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By Nancy Lapid, Health Science Editor

Hello Health Rounds readers! Middle-aged adults may stave off dementia by getting lots of exercise, but to realize the cognitive benefits of physical activity they also need to get enough sleep, a new study suggests. We also report on study showing that for overweight people with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, the advantages of weight-loss surgery over medication and lifestyle changes persist for years. And finally, in the “sounds like science fiction” department, we share the possibility that our workout clothing may someday have sweat sensors in the fabric, to help us avoid heat stroke.

In breaking news, see these stories from our Reuters journalists: Robots could play future role as companions in care homes; ‘Stoneos’ cannabis cookies look too much like Oreos; British lawmakers say health agency had weak financial controls; Biden administration appeals ban on its social media content comments; Nine new African countries to receive malaria vaccines; and Belgian hospital pioneers pet visits to patients (video here).

As people move past middle age, they may need to regularly get a good night’s sleep in order to get the full cognitive benefit of exercise, a new study suggests.  REUTERS/Tomas Bravo.

Physical activity and adequate sleep have individually been linked with lower risk for dementia, but in order to get the full cognitive benefit of exercise as they move past middle age, seniors may also need to get enough sleep, a new study suggests.

“We were surprised that regular physical activity may not always be sufficient to counter the long-term effects of lack of sleep on cognitive health,” study leader Dr. Mikaela Bloomberg of University College London said in a statement.

At the start of a decade-long study of nearly 9,000 UK adults over age 50, cognitive function was better in those who were more physically active, regardless of how much sleep they got on an average night, her team reported on Wednesday in The Lancet Healthy Longevity.

But over time, among people who reported high levels of physical activity, thinking skills declined faster in those who slept less than six hours per night than in those who got six to eight hours of sleep each night.

Ten years into the study, there was no cognitive benefit of physical activity if people weren’t getting enough sleep: scores on tests of cognition were similar in “short sleepers” who reported lots of exercise and in groups that regularly got little exercise, the researchers found.

When the researchers analyzed subgroups according to age, they found that for those older than 70, physical activity did continue to yield cognitive benefits regardless of sleep amount.

While the study does not prove that a person’s amount of sleep directly impacts the benefit of exercise on the brain, “it shows how important it is to consider sleep and physical activity together when thinking about cognitive health,” Bloomberg said.

For overweight patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, the advantages of weight-loss surgery for treating their disease persist over the long term, researchers have found.

The findings are drawn from randomized trial data from the largest cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes to date, with the longest period of follow-up, they reported at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.

At seven to 12 years after enrollment, surgery led to better control of blood sugar, with less medication use and higher rates of diabetes remission compared to medication and lifestyle changes, the researchers found.

Surgery patients had higher rates of anemia, gastrointestinal side effects and fractures afterward, however.

The findings confirm the results of shorter-term studies, the researchers said.

“The longer the study duration, the stronger the message in terms of remission of type 2 diabetes,” study leader John Kirwan of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center said in a statement.

His team tracked participants in four earlier randomized trials in which 195 patients had been assigned to undergo weight-loss surgery – either gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, or gastric banding – and 121 had been assigned to receive medical and lifestyle therapies.

Seven years after enrollment, diabetes remission rates were 18.2% in the surgery group (down from 51% at one year) and 6.2% in the medication/lifestyle group (up from 0.5% at one year).

The surgery group had lost more weight: 19.9%, on average, vs 8.3% in the medical/lifestyle group.

And levels of hemoglobin A1c, a marker of blood sugar control, averaged 1.1% lower in the surgery group, despite use of fewer anti-diabetes medications.

Results were similar regardless of whether patients’ degree of overweight or obesity was lower that the usual eligibility cutoff for weight-loss surgery, the researchers said.

A prototype sensor “printed” onto fabrics can analyze human sweat and report results wirelessly, potentially helping someday  to identify people at risk of heat stroke, Japanese researchers say.

The thin, flexible new device can measure sweat levels of chloride ions – electrolytes important for maintaining metabolic equilibrium, transmitting nerve impulse and regulating fluid levels in cells, they explained in the science journal ACS Sensors.

Using a technique called “heat-transfer printing,” the device can be incorporated into textiles such as T-shirts, wristbands, and shoe insoles, study coauthor Dr. Isao Shitanda of the Tokyo University of Science said in a statement.

The wicking effect of the textile helps spread the sweat evenly between the electrodes of the sensor, creating a stable electrical contact, the researchers said.

In tests of the sensor on a volunteer who exercised on a static bicycle for 30 minutes, the device proved to be as reliable as blood tests and saliva analysis for measuring chloride ion levels.

The sensor can transmit data wirelessly, making it useful for real-time health monitoring.

“Since chloride is the most abundant electrolyte in human sweat, measuring its concentration provides an excellent indicator of the body’s electrolyte balance and a useful tool for the diagnosis and prevention of heat stroke,” Dr. Shitanda said.

This newsletter was edited by Mark Porter. Additional reporting by Shawana Alleyne-Morris.

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