long-term shift work ages your brain
long-term shift work ages the brain, a new study claims. Researchers found that working shifts leads to a loss of memory and an impaired ability to think. A decade or more working rotating shifts was associated with a loss of brain function equivalent to six and a half years of the normal decline in thinking and memory associated with ageing. Stopping shift work led to gradual recovery, but one that took at least five years, said scientists. Disruption of the body clock, which is based on natural day and night cycles, may cause stresses that may affect brain functioning, researchers believe. Other studies have linked vitamin D deficiency due to reduced exposure to sunlight to poorer mental ability.
Depression can affect speech
Therapists could pick up signs of depression just be listening to how their patients talk, after a study found that unhappy people speak in a different tone. Researchers discovered that vocal features change as feelings of depression get worse, becoming more gravelly, hoarse, and less fluent. They hope the findings will allow doctors or psychotherapists to spot when people are feeling down, even when they claim they are happy. And they want to develop an app which records a patient’s voice pattern so it can be checked over time to spot the onset of depression. Acoustician Dr Carol Espy-Wilson of the University of Maryland said she hoped that the new technology would appeal to teenagers and young adults who are vulnerable but may be unwilling to seek help.
Weight surgery cuts risk of diabetes
Weight loss surgery, such as gastric bypass or gastric banding, could reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by around 80 per cent in obese people, compared with standard care, a new research has found. Being overweight or obese is the main modifiable risk factor for type 2 diabetes. More than 80 per cent of adults with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese. Martin Gulliford, professor of public health at King’s College london, UK, and colleagues assessed the effect of contemporary surgical weight loss procedures on the development of diabetes. They identified 2,167 obese adults without diabetes who underwent one of three surgical procedures (laparoscopic adjustable banding, sleeve gastrectomy, or gastric bypass) for weight loss from 2002 onwards.