New York, Nov 9 (IANS) Increasing rates of food insecurity are independently associated with an increase in cardiovascular death rates among adults between the ages of 20 and 64, say researchers.

According to the study, about 10 per cent of adults in the US are considered food insecure, meaning they lack immediate access to fresh, healthy and affordable food.

In addition, the stress from not knowing where their next meal will come from or regularly consuming cheap, processed foods may have an adverse impact on cardiovascular health.

“This research shows food insecurity, which is a particular type of economic distress, is associated with cardiovascular disease,” study author Sameed Khatana from University of Pennsylvania in the US.

“It illustrates that cardiovascular health is tied to many things,” Khatana added.

Researchers accessed county-level data on cardiovascular death rates and food insecurity rates that occurred from 2011 to 2017, among adults age 20 to 64, and those 65 years old and older.

In their analysis, researchers examined cardiovascular mortality trends in the US by average annual percent change in food insecurity.

They assessed the relationship between changes in food insecurity and cardiovascular death rates, after adjusting for variables including changes in demographics, employment, poverty, income, health insurance and other factors already known to affect cardiovascular risk.

Overall, food insecurity rates for the entire country declined significantly (from 14.7 per cent to 13.3 per cent) between 2011 and 2017.

The level in which food insecurity changes was a significant predictor of death for people between the ages of 20 and 64.

The findings showed that cardiovascular death rates remained much higher among the elderly than younger people.

According to the researchers, for every one per cent increase in food insecurity, there was a similar increase in cardiovascular mortality among non-elderly adults.

The study is scheduled to be presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 202, virtually from November 13-17.

The post Food insecurity linked to higher cardiovascular death risk appeared first on MyMedicPlus.

Researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health at the Anschutz Medical Campus have examined whether any environmental exposures can explain why type 1 diabetes is on the rise. They published their study (“Type 1 diabetes—early life origins and changing epidemiology”) in Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

“Type 1 diabetes is a chronic, immune-mediated disease characterized by the destruction of insulin-producing cells. Standardized registry data show that type 1 diabetes incidence has increased 3–4% over the past three decades, supporting the role of environmental factors. Although several factors have been associated with type 1 diabetes, none of the associations are of a magnitude that could explain the rapid increase in incidence alone. Moreover, evidence of changing prevalence of these exposures over time is insufficient,” the investigators wrote.

“Multiple factors could simultaneously explain the changing type 1 diabetes incidence, or the magnitude of observed associations could have been underestimated because of exposure measurement error, or the mismodeling of complex exposure-time-response relationships. The identification of environmental factors influencing the risk of type 1 diabetes and increased understanding of the cause at the individual level, regardless of the ability to explain the changing incidence at the population level, is important because of the implications for prevention.”

Identifying environmental factors associated with type 1 diabetes that influence its incidence can inform future preventive trials and searches for other environmental risk factors. In this paper, the team reviewed the literature on environmental factors like air pollution, diet, childhood obesity, the duration of breastfeeding, the introduction of cow’s milk, infections, and many others that showcase an impact on type 1 diabetes. The researchers then looked at the prevalence of exposure over time while varying its annual increase under simulated scenarios. Using the simulated data, the research showed that if a single factor were to explain the changes in the incidence of type 1 diabetes over the past few decades, it would have to be very strongly associated with the risk of type 1 diabetes.

The simulated scenarios showed that an environmental factor that increased at a constant rate from nearly absent in the population to nearly ubiquitous would have to confer a relative risk of 5 to explain an approximately 3% annual increase in the incidence of type 1 diabetes. However, most of the environmental factors reviewed had a relative risk of less than 2.

“While several factors have been associated with type 1 diabetes, none of the associations are of a magnitude that can explain the rapid increase in incidence alone,” said Jill Norris, PhD, professor and chair of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health and lead author of the paper. “Moreover, evidence of the changing prevalence of these same exposures over time is not convincing nor consistent.”

The paper explained that more research is required, and it is possible that multiple factors simultaneously may account for the increase in type 1 diabetes cases. Other factors are that the magnitude of observed associations may have been underestimated due to exposure measurement error or mismodeling of complex exposure-time-response relationships.

The study concluded that the identification of environmental factors influencing type 1 diabetes risk and increased understanding of the etiology at the individual level, regardless of the ability to explain the changing incidence at the population level, is important because of the implications for prevention.

The post Can Environmental Change Be Linked to the Rise of Type 1 Diabetes? appeared first on MyMedicPlus.