Here are the top stories covered by DocWire News this week in the Homepage section. In this week’s edition of the round-up: a study suggests that optimistic people sleep longer and better, eating poultry can reduce the risk of breast cancer, an increased intake of vitamin A can lower the risk of skin cancer, and elderly patients who have been flu vaccinated have less chance of dying in the ICU.
Optimistic people tend to sleep better and longer, according to the findings of a study published in Behavioral Medicine. Researchers evaluated 3,548 adults aged 32-51 who had participated in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. They assessed optimism using the revised Life-Orientation Test while ascertaining self-reported measures of sleep quality and duration twice over five years. Following cross-sectional analyses, the results of the study revealed that each standard deviation (SD) higher optimism score resulted in 78% higher odds of self-reporting very good sleep quality. One of the researchers stated that “optimists are more likely to engage in active problem-focused coping and to interpret stressful events in more positive ways, reducing worry and ruminative thoughts when they’re falling asleep and throughout their sleep cycle.”
A new study published in the International Journal of Cancer suggests that substituting red meat for poultry can reduce the risk of breast cancer. To examine the association between breast cancer and meat consumption, the researchers collected data from 42,012 sister study participants who completed a Block 1998 Food Frequency Questionnaire at enrollment. According to the study results, during a seven-year follow-up, an increased consumption of red meat was linked with an increased risk of invasive breast cancer while an augmented consumption of poultry was correlated with a decreased risk of breast cancer. The study’s senior author said that “our study adds further evidence that red meat consumption may be associated with increased risk of breast cancer whereas poultry was associated with decreased risk.”
An increased intake of vitamin A has been linked with a decreased risk of developing cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC), according to a new study published in JAMA Dermatology. In this prospective cohort study, researchers evaluated vitamin A intake and carotenoids and CSCC risk in a total of 3,978 SCC cases comprising 75,170 women. According to the study results, a higher total vitamin A was correlated with a reduction in CSCC risk. One of the researchers stated that “our study provides another reason to eat lots of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet.”
Elderly patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) have a lower risk of mortality if they have been influenza vaccinated, according to a study published in Intensive Care Medicine. In this study, researchers assessed data on 89,818 ICU survivors from the Danish Intensive Care Database data on all elderly (65 and older) patients hospitalized in Danish ICUs from 2005–2015, and subsequently discharged. Following data analysis, the results showed that adjusted one-year mortality decreased among the vaccinated patients compared to unvaccinated patients. Influenza vaccinated patients also had a decreased risk of stroke. “We can see that the elderly people who have been vaccinated do better in the event of critical illness. This suggests that it would be good if more elderly people received the vaccine,” the researchers said.