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WEDNESDAY, Nov. 2, 2022 (American Heart Association News) -- Chest pain and shortness of breath may offer distinct warnings of future heart problems over 30 years' time, according to a new study.Chest pain accounts for more than 6.5 million visits to U.S. emergency rooms each year. Yet little research has looked at what it might signify over the years to come, said the study's lead researcher, Dr. Kentaro Ejiri, a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. Similarly, he said, few studies have examined long-term implications of shortness of breath, called dyspnea.Using three decades of data, Ejiri and his colleagues examined links between chest pain, shortness of breath and several cardiovascular problems. Chest pain and dyspnea were mainly...

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Most people consider drowsy driving dangerous, but an estimated 37 million Americans still get behind the wheel at least once a year when they're so tired they can barely keep their eyes open.About six in 10 people admitted to drowsy driving in a new survey by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF).“Drowsy driving is impaired driving,” said Joseph Dzierzewski, the foundation's vice president of research and scientific affairs. “We see that while most Americans believe drowsy driving is risky, they still drive when not fully alert. The good news is — drowsy driving is preventable.”In a survey conducted this fall, nearly 20% of respondents were overly confident in their ability to drive after sleeping two hours or less the previous...

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Poor sleep may be linked to glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness, new research suggests. The study drew on a database of more than 400,000 people to explore links between sleep and vision loss.Glaucoma is marked by progressive loss of light-sensitive cells in the eye and optic nerve damage. Left untreated, it can cause irreversible blindness. As many as 112 million people worldwide could be affected by 2040.For the new study, the researchers considered a variety of sleep behaviors. These included too much sleep as well as too little, insomnia and daytime sleepiness, being a “night owl” or a “morning lark,” as well as snoring. The investigators used data from more than 409,000 participants in the UK Biobank (average age: 57). The...

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 2, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- New research reveals that the brain is much more flexible than once thought and can change rapidly during treatment for major depression.People receiving inpatient treatment for major depression had increased brain connectivity after just six weeks, German researchers report.They compared brain connectivity -- various brain regions acting together in generating thought, emotion and behavior -- in 109 patients with serious depression to that in a control group of 55 volunteers without depression. MRI scans were used to identify which brain areas were communicating with others before and after treatment."We found that treatment for depression changed the infrastructure of the brain, which goes against previous expectations. Treated patients...