Health Highlights: June 27, 2008
June 28 -- Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:
Working While Tired May Harm Heart
Doing mental or physical work while fatigued may lead to hypertension and heart disease, suggests a U.S. study.
It included 80 volunteers who were told they could win a prize by memorizing, in two minutes, a number of meaningless three-letter sequences. Their blood pressure and heart rate were monitored while they tried to memorize the information. Those with moderate fatigue showed stronger blood pressure increases than those with low fatigue, United Press International reported.
The study appears in the July issue of the International Journal of Psychophysiology.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers said their findings support a theory that a fatigued person's cardiovascular system has to work harder when trying to complete tasks, UPI reported.
"Individuals who experience chronically exaggerated cardiovascular responses are believed to be at greater health risk than individuals who do not. Thus, the implication is that chronic fatigue may pose a health risk under some performance conditions," said study leader Rex Wright.
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DNA Repair Capacity Affects Lung Cancer Risk in Non-smokers
A lack of DNA repair capacity may be a cause of lung cancers that occur in non-smokers, say researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. About 15 percent of lung cancers occur in non-smokers.
The researchers found that non-smokers with less efficient DNA repair ability were almost twice as likely to develop lung cancer, compared to non-smokers with normal DNA repair capacity, United Press International reported.
Non-smokers with the lowest DNA repair capacity were more than three times more likely than average to develop lung cancer.
"Our findings demonstrate that suboptimal DNA repair capacity together with secondhand smoke exposure are strong lung cancer risk factors in lifetime never smokers," UPI quoted lead author Olga Gorlova as saying in a prepared statement.
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