Chennai: A latest study has found that for midlife women who have difficulty in sleeping, it might be because of chemicals in the environment.
The study based on data from the Midlife Women’s Health Study says exposure to various chemicals, such as phthalates, found in hundreds of products used daily, is associated with sleep disruptions in menopausal women.
During menopause transition, the levels of hormones produced by the aging ovaries fluctuate, leading to irregular menstrual patterns, the time between periods, and the level of flow and hot flashes. Up to 60 per cent of women in the menopause transition experience sleep difficulties.
Women who have trouble falling asleep are at greater risk of developing persistent depression that can lead to worse health outcomes, may require more medical care, and increase absenteeism.
ANOTHER STUDY
According to another study, interactions between two or more organisms, in which all partners involved gain an advantage, are ubiquitous in nature and have played a key role in the evolution of life on.
The research project, performed in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena in Germany, was led by Prof. Christian Kost from the Department of Ecology at the Osnabrueck University. It was published in the scientific journal Current Biology.
The research team used bacteria as a model system to study the evolution of mutual cooperation. At the beginning of the experiment, two bacterial strains could only grow when they provided each other with essential amino acids.
Over the course of several generations, however, the initial exchange of metabolic by-products developed into a real cooperation: Both partners increased the production of the exchanged amino acids in order to benefit their respective partner.
Even though the increased amino acid production enhanced growth when both partners were present, it was extremely costly when individual bacterial strains had to grow without their partner.
The observed changes were caused by the fact that individual bacterial cells had assembled into multicellular clusters. In these cell groups, cooperative mutants were rewarded. The more resources they invested in the growth of other cells, the more nutrients they received in return from their partners.
According to Kost, “This kind of feedback represents a previously unknown mechanism, which promotes the evolution of cooperative interactions between two different organisms.”
