Category Health/Medical

A sleep study in process is shown. Credit: The University of Chicago Medicine

2 consecutive nights of extended sleep, a typical weekend occurrence, appears to counteract the increased risk of diabetes associated with short-term sleep restriction during the work week, at least in lean, healthy, young men eating a controlled diet. The finding, based on a study performed at the University of Chicago sleep lab could affect large numbers of people who work long hours.

Even short-term sleep restriction, with 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night, can increase the risk of developing diabetes by about 16%—comparable to the increase in risk caused by obesity.

The researchers recruited 19 volunteers, all healthy young men. On one occasion, they were allowed to sleep normally, spending 8...

Binding of p53 to non‐canonical response elements in human subtelomeres confers enhancer‐like activities and correlates with increased telomere stability. Non‐canonical p53 binding sites were identified in the subtelomeres of both human and mouse. Subtelomeric p53 response elements confer transcription activation in vitro and p53‐dependent induction of TERRA, eRNA‐like transcripts, and more distal subtelomeric genes. p53 status correlates with enhanced telomere stability and survival in response to etoposide‐induced DNA damage. Stress‐induced p53 binding to the subtelomere correlates with increased histone acetylation and decreased γH2AX. CRISPR deletion of the p53 response element ameliorates these effects.

New research shows p53 is able to suppress accumulated DNA damage a...

A new study found eating less fiber, more saturated fat, sugar is associated with lighter, less restorative, and more disrupted sleep. Results show that greater fiber intake predicted more time spent in deep, slow wave sleep. In contrast, a higher percentage of energy from saturated fat predicted less slow wave sleep. Greater sugar intake also was associated with more arousals from sleep.

“Our main finding was that diet quality influenced sleep quality,” said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, PhD, assistant professor in the department of medicine and Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, N.Y. “It was most surprising that a single day of greater fat intake and lower fiber could influence sleep parameters.”

The study also found that participants fell asleep fas...

Linactolide

In mice, investigators found a high caloric diet turned off expression of a key hormone in the intestine, which led to deactivation of a tumor suppressor pathway. Genetic replacement of that hormone turned the tumor suppressor back on and prevented cancer development – even when mice continued to eat excess calories.

These findings position the use of the pill linaclotide (Linzess), which is structurally related to the lost hormone, as a therapeutic approach to preventing colorectal cancer in obese patients. The FDA approved linaclotide in 2012 to treat IBS with constipation as well as chronic idiopathic constipation (chronic constipation from unknown causes)...