The “media shocking headlines”  is what makes this kind of well, silly as it is done to get attention obviously and when you read through here numbers were crunched and those with the standard chronic illness were eliminated.  imageSo now what?  As it mentions lack of sleep contributes to shorter mortality and we have seen those numbers out there, but good grief give me a break on the “urgency” stated in the “context” of this study would you? Is every man out there with RLS going to wonder if that’s going to make him die sooner?  10% more of the RLS patients died over an 8 year period than those who do not have it.  Back in 2008 we had this study to where your risk of stroke doubles …and you can do what you want with that. 

Restless Legs Syndrome Doubles Risk Of Stroke And Heart Disease

Old age, being fat, smoking, inactivity and all the usual evil twin lifestyle elements also made no difference.  What drugs were the men taking who had RLS in the study..didn’t see that anywhere…hmmm…anti-nausea drugs or antipsychotics can contribute to RLS the article says as well….so what did we learn here?  If you read beyond the “contextual title’ created to present some sense of urgency then you can just go about your day as usual:)   Here’s a good introduction to P Values. 

Scroll on down to the footer of this blog to watch the first video or click here and you can find out what P-Values are and how some studies can either dupe or distract or mislead you.  Context is everything.  BD


Researchers looked at more than 18,000 men who went to a doctor to get evaluated for the neurological disorder, and tracked them for about eight years. They found men who were diagnosed with the syndrome were about 40 percent more likely to die prematurely compared to men without the condition.

"Our study highlights the importance of recognizing this common but underdiagnosed disease," study author Dr. Xiang Gao, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School, said in a statement.

Dr. Steven Feinsilver, director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, explained to CBSNews.com that about 90 percent of people who have ever experienced these symptoms during their lifetimes won't need treatment, pointing out the remainder may experience disabling symptoms that prevent them from even sitting for 10 minutes at a time.

"If its associated with mortality, I may have to rethink that," said Feinsilver, who was not involved in the new research.

"We found that the increased risk was not associated with the usual known risk factors, such as older age, being overweight, lack of sleep, smoking, being physically inactive and having an unhealthy diet," Gao said. "Through research, we need to pinpoint why and how RLS leads to this possible higher risk of dying early."

The findings were published June 13 in Neurology.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57589207/restless-legs-syndrome-may-lead-men-to-early-death/

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