DARIEN, IL – Loneliness is not only heartbreaking, it breaks up a normal night’s sleep, a new study shows. Researchers say compromised sleep may be one pathway by which feelings of loneliness adversely affect our health.

“It’s not just a product of very lonely individuals having poor sleep. The relationship between loneliness and restless sleep appears to operate across the range of perceived connectedness,” said lead author Lianne Kurina, PhD, of the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago.

Kurina and her co-authors compared the degree of loneliness reported by a close-knit population of 95 adults in rural South Dakota with measurements of their sleep cycles. None of the individuals were socially isolated, yet their perceptions of loneliness varied. Higher loneliness scores were linked to significantly higher levels of fragmented sleep. The total amount of sleep and the degree of daytime sleepiness were not impacted.

“Loneliness has been associated with adverse effects on health,” Kurina said. “We wanted to explore one potential pathway for this, the theory that sleep – a key behavior to staying healthy – could be compromised by feelings of loneliness. What we found was that loneliness does not appear to change the total amount of sleep in individuals, but awakens them more times during the night.”

These findings, appearing in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal SLEEP, were similar to a 2002 study published by the American Psychological Society that compared the loneliness reported by college students with their measured quality of sleep. The lonelier the students felt, the more their sleep was broken-up during the night.

The similarities among the studies help point out that loneliness and social isolation are two distinct concepts, Kurina said. Loneliness reflects perceived social isolation or feelings of being an outcast, the often-painful discrepancy between a person’s desired and actual social relationships.

“Whether you’re a young student at a major university or an older adult living in a rural community, we may all be dependent on feeling secure in our social environment in order to sleep soundly,” Kurina said. “The results from these studies could further our understanding of how social and psychological factors ‘get under the skin’ and affect health.”

For a copy of the study, “Loneliness Is Associated with Sleep Fragmentation in a Communal Society,” or to arrange an interview with an AASM spokesperson, please contact PR Coordinator Doug Dusik at 630-737-9700, ext. 9345, or ddusik@aasmnet.org.

The promise of some wireless-enabled remote patient monitoring devices is that they can help prevent heart failure episodes. They aim to reduce hospital readmissions. A new device currently being developed by a team of academics here in Massachusetts aims to do the same thing for drug addiction relapses. After 30 days in a substance abuse clinic, can a remote monitoring device help patients once they re-enter the real world? The iHeal device aims to do just that.

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has developed a prototype of a mobile health device that can detect changes in the affective state in an effort to predict when the wearer is about to “transition to risky behaviors,” according to an abstract published in Springer’s Journal of Medical Toxicology this week. Edward Boyer and his colleagues have designed the device for individuals who have a post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD) or a history of substance abuse.

The iHeal device is a wrist-worn sensor device that measures electrical activity of the skin, body motion, skin temperature, and heart rate. These are all indicators of arousal or stress that can be wireless streamed to a smartphone where an app can monitor and process the indicators. When stress levels reach a certain threshold, the app asks users to make a note about the events that led up to the increased stress levels, including information about perceived level of stress, drug cravings, and any other current activities. The opportunity is to deliver personalized, multimedia drug prevention interventions right at the critical moment.

iHeal sounds similar to the $2,000 Q Sensor device from Affectiva. Affectiva was founded in 2009 by two MIT scientists and started as a research project on autism at MIT’s Media Lab. The Q Sensor is a wearable wireless biosensor that measures emotional arousal (excitement, anxiety, and calm) via skin conductance, as well as temperature and movement.

The iHeal researchers believe their technology could also be used for managing chronic pain, overeating, medication adherence, too. Interventions for drug abuse and these other conditions are often ineffective outside of the clinic.

Future versions of iHeal device may be worn around the ankle or it could look more like a wristwatch.

The researchers conclude: “Our findings demonstrate that conducting clinical trials using enabling technologies in natural environments will require a deeper understanding of user preferences. Study designers should rely on recipients rather than ‘experts’ to create intervention content. A focus on preventing identification of research participants to avoid subsequent stigmatization is also key.”

More over at Springer’s website here.

Article taken from mobihealthnews – http://mobihealthnews.comURL to article: http://mobihealthnews.com/16272/iheal-device-aims-to-prevent-substance-abuse-relapses/

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/rm-quiz-dreams?ecd=wnl_slw_020912

Cholesterol is a soft, waxy substance found in every cell of your body.

1- It’s essential for normal body

function, but your body produces all the cholesterol it needs, so cholesterol in your diet is deposited

in your blood vessels. Eventually, this surplus can lead to narrowing of the arteries, stroke and heart

disease.

2- In fact, high blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for heart disease, the leading cause of

death in the U.S. Depending on race, between 40 and 51 percent of American adults have high blood

cholesterol.

3-Get Healthy. Stay Healthy.

4-What is Cholesterol?

LDL vs. HDL cholesterol

Cholesterol is carried through the bloodstream by particles called lipoproteins, which are made up of cholesterol on the

inside and protein on the outside. There are two main types of lipoproteins:

Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) are the major type of lipoprotein carrying cholesterol through the body. LDL cholesterol builds up on the walls of your arteries and can lead to coronary artery disease, heart attack and stroke.

High-density lipoproteins (HDL) carry excess cholesterol back to the liver to remove it from the body. HDL cholesterol is what’s referred to as “good cholesterol.

“Approximately a quarter of the adult population have sleeping problems and an estimated 6-10% have an insomnia disorder”

http://www.sleepreviewmag.com/sleep_report/2012-02-01_01.asp

http://www.livemint.com/2011/12/26211145/21-easy-tweaks-for-the-new-yea.html?h=C