researchers said that most people with RLS have as many as 200 to 300 periodic leg movements per night of sleep and these movements are associated with substantial acute increases in both blood pressure and heart rate, which may, in the long run, lead to a cardiovascular disease or a stroke.

Coffee linked to lower kidney cancer risk
Coffee and tea drinkers have a slightly reduced risk of developing kidney cancer, a research indicates. The findings, based on an analysis of 13 previous studies, suggest that coffee and tea may be protective against kidney cancer, while milk and juice seem to have no effect. For their study, the investigators combined the results of 13 long-term studies that included a total of 530,469 women and 244,483 men. Each study collected information on participants8217; diets at the outset and then followed them for seven to 20 years. Across the studies, people who drank three or more cups of coffee a day were 16 per cent less likely to develop kidney cancer than those who averaged less than a cup per day. And those who sipped just one eight-ounce cup of tea each day had a 15 per cent lower risk of the disease than non-drinkers.

Lack of deep sleep may raise diabetes risk
Deep, sound sleep may be important for keeping Type 2 diabetes at bay, a research in the US said. The team studied nine adults between the ages of 20 and 31, who spent consecutive nights in the sleep lab where they slept undisturbed for 8.5 hours each. Then, for three nights, the researchers disrupted their sleep with noise. The effect was to reduce slow-wave deep sleep by about 90 per cent without altering total sleep time. At the end of each study, the researchers injected a sugar or glucose supplement into each subject and measured their blood sugar and response to insulin, the hormone that regulates the glucose. After three nights of disturbed sleep, eight of the nine volunteers had become less sensitive to insulin, without increasing the production of insulin. Since insulin tells the body it has consumed energy, this deficiency can lead to weight gain and diabetes.