Health and Fitness

Coffee, tea increase miscarriage risk

Washington: Expecting women really do need to cut down their intake of caffeine — whether from coffee, tea, caffeinated soda or hot chocolate - for a new study has found newer, stronger link that it increases the risk of miscarriage.

The study was conducted by researchers at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research and was led by De-Kun Li.

The research is significant as it controls for the first time pregnancy-related symptoms of nausea, vomiting and caffeine aversion that till now had interfered with researchers finding how caffeine really affects the risk of miscarriage. — ANI

Study shows why sleep is so important for the brain

London: Researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health have found that sleep plays a crucial role in brain’s plasticity which is in turn an important foundation in learning and memory.

The study conducted over rodents revealed that synapses, nerve cell connections central to brain plasticity, were very strong during waking hours and weak during sleep.

Chiara Cirelli, study author and associate professor of psychiatry, elucidated that human brain uses up to 80 per cent of its energy on synaptic activity, constantly adding and strengthening connections in response to all kinds of stimulation. — ANI

Researchers identify genetic risk factors linked to lupus

London: A new study has identified multiple new genetic risk factors for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), commonly known as lupus, a debilitating autoimmune disease.

The large-scale genomic study, conducted by an international consortium of clinical scientists and genomics experts, including researchers from the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) and Universite de Montreal (UdeM), is the first of its kind to investigate the genetic basis of lupus.

According to the researchers, lupus is caused by genetic variants that interact with one another and the environment. — ANI

Mobile phone radiation disrupts sleep

Sydney: Researchers from the US and Sweden have found in a study, funded by some of the world’s biggest phone makers, that radiations emitting from mobile phones cause headaches and interrupt vital sleep patterns.

The researchers - from Wayne State University in the US and Sweden’s Karolinska Institute - say that participants who were exposed to mobile radiation during the study were found to experience headaches, change of moods, confusion, and trouble in sleeping. — ANI