Gadgets: Stealing Your Sleep!

(American Health Newswire) -- Caution: your wireless devices could lead to sleepless nights and that can be very dangerous. Losing sleep can make you more prone to serious health conditions. One study shows not sleeping for more than 20 hours, then getting behind the wheel, can make you as impaired as someone who is legally drunk.

Stephanie Lynn was a ballerina. The 18-year-old loved being on stage, but she had to give up her dancing dreams a few years ago because she wasn't dreaming enough.

"I've always just had a lot of trouble sleeping," Stephanie told American Health.

She's tried sleeping pills, melatonin and sleep studies.

"So far, nothing's worked. It stinks. I look at clock, it's three. I look at the clock, it's 4:30," Stephanie explains.

About one in four Americans has trouble sleeping from time to time. Close to 25 million are chronic insomniacs. People who suffer from sleep deprivation face serious health problems like diabetes, hypertension and obesity.

"If you start gaining weight, then you're more prone to sleep apnea, and there's a whole bunch of other complications that come with that," Akinyemi Ajayi, M.D., a sleep specialist from Florida Hospital, told American Health.

Dr. Ajayi says staring at gadgets with bright screens for hours on end could be the source of our sleep problems.

"It can potentially impact the secretion of melatonin, which then affects your drive, your ability to go to sleep," Dr. Ajayi said.

A recent poll by the National Sleep Foundation found 95-percent of people surveyed used some sort of gadget within an hour before bedtime.

"Try and shut off your computer at least an hour to an hour and a half before bedtime,"  

He says that goes for video games, cell phones and televisions, too. Dr. Ajayi says shutting them down can boost your melatonin. 

Stephanie's interested to find out if technology is causing her problems. 

"Maybe I can try departing from my cell phone tonight and see how it goes," she said.

She hopes to find an answer and turn her dream of getting back to ballet into a reality. 

Easing Arthritis With Food

"It started in one of my wrists...shooting...shooting pains that wouldn't go away," Gina Marie Russo, a rheumatoid arthritis patient, told American Health.

"It's all of the sudden, you're stiff. You can't move," Kathy Abernathy, a rheumatoid arthritis patient, told American Health.

"I can't remember a day that I don't hurt," Robyn Nichols, a rheumatoid arthritis patient, told American Health.

Arthritis: it's a pain that just won't go away. It happens when your body's own immune cells attack healthy tissue around joints.

"Most of the medications are either symptom reduction, or actually, prevention of the progression of the disease, but there's no cure yet," Richard Krieger, M.D., an attending physician at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital, told American Health.

Side effects from the medications have many patients watching what they eat to find relief.

Mary Caldwell cooks to distract her from the pain. What she is cooking up could end up helping or hurting her.

Studies show saturated fats may increase inflammation in the body. That means bacon, steak, butter and cream may trigger arthritis pain. Omega 6 fatty acids -- found in vegetable oils -- may also increase inflammation and joint pain.

Omega 3 fatty acids found in salmon, tuna, trout, walnuts, tofu and canola oil may help decrease inflammation -- and decrease pain. Selenium fights free radicals that cause damage to healthy tissue. One 3.5-ounce serving of tuna gives you a full day's requirement of selenium, and you may want to add a little hot sauce to your meal. An Oxford study shows 40 percent of arthritis patients reduced their pain by half after using Capsaicin for one month. It's found in chili peppers.

"I did enjoy it so much," Mary told American Health

With the right diet and medications, Mary is able to stay active -- even taking a trip to Disney for the very first time.

You may want to pop open a cold one. A study published in the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases found drinking alcohol may be linked to a significantly reduced chance of getting rheumatoid arthritis.

Commonly Used Drug Could Prevent Arthritis

(American Health Newswire)--- By the year 2030, an estimated 67 million people will have doctor-diagnosed arthritis. But a commonly used drug may be able to prevent arthritis from happening to you.

Many individuals develop arthritis from severe joint injuries. Young people are especially prone to these joint injuries because they are so active playing sports, or even skiing; activities that can cause damage to ligaments. A new study from MIT suggests that a drug that is used today to treat inflammatory diseases may also be able to prevent osteoarthritis from ever developing; which is good news for young athletes.

"In essence, it's repurposing an existing drug," Alan Grodzinsky, senior author of the study, was quoted saying.

Grodzinsky, who is a professor of biological, mechanical and electrical engineering, and the director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering and his colleagues, reported their findings in the September 2nd issue of the journal Arthritis Research and Therapy.

In most cases when a person sustains a joint injury, they are treated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen to reduce pain. They may also have to undergo surgery depending on the severity of the injury.

This study tested the effects of glucocorticoids--steroids that help reduce pain and swelling in arthritic joints. Glucocorticoids have been given to the elderly to treat rheumatoid arthritis for years.

Researchers took human and cattle cartilage tissue and damaged it; afterwards, the researchers flooded the tissue with cytokines which are proteins that trigger inflammation. Cytokines are typically released after a joint injury and accelerate the breakdown of cartilage.

Researchers found that in the damaged tissue that was treated immediately with the glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, cartilage breakdown was halted. Another good thing about this drug is that it also worked when given a day or two after the injury. This is an important fact because many people do not see the doctor right away after an injury.

At this time, researchers don't know if dexamethasone could actually reverse previous cartilage damage, but plan to test this theory, and also the drug's potential protective effects, in future studies.

SOURCES: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. September 2, 2011 and National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases