Loud noises might raise blood pressure
Even as they sleep, people who live near major airports may suffer increased blood pressure because of aircraft noise, a study by the Imperial College London shows. In fact, the louder the noise, the higher blood pressure will go, the study found, and that can include noise from other sources such as traffic. Every 5-decibel increase in airplane noise caused systolic pressure to rise 0.66 mmHg.
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Acute coronary drop linked to smoking ban
The number of acute coronary events dropped 11.2 percent among people ages 35 to 64 in Rome after Italy banned smoking in public places in 2005, a new report shows. “It will be interesting to see if the effect of the ban is stable over time, and if similar positive health effects can be detected in other places,” said study co-author Francesco Forastiere, head of the environmental and occupational epidemiology unit of Rome’s Health Authority.
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Take care of your liver
Too much fast food and too little exercise can harm the liver, shows a small study at University Hospital of Linkoping, Sweden. Of 18 slim, healthy people who ate two fast-food meals daily for four weeks and restricted activity to no more than 5,000 steps a day, 11 showed clinical signs of liver damage. No one in a control group had damage. In addition, average weight gain was a startling 14 pounds.
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When early detection doesn’t play key role
A new study concludes that most older men with early prostate cancer do not shorten their survival odds with a “wait-and-see” approach to the disease. Most such patients will die of other causes or they simply won’t develop any complications from the cancer, said study author Grace Lu-Yau, a cancer epidemiologist at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. The mean age in the study was 77.
