CMAJ.ca – Adding monounsaturated fats (MUFA) to a cholesterol-lowering dietary portfolio in patients with mild to moderate elevated cholesterol levels increased HDL by 12.5 percent and lowered LDL levels by 35 percent, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Low HDL-C levels and high LDL-C levels are a risk factor for [...]

Pistachios can be a healthy and helpful addition to one’s diet, promoting a healthy pace of eating and mindful eating, according to presentations at this year’s American Dietetic Association’s annual Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE). The S-L-O-W Down Pistachio Shell Dr. James Painter, a behavioral eating expert for more than 18 years and [...]

ULaval.ca – Taking sleeping pills or medications to treat anxiety increases mortality risk by 36 percent, according to a study conducted by Geneviève Belleville, a professor at Université Laval’s School of Psychology. The details of this study are published in the latest edition of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. Dr. Belleville arrived at these results [...]

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may blame their daytime difficulties on simple sleepiness, but new research suggests that their brains may be to blame. Specifically, their cognitive challenges may be caused by structural deficits in gray matter, brought on by the intermittent oxygen deprivation that comes with OSA. The good news is that these [...]

AllenInstitute.org – The most systematic study to date of the effects of sleep deprivation on gene expression in the brain have been described by researchers at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and SRI International. The findings, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, have implications for improving the understanding and management of the adverse effects of [...]

PsychologicalScience.org – As humans, we spend about a third of our lives asleep. So there must be a point to it, right? Scientists have found that sleep helps consolidate memories, fixing them in the brain so we can retrieve them later. Now, new research is showing that sleep also seems to reorganize memories, picking out [...]