Medical Bulletin 24/January/2024

Here are the top medical news of the day:

Energy drinks linked to poor sleep quality and insomnia among college students

Consuming more energy drinks is linked to poor quality sleep and insomnia among college students, a large Norwegian study find. The study is published in the open access journal BMJ Open.

Energy drinks contain an average caffeine content of 150 mg per litre as well as sugar, vitamins, minerals and amino acids in varying quantities, note the researchers.

While there is some evidence to suggest that they reduce sleep quality, it’s not clear exactly which aspects of sleep might be more or less affected, or whether there are any sex specific differences in these effects.

Reference: Energy drinks linked to poor sleep quality and insomnia among college students; BMJ Open

Men with inflammatory joint disease are less likely to be childless than healthy peers

Men with inflammatory joint disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are less likely to be childless and have more children than their healthy peers, according to the research published online in the medical journal Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

Autoimmune diseases are on the rise, and impaired fertility has been reported in Norwegian women with inflammatory joint diseases. But only a few studies looking at the potential impact on men’s fertility have been carried out.

Reference: Men with inflammatory joint disease are less likely to be childless than healthy peers; Annals of Rheumatic Diseases

Do bizarre visual symptoms indicate signs of Alzheimer's?

A team of international researchers, led by UC San Francisco, has completed the first large-scale study of posterior cortical atrophy, a baffling constellation of visuospatial symptoms that present as the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. These symptoms occur in up to 10% of cases of Alzheimer’s disease.

The study includes data from more than 1,000 patients at 36 sites in 16 countries. It was published in the Lancet Neurology on Jan. 22, 2024.

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) overwhelmingly predicts Alzheimer’s, the researchers found. Some 94% of the PCA patients had Alzheimer’s pathology and the remaining 6% had conditions like Lewy body disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. In contrast, other studies show that 70% of patients with memory loss have Alzheimer’s pathology.

Reference: Do bizarre visual symptoms indicate signs of Alzheimer's?; Lancet Neurology