Sleep quality and regular physical activity in reducing cardiac risk.

BACKGROUND: Adolescents with sedentary behavior, spending many hours in front of the television and electronic devices, develop early involvement of cardiovascular disease and obesity. These sedentary behaviors increased significantly in this age group during the pandemic of 2020/2021. Sleep directly influences aspects of health, such as blood pressure and cardiac autonomic balance and exercise has a protective effect on these same physiological parameters. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine whether or not physically active adolescents positively influence HRV and cardiovascular parameters despite poor sleep quality. METHODS: This is an analytic and transversal study. Sleep quality, physical activity levels, blood pressure, and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured. Two-way ANOVA and Tuckey post hoc test evaluated the difference between groups. RESULTS: Among 352 adolescents entrolled, mean age was 15.8 ± 0.24 years. It was observed that compared to the physically active group with poor sleep quality, the sedentary poor sleep quality group presented a more significant deficit in blood pressure and autonomic parameters such as pNN50, SD1, and HF. CONCLUSION: Adolescents who practiced physical activity regularly have shown better HRV and sleep quality compared with sedentary adolescents.

Possible influences of vitamin D levels on sleep quality, depression, anxiety and physiological stress in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a case control study.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of vitamin D deficiency on sleep quality, depression, anxiety, and physiological stress in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We screened for COPD patients with normal (NorVD) (n=24) and insufficient (InsVD) (n=7) vitamin D levels. The Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), the Beck anxiety inventory (BAI), the Beck depression inventory (BDI) and the Baevsky's stress index were used for the sleep and psychometric evaluation. The evaluation of sleep quality by PSQI showed that NorVD individuals had higher duration and quality of sleep when compared with the InsVD group. Additionally, the group InsVD presented higher risk of developing sleep quality (OR=6.20; 95% CI=1.334, 29.013; p=0.009). BDI was higher in the InsVD, and this group had a higher risk of developing moderate and severe depression (OR=3.37; 95% CI=0.895, 12.722; p=0.03). The stress index indicated higher values in the InsVD in relation to the NorVD group (InsVD=24±0.8 vs. NorVD=16±0.9), and the group InsVD showed higher risk of developing high and very high physiological stress (OR=7.70; 95% CI=1.351, 43.878; p=0.01). The stress and sleep quality effects were negatively correlated with vitamin D levels. Insufficient levels of vitamin D negatively affect sleep quality and psychometric variables.

Ouabain-Na+/K+-ATPase Signaling Regulates Retinal Neuroinflammation and ROS Production Preventing Neuronal Death by an Autophagy-Dependent Mechanism Following Optic Nerve Axotomy In Vitro.

Ouabain is a classic Na+K+ATPase ligand and it has been described to have neuroprotective effects on neurons and glial cells at nanomolar concentrations. In the present work, the neuroprotective and immunomodulatory potential of ouabain was evaluated in neonatal rat retinal cells using an optic nerve axotomy model in vitro. After axotomy, cultured retinal cells were treated with ouabain (3 nM) at different periods. The levels of important inflammatory receptors in the retina such as TNFR1/2, TLR4, and CD14 were analyzed. We observed that TNFR1, TLR4, and CD14 were decreased in all tested periods (15 min, 45 min, 24 h, and 48 h). On the other hand, TNFR2 was increased after 24 h, suggesting an anti-inflammatory potential for ouabain. Moreover, we showed that ouabain also decreased Iba-1 (microglial marker) density. Subsequently, analyses of retrograde labeling of retinal ganglion cells (RGC) were performed after 48 h and showed that ouabain-induced RGC survival depends on autophagy. Using an autophagy inhibitor (3-methyladenine), we observed a complete blockage of the ouabain effect. Western blot analyses showed that ouabain increases the levels of autophagy proteins (LC3 and Beclin-1) coupled to p-CREB transcription factor and leads to autophagosome formation. Additionally, we found that the ratio of cleaved/pro-caspase-3 did not change after ouabain treatment; however, p-JNK density was enhanced. Also, ouabain decreased reactive oxygen species production immediately after axotomy. Taken together, our results suggest that ouabain controls neuroinflammation in the retina following optic nerve axotomy and promotes RGC neuroprotection through activation of the autophagy pathway.