A US cohort study suggested that physical activity (PA) appears to reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in part by acting through the brain’s stress-related activity. The study included a total of 50,359 adults (median age 60 years; 40.1% male). Stress-related neural activity was measured as the ratio of resting amygdalar-to-cortical […]
A UK nested case-control study suggested that concomitant use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and oral anticoagulants (OACs) was associated with bleeding risk and should be closely monitored, particularly within the initial months of treatment. Between January 1998, and March 2021, 42 190 atrial fibrillation (AF) patients with major bleeding […]
A UK cohort study suggested that irregular sleep may represent a novel dementia risk factor. A random selection of 88,094 individuals (mean age 62 years, 56% women, and median sleep regularity index [SRI] 60) from a UK cohort was done between February 2013 and December 2015. The SRI was calculated […]
A longitudinal cohort and mendelian randomization study suggested there was a modest, but significant longitudinal and causal relationship between neuroticism and atrial fibrillation (AF). In 394,834 UK participants (mean age 56.3 years, 45.9% male), AF occurred in 23,509 (6.0%) during a 10-year follow-up. Based on the median summary score from […]
A UK prospective cohort analysis suggested that both functional (subjective) and structural (objective) measures of social connection were independently associated with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality. The analysis included 458,146 participants with a median of 12.6 years follow-up, 33,135 (7.2%) deaths, including 5112 (1.1%) CVD deaths. Friends/family visit frequencies < monthly were […]
A US cohort study suggests that high blood pressure variability (BPV) can indicate increased incident dementia risk in older age. The study focused on 820 participants (mean age, 77.0 years; 58.0% females) with data of brain autopsy and midlife to late-life BP. A mean of 28.4 yearly SBP measurements were […]
A US cohort study suggested that metformin cessation was associated with increased dementia incidence. The cohort consisted of 12 220 early terminators and 29 126 routine users, respectively (women 46.2% and 46.6%, respectively; mean age at start of first metformin prescription 59.4 and 61.1 years, respectively). Early terminators had 1.21 times the […]
A UK pragmatic, superiority, open label, randomized controlled trial of sleep restriction therapy (SRT) versus sleep hygiene concluded that brief primary care nurse delivered SRT is both clinically effective and cost-effective in treating insomnia disorder and improving other aspects of mental health and functioning. A total of 642 participants (mean […]
A Swedish population-wide longitudinal cohort study suggested that β-blockers were associated with reductions in violence. The study included 1,400,766 individuals aged 15 years or older (50 years and over 86.8%, women 52.2%) who had collected β-blocker prescriptions and followed them for 8 years between 2006 and 2013. 6.9% of the […]
A prospective US cohort study indicated that premature cardiovascular disease (CVD before 60 years) is associated with worse midlife cognition and white matter health, which is not entirely driven by stroke/TIA and even independent of CVD risk factors. The study included 3,146 participants, who were 18-30 years at baseline (1985-86, […]