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Take A Nap, Protect Your Heart
Large Greek Study Suggests Midday
Naps Cut Heart Deaths
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By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Medical News
Feb, 2007 -- Eat right, get plenty of
exercise, don't smoke and -- take a daily nap?
Naps aren't generally included in the
litany of good-for-your-heart lifestyle choices
recommended for lowering cardiovascular risk, but
they may soon be.
New research suggests a midday siesta
may reduce a person's risk of death from heart
disease, possibly by lowering stress levels.
The findings must be confirmed, but
Dimitrios Trichopoulos, MD, a study author, tells
WebMD there is little downside to taking naps -- and
there could be big health benefits.
"The siesta is a victim of progress.
Most of us aren't in the position to take a daily
nap," he says. "But our research suggests that the
practice could help protect the heart, and we need
further studies to find out if this really is the
case."
Part of the Culture
Trichopoulos says the research
stemmed from the observation that heart disease
death rates are lower in Mediterranean and Latin
American countries where midday siestas are part of
the culture.
His own earlier research in a Greek
population provided weak evidence in favor of the
nap hypothesis, but another, larger study, conducted
in Costa Rica failed to show an association.
The newly published Greek study by
Trichopoulos and colleagues from the Harvard School
of Public Health in Boston, and Greece's University
of Athens Medical School is the largest ever to
examine the issue in a previously healthy
population.
A total of 23,681 residents of Greece
with no history of heart disease, stroke, or cancer
at enrollment were followed an average of 6.3 years.
The Findings
After trying to control for other
heart disease risk factors, such as diet and
physical activity levels, the researchers concluded
that people who took naps at least three times a
week for an average of at least 30 minutes were 37%
less likely to die of heart disease than people who
did not take regular naps.
Less frequent nappers had a 12%
reduction in heart disease mortality, which was not
considered statistically significant.
The perceived protective effect was
stronger among working men than among men who were
retired, suggesting, say the authors, that the
stress-lowering effects of napping may explain the
finding.
"The existence of a stronger inverse
association among working men is compatible with the
fact that occupational stress is common in many
manual and non-manual professions," the researchers
wrote.
There were too few deaths among
working women enrolled in the study to conduct a
similar analysis.
The study
is published in the Feb. 12 issue of
The Archives of Internal Medicine.
The Mediterranean Influence
Even if a daily siesta does turn out
to lower heart risk, it is only one of many
explanations for why fewer Greeks than Americans die
from heart attacks and strokes, Trichopoulos says.
His own research helped establish the
cardio-protective benefits of the traditional
Mediterranean diet -- rich in fruits, vegetables,
beans, and grains; low in red meat.
Researchers attempted to control for
the effects of diet, exercise, and other
cardiovascular influences in the new study. But
Trichopoulos acknowledges it is difficult to tease
out all the features of the traditional
Mediterranean lifestyle that play a role in
protecting the heart.
Florida cardiologist Gerald Fletcher,
MD, of the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, tells WebMD the
findings suggest there is more to learn about the
impact of lifestyle on the heart.
"It makes sense that lowering stress
levels with a daily siesta or even a semi-siesta
could benefit the heart," he says. "We are
increasingly recognizing the importance of sleep in
cardiology."
Fletcher says even people who can't
take midday naps can probably derive some benefit
from sitting or lying quietly for five or 10 minutes
sometime during the day.
"Even going out and sitting in the
sunshine for a few minutes might be beneficial," he
says.
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