A low-calorie, low-fat diet appears more beneficial to dieters’ mood than a low-carbohydrate plan with the same number of calories, according to a report in the this week’s issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

“While recent clinical studies have shown that low-carbohydrate diets can be an effective alternative dietary approach for weight loss, their long-term effects on psychological function, including mood and cognition, have been poorly studied,” explain the study’s authors.

The experiment enrolled 106 overweight and obese participants who were an average age of 50. Of these, 55 were assigned to follow a very–low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet and 51 to a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. Both diets included the same amount of calories.

After one year, the overall average weight loss was 13.7 kilograms (about 30.2 pounds), with no difference between the two groups. Both groups initially (after the first eight weeks) experienced an improvement in mood. However, most measurements of mood revealed a lasting improvement in only those following the low-fat diet, while those on the high-fat diet returned to their initial levels.

Archives of Internal Medicine – November 9, 2009 ;169:1873-80.
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A planned home birth attended by a registered midwife may be safer than a hospital birth, according to a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.The study looked at 2889 home births attended by regulated midwives in British Columbia, Canada, and 4752 planned hospital births attended by the same cohort of midwives compared with 5331 physician-attended births in hospital.

The infant death rate per 1000 births was 0.35 for planned home births, 0.57 for midwife-attended hospital births and 0.64 for physician-attended hospital births.

In addition, women who planned a home birth had a significantly lower risk of obstetric interventions and adverse outcomes, including augmentation of labor, electronic fetal monitoring, epidural analgesia, assisted vaginal delivery, cesarean section, hemorrhage, and infection.

“Women planning birth at home experienced reduced risk for all obstetric interventions measured, and similar or reduced risk for adverse maternal outcomes,” writes study co-author Dr. Patricia Janssen.

CMAJ – September 15, 2009 ;Epub.

www.cmaj.ca

A new study published in the journal Sleep has found that people who suffer from insomnia have heightened nighttime blood pressure, which can lead to cardiac problems. The investigation measured the 24-hour blood pressure of 13 insomniacs compared to 13 sound sleepers. Subjects spent 40 hours in the sleep laboratory: two nights for adaptation and one for monitoring followed by the intervening day.”Over many years, chronic insomnia can have negative effects on the hearts of otherwise healthy individuals,” says lead author Paola A. Lanfranchi. “Whereas blood pressure decreases in regular sleepers and gives their heart a rest, insomnia provokes higher nighttime blood pressure that can cause long-term cardiovascular risks and damage the heart.”

“Blood pressure cycles are mainly linked to the sleep-wake cycle,” adds co-author Jacques Montplaisir. “Since blood pressure is heightened among insomniacs, those with overt cardiac disease are particularly at risk for progression of the disease.”

Sleep –  June 2009;32:760-66.

www.journalsleep.org