Tuesday 11th September 2007
Early rising has always been considered to be good for overall health. There is even a saying, ??Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.? The saying might hold true for a man becoming wealthy and perhaps even wise, but according to Japanese researchers, it definitely does not say the same for health.
A study team from Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine has found that you might be putting your heart and health at risk by getting up too early on a daily basis; any time before 5:00 am is considered to be early. The study found that early risers can be prone to medical conditions that lead to heart attack and stroke.
Led by Dr. Mayuko Kadono, the researchers from Kyoto studied 3,017 healthy adults between the ages of 23 and 90. They found that people who regularly rose before 5:00 am were at 1.7 times higher risk of getting high blood pressure.
Their chance of developing hardened arteries was also double that of people who got up two to three hours later. In those people who rose early and indulged in vigorous exercise immediately upon getting up, the researchers also detected a possible link with vascular disease.
??The results are contrary to the commonly held belief that early birds are in better health,? said Dr. Kadono, a physician at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine. ??We need to find what the causes of this are, and whether exercising after waking early is beneficial.?
World Health Organisation figures state that cardiovascular disease including heart attack, stroke and hypertension is the biggest cause of death globally. According to the world body??s estimates, nearly 20 million people may die due to cardiovascular disease annually by 2015 as compared to about 17.5 million a decade earlier.
Dr. Kadono??s team presented its findings at the Fifth Congress of the World Federation of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine Societies held in Cairns, Australia from September 2 to 6.
