Skipping breakfast packs on pounds
Yet another study is confirming that adolescents who skip breakfast have a higher risk of being overweight.
“There’s a pretty significant inverse association between how frequently kids report eating breakfast and how much weight they gain over time, and we took into account other dietary factors and physical activity,” said Mark Pereira, associate professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He was a co-author of the study, published in the March issue of Pediatrics.
“It’s interesting to note that the kids who eat breakfast on a daily basis overall have a much better diet and are more physically active,” Pereira said.
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Stroke risk rises with stress level
The notion that stress can help bring on a stroke may have merit, British researchers say.
“If you divide the population into five different groups according to how severe their stress is, someone in the highest stress group, reporting the greatest stress, has a 40 percent increased risk of stroke than someone in the lowest group,” said Paul G. Surtees, a psychologist at the University of Cambridge. “That is quite a difference.”
On the other hand, his team found no association between depression and stroke risk.
The stroke risk rose steadily with the amount of stress reported, the researchers said.
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As vision fades, heart danger rises
People suffering from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have twice the risk of dying from heart attack or stroke, Australian researchers report.
The degenerative eye disease is the most common cause of untreatable blindness among older adults in developed countries and affects the center of the retina at the back of the eye, which is essential for tasks such as reading and driving.
“We found a positive long-term link between AMD and subsequent cardiovascular and stroke mortality in a population of older Australians,” said lead researcher Dr. Paul Mitchell, from the Centre for Vision Research in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Sydney. “This was particularly increased for late-blinding cases.”
“Both ophthalmologists and general practitioners should be aware of this potential link and need to consider appropriate management of traditional vascular risk factors, such as smoking, blood pressure, blood lipids in their patients with AMD,” Mitchell said.
One expert noted that because AMD is a vascular problem, it is not surprising that it is associated with increased cardiovascular risk.
