Medical Bulletin 17/March/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Common meat-free proteins may trigger soybean and peanut allergies

Many people keen to reduce their meat consumption are turning to substitutes made of legumes packed with protein, vitamins, and fiber. But allergies to legumes like soy or peanuts are both common and dangerous.

Both protein consumption and the world’s population are increasing which leads to an urgent demand for sustainable protein sources, reports a senior author of the study published in Frontiers in Allergy. An increase in the consumption of legumes may increase the number of allergies to these foods. Furthermore, these new legumes may elicit allergic complaints in already legume-allergic patients. Therefore, they aimed to investigate how often sensitization and allergy to different legumes occurs in these patients.

Reference:

Common meat-free proteins may trigger soybean and peanut allergies in some people; Frontiers in Allergy, DOI: 10.3389/falgy.2023.1115022

Short night-time sleep linked with nearly doubled risk of clogged leg arteries

Sleeping less than five hours a night is associated with a 74% raised likelihood of developing peripheral artery disease (PAD) compared with seven to eight hours. That’s the finding of a study published in European Heart Journal.

This study suggests that sleeping for seven to eight hours a night is a good habit for lowering the risk of peripheral artery disease.

The study included more than 650,000 participants and was conducted in two parts. First, the researchers analysed the associations of sleep duration and daytime napping with the risk of peripheral artery disease. In the second part, the investigators used genetic data to perform naturally randomised controlled trials - called Mendelian randomisation - to examine causality of the associations.

Reference:

Short night-time sleep linked with nearly doubled risk of clogged leg arteries; European Heart Journal, DOI: 10.1093/ehjopen/oead008

Quantifying the life expectancy gap for people living with sickle cell disease

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common inherited red blood cell disorder in the United States, affecting an estimated 1,00,000 people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sickle cell disease affects one out of every 365 Black or African American births and one out of every 16,300 Hispanic American births.

A new study published in Blood Advances finds that the average life expectancy of publicly insured patients living with sickle cell disease is roughly 52 years. In contrast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the average life expectancy in the United States is 73.5 years for men and 79.3 years for women, demonstrating the considerable burden sickle cell disease can have on affected populations.

Reference:

Quantifying the life expectancy gap for people living with sickle cell disease; American Society Of Hematology;Blood