Vitamin D May Decrease Breast Cancer Risk
Vitamin D has always been hailed as an important nutrient, one that is capable of even lowering a person’s risk to different forms of cancer. New research has now found that people with high enough levels of this vitamin in their blood have a significantly lower risk of breast cancer. Although some studies have suggested that vitamin D has no impact on a person’s vulnerability to the disease, the case for ensuring that you get enough vitamin D is strong, as low levels of this nutrient have been associated with increased risk for bladder cancer.
Early Risers Have Lower Risk of Depression
The clichéd saying, ‘early to bed, early to rise’, has a say on your emotional makeup too. For, a new study has found that morning people have better mental health. People’s sleep and waking preferences (chronotypes) is found to affect their well-being. Researchers investigating the relationship between sleep-wake preferences and the risk of depression found a modest link between chronotype and depression risk. This, the researchers note, ‘could be related to the overlap in genetic pathways associated with chronotype and mood.’ The study was done against the backdrop of environmental factors, such as exposure to light and work schedule, on a person’s sleep-wake cycle, as well as other risk factors for depression.
Diabetes After 50 Is An Early Sign Of Pancreatic Cancer?
According to a new study, the onset of diabetes after the age of 50 could be an early sign of pancreatic cancer. The study involved around 50,000 African-American and Hispanic men and women above the age of 50 for about 20 years; none of who had diabetes or pancreatic cancer at the beginning of the study. However, researchers identified about 16,000 who developed diabetes and about 400 who developed pancreatic cancer during the 20-year study period. Those individuals who developed diabetes were more than twice as likely to develop pancreatic cancer, compared with those who did not develop diabetes. This suggests that the development of diabetes, especially later in life, could be an early sign of pancreatic cancer for some people, they note.
‘Gaming Disorder’ Is a Mental Health Condition
WHO has classified ‘gaming disorder’ as a new mental health condition in its 11th edition of ‘International Classification of Diseases’. There are three major diagnostic features or characteristics explained as a part of this gaming disorder: 1.that the gaming behaviour takes precedence over other activities; 2. there is impaired control of such behaviours or a persistent or recurrent behaviour pattern of sufficient severity; 3. and there is significant distress and impairment in personal, family, social, educational or occupational functioning. The impact may include disturbed sleep patterns, diet problems and a deficiency in the physical activity, characteristics which are similar to the diagnostic features of substance use disorders and gambling disorder.
