Catnap Studies Show Snoozers Are Smarter October 12, 2000 TOKYO (Asahi News Service) - In what may be an eye-opener for those who discount a catnap as a waste of valuable time, studies on Japanese rail travelers indicate that an afternoon snooze can result in higher productivity over the next several hours. The studies on 24 company employees travelling by Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka were conducted jointly by Tokai Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) and the National Center for Mental Health and Neurology During the journey, half the subjects were allowed a 90-minute snooze in their seats, and the others were asked to stay awake. When both groups were tested for alertness an hour after arriving in Osaka, those who had napped scored about 10 percent higher than those who hadn't. They also continued to perform better in follow-up tests over the next couple of hours. Further research also found that those who dozed in a sitting position became clearheaded more quickly after waking than those who lay stretched out flat for a 20- to 30-minute nap. On average, the prone sleepers took about 2 hours to clear the cobwebs from their heads, the researchers found, explaining that the drowsiness was the inevitable consequence of a deep sleep induced by the comfortable position. "Your head will clear faster after a snooze in a sitting position, because your sleep will be shallow," said Shuichiro Shirakawa, a researcher at the National Center for Mental Health and Neurology. However, if you limit the nap to 20 minutes at most, you can stretch out and still avoid falling into a deep sleep, sleep experts say. To make sure you wake up refreshed, Mitsuo Hayashi, an assistant professor at Hiroshima University, recommends a cup of strong coffee or any caffeine-rich beverage right before your nap. "You will be waking up just when the caffeine kicks in, which is usually about 30 minutes after ingestion," he said. His research has also shown that exposure to strong light also helps clear the cobwebs from the head. Because of the circadian rhythm, sleep experts say the best time for a quick snooze is around 2 p.m. Body temperature peaks in the early evening and gradually drops to ready the body for sleep at night. A nap after the body temperature has peaked not only does nothing to refresh you, but it will keep you awake at your normal bedtime, said Shirakawa. The studies' findings prompted JR Tokai to develop a foldable pillow, which it began offering Shinkansen passengers last March. Since then the company has sold an average of 20 a day of the 1,000-yen ($9.3) urethane foam headrests that fit snugly between the nape of the neck and the back of the seat. "Now that the benefits of dozing in a Shinkansen seat have been established, we want to make it more pleasant for our passengers with these handy pillows," says Norihiro Shimizu, deputy chief of JR Tokai's Technological Development Center. Copyright 2000 Asahi News Service. All rights reserved.

New Study Supports Chicken Soup As A Cold Remedy Chicken soup may contain a number of substances with beneficial medicinal activity including an anti-inflammatory mechanism that could ease the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, according to a new study. The study was reported in the October issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians. The suspected benefits of chicken soup were reported centuries ago. The Egyptian Jewish physician and philosopher, Moshe ben Maimonides , recommended chicken soup for respiratory tract symptoms in his writings back in the 12th century which were, in turn, based on earlier Greek writings. However, there's little in the literature to explain the pathophysiology of such benefits. Colds are often the result of transient infections of the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract from a variety of viruses. While incompletely understood, the viral infection leads to the stimulation of a cytokine cascade. Cytokines are soluble proteins secreted by various cell types and involved in cell-to-cell communication, coordinating antibody and T-cell immune interactions, and amplifying immune reactivity. Many, if not most, symptoms related to colds are likely the result of the inflammatory response initiated by the cytokine cascade. Colds are also associated with the generation of neutrophil chemotactic activities that relate to a cell's tendency to migrate toward or away from certain chemical stimuli. Neutrophils are the circulating white blood cells essential for the processes by which bacteria, cellular debris, and solid particles are removed and destroyed. Since neutrophil products are potent stimulators of mucous release, this may be one mechanism by which colds commonly lead to cough and sputum from infection. Researchers from the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Section of the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska initiated a study to evaluate the possibility that chicken soup may be a factor in attentuating the inflammatory response associated with colds. They set out to determine the ability of chicken soup to inhibit neutrophil chemotaxis in response to standard chemotactic stimuli. The recipe they used was called "Grandma's soup," which not only included chicken, but also onions, sweet potato, parsnips, turnips, carrots, celery stems, and parsley, with the addition of salt and pepper. Many tests were conducted on the soup. For example, to determine which components of the soup contained neutrophil inhibitor activity, samples of chicken and a portion of each of the vegetables were boiled for one hour. The broths then were harvested, frozen, and saved for assay. For comparison purposes, commercially available soups were obtained from a local supermarket and prepared according to the directions on the label. Stephen Rennard, M.D., FCCP, said the results of the study demonstrate that chicken soup inhibits neutrophil migration to standard stimuli. The inhibitory effect was observed clearly at concentrations without cytotoxicity. Dr. Rennard said: "A variety of soup preparations was evaluated and found to be variably, but generally, able to inhibit neutrophil chemotaxis. The current study, therefore, presents evidence that chicken soup might have an anti-inflammatory activity, namely the inhibition of neutrophil migration." Researchers noted that the soup used for the majority of experiments, "Grandma's soup," has several unusual features. For one, it contains strained vegetables. Dr. Rennard noted, however, that the inhibitory activity was observed with several other recipes that lack the particles from vegetables. "Thus," he said, "while the identity of the biologically active materials is unknown, it seems likely they are water-soluble or extractable. Pureed carrots or other vegetables are not recommended as a remedy while chicken soup is." Dr. Rennard also pointed out that this was a laboratory experiment, an in vitro study as opposed to an in vivo clinical study involving human patients. He said: "It was a well-controlled study and used well-established in vitro methods to provide limited evidence that chicken soup could have an anti-inflammatory activity. Since many of the symptoms that follow upper respiratory tract viral infections may well be due to the inflammatory response, the current study may have clinical relevance." CHEST is published by the American College of Chest Physicians which represents 15,000 members who provide clinical respiratory and cardiothoracic patient care in the United States and throughout the world.

Study Finds Possible New Culprit In Heart Disease October 18, 2000 SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (AP) -Researchers have pinpointed an enzyme in the blood that could one day join high cholesterol as another strong predictor of heart disease. Several lifestyle factors, such as smoking and obesity, point to a heightened risk of heart disease. High levels of some blood substances, like the bad form of cholesterol, already help predict who will develop heart problems. However, researchers estimate that only half of the overall risk can be estimated from known factors. If the new findings are confirmed, the enzyme, known as phospholipase A2, could take its place as a separate, strong predictor of a healthy person's risk of heart disease, researchers said. "It would be very useful, because what we want to prevent is the all-important first heart attack," said molecular biochemist Colin MacPhee, one of the study's authors. "Once you've had one, your risk is greater." Phospholipase A2 is still not fully understood. It appears to break down fat, may promote inflammation and possibly contributes to the buildup of clogging deposits inside blood vessels. The study, which was directed at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in Scotland, was published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers analyzed the enzyme in 580 men who had suffered serious heart trouble, mostly heart attacks. They were compared with 1,160 other men with no such history. The top fifth of the men with the highest enzyme levels had twice the risk of those who ranked in the bottom fifth. Biochemist Chris Packard, who led the study, said the enzyme may provide "a new focus for efforts to better identify and manage patients at risk of heart attack." The search for such warning signs is important because about 60 million Americans suffer from some kind of cardiovascular illness. It leads all diseases in killing about 950,000 a year. Dr. Paul Ridker, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said the findings, combined with the results of a second study in Thursday's journal, add to the evidence of the role of inflammation in heart disease. The second study, carried out at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, shows that some known predictors of short-term risk for heart disease patients - like the inflammatory C-reactive protein - also signal a long-term risk of death from cardiac trouble.