Media Coverage

It’s pretty extraordinary for people in their 80s and 90s to keep the same sharp memory as someone several decades younger, so scientists are peeking into the brains of“superagers” who do to uncover their secret. The work is the flip side of the disappointing hunt for new drugs to fight or prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Instead of tackling that problem, “why don’t we figure out what it is we might need to do to maximize our memory?” said neuro­scientist Emily Rogalski, who leads the SuperAging study at Northwestern University in Chicago.

You can determine your own risk using the calculator developed by the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association at cvriskcalculator.com. If your calculated risk is 7.5 percent or higher, your doctor is likely to suggest you consider taking a statin, although a relatively high cholesterol level may not result in such a recommendation if you have no other heart risk factors. The risk score is meant “to start a conversation, not to write a prescription,” according to Dr. Don Lloyd-Jones, professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a spokesman for the heart association.

Watson and others suspect part of the problem is that the public still doesn’t seem to appreciate the danger women face from heart disease. “The whole idea of cardiovascular disease being a fluke in women is a gender bias,” said Dr. Marla Mendelson, medical director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Although studies show that untreated maternal depression can affect mother-and-baby bonding, paternal depression can also influence a child’s development. “We know depression can impact the father-child relationship, as well as children’s future behavior,” said Sheehan Fisher, a clinical psychologist and researcher at Northwestern University. According to Fisher, kids who grow up with depressed dads may have a harder time coping with negative emotions such as anger, anxiety and sadness. He said these children may be more likely to “act out” their feelings by misbehaving and becoming aggressive.

Each increase from “morningness” to “eveningness” was associated with an increased risk for disease. Night owls were nearly twice as likely as early risers to have a psychological disorder and 30 percent more likely to have diabetes. Their risk for respiratory disease was 23 percent higher and for gastrointestinal disease 22 percent higher. The lead author, Kristen L. Knutson, an associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University, said that while being a night owl is partly genetic, people can make adjustments — gradually making bedtime earlier, avoiding using smartphones before bed, and eventually moving themselves out of the “night owl zone.”

The study only shows an association between identifying as a night person and dying earlier, so the findings are not definite. It’s also impossible to say whether the people in the study really do always stay up late or always wake up early. But if a person’s late-night activities are putting them at a higher risk for earlier death, there are still potential ways to intervene. Though the researchers say that genetics may be involved in whether a person is a night or morning person, people have some control. In a statement about the study, lead study author Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of neurology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, says that if people want to act more like morning larks instead of night owls, they should try to keep a regular bedtime, get exposure to natural light in the morning and try to get things done earlier in the evening in order to get a good night’s rest.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Chronobiology International, tracked almost half a million adults in the United Kingdom over an average of 6½ years. The researchers found that those people who identified as “definite evening types” at the beginning of the study had a 10% increased risk of all-cause mortality compared with “definite morning types.” Night owls were also more likely to have diabetes, neurological disorders, psychological disorders, gastrointestinal disorders and respiratory disorders, according to Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine and a leading author of the study.

Society should wake up to the real difficulties faced by night owls, said the researchers. They called on employers to be more flexible towards staff who suffer when forced to clock in early. Dr Kristen Knutson, a member of the team from Northwestern University in Chicago, US, said: “Night owls trying to live in a morning lark world may have health consequences for their bodies. “They shouldn’t be forced to get up for an 8am shift. Make work shifts match people’s chronotypes. Some people may be better suited to night shifts.”

The researchers looked at surveys of more than 400,000 people taking part in a large British study of genes and health. As part of a detailed questionnaire, they were asked whether they tended to be night owls or morning larks. There wasn’t much difference among people who fell in the middle. But there was a notable difference between the two extremes, said Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We found that the night owls had a 10 percent increased risk of dying over about a six and a half year period. And that was even after we took into account things like existing health problems,” Knutson told NBC News.

The research found “night owls” had a 10% greater risk of dying than morning people. The study also found evening types also had higher risks for conditions such as diabetes or psychological disorders. “Night owls trying to live in a morning lark world may have health consequences for their bodies,” said co-lead author Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in a statement published Thursday.