Embrace your siesta for a healthy heart By Stephen Smith The Boston GlobePublished: February 13, 2007 Could midday napping save your life? If the experience of Greek men is any guide, the answer just may be yes. In a study released Monday, researchers at THE HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH and in Athens reported that people who took regular 30-minute naps were 37 percent less likely to die of heart disease over a six-year period than those who never napped. The scientists tracked more than 23,000 Greek adults, finding that the benefits of napping were most pronounced for working men. Researchers have long recognized that Mediterranean adults die of heart disease at a rate lower than Americans and Northern Europeans. Diets rich in olive oil and other heart-healthy foods have received some of the credit, but scientists have been intrigued by the potential role of napping. The study, published in The Archives of Internal Medicine, concluded that napping was more likely than diet or physical activity to lower the incidence of heart attacks and other life-ending heart ailments. Still, the authors cautioned that further research was needed to confirm their findings. We dont want the world to start sleeping in the afternoon yet. A single study never conveys a public health message, said Dr. Dimitrios Trichopoulos, a Harvard professor and author of the study, who said he stopped napping when he moved to the United States 20 years ago. Specialists not involved with the study said there were sound biochemical reasons to believe that a nap might help protect against heart disease. Essentially, they said, sleep at any time of day acts like a valve to release the stress of everyday life. We all know that the three pillars of health are diet, exercise and sleep, and, sometimes, people forget about the importance of sleep, said Dr. Alex Chediak, the president-elect of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a researcher at the University of Miami. The study released Monday is believed to be the largest ever to examine the link between napping and health. Napping, researchers believe, allows people a chance to reset their heart rates and blood pressure in the middle of the day. The researchers quizzed study participants about their siesta habits, defining regular nappers as those who took a midday break at least three times a week, with the nap lasting a minimum of 30 minutes. It was that group that derived the greatest benefit, with a 37 percent drop in deaths attributable to heart disease. The effect was far more modest among those who napped only occasionally, and was not considered statistically meaningful. The researchers said that while working men appeared to benefit the most from naps, they could not reach any conclusions for working women because there were relatively few in the study. For retirees, siestas did not lower heart-disease risk. The human biological clock has two cycles each day, with two dips, said Michael Twery, director of the federal governments National Center on Sleep Disorders Research. One of those dips occurs shortly after lunch for most people. This is a period when many people feel perhaps a little sleepy, drowsy, less awake. And drowsiness recurs right before bedtime, he added. With heart disease still ranked as the number one killer in the United States, specialists said the Harvard study should give rise to more definitive nap research. Given how prevalent cardiovascular disease is, any intervention that could effectively lower risk would be welcomed and worthy of further study, said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a cardiovascular specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles. The challenge now is how people read this. If they read it as, I can continue to smoke, not eat healthy, not exercise, and just take a nap in the afternoon and be protected from cardiovascular disease, then that is absolutely not the right message to be sending. Copyright © 2007 the International Herald Tribune http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/13/news/nap.php
____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
