Childhood sugar rationing prevents chronic disease 

As we come down from the Halloween sugar rush, new research finds that a low-sugar diet in the first years of life can significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases in adulthood. The study, published on 31st October in Science, cleverly uses historical conditions — sugar rationing during World War II — to explore how early-life exposure to low-sugar diets impacts long-term health outcomes.

Children are often exposed to sugar in utero and through breast milk, formula, and baby food. Wartime sugar restrictions, in place in the UK from July 1940 to 1953, limited adult consumption to less than 40g per day and eliminated sugar entirely for children under two. When rationing ended in September 1953, the average sugar consumption in Britain doubled almost immediately.

To see if these restrictions had any impacts on health outcomes, researchers turned to the UK Biobank, a database containing the genetic and medical information of half a million people. Combining this data with information from food surveys of the 1950s, the researchers compared health outcomes of over 60,000 individuals conceived before and after sugar rationing ended. 

"When rationing ended in September 1953, the average sugar consumption in Britain doubled almost immediately"

They found that, as adults, babies conceived and born during the sugar rationing period had a 35% lower risk of type two diabetes and a 20% lower likelihood of hypertension than those born afterwards. The average age of onset of these chronic diseases was also delayed — by four years for diabetes and two years for high blood pressure. This protection was not limited to children whose sugar was restricted outside the womb, either. While children born during the rationing period showed a higher reduction in disease risk, adults still experienced this protection when they experienced sugar limitations exclusively in utero.

This research suggests that sugar rationing early in life has lasting effects on long-term health. Scientists speculate that early exposure to sugar might impact neonatal metabolism as well as taste perception, potentially leading to lifelong cravings.

"Early exposure to sugar might impact neonatal metabolism as well as taste perception"

Deep sleep can heal a broken heart

Given how terrible it makes us feel, it seems intuitive that sleep deprivation should affect our health. Indeed, research has linked improved quality and duration of sleep to better blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and a decreased risk of stroke or heart attack. But a recent study published last Wednesday in Nature suggests that sleep does more than preserve health — it can also help mend a hurting heart.

To investigate the link between sleep and cardiovascular recovery, scientists induced heart attacks in mice and used high-resolution imaging and cell analysis to examine the brain. They found that heart attacks led to a more than twofold increase in the number of monocytes: immune cells that are reprogrammed to release a protein called tumour necrosis factor following a heart attack. This protein acts on sleep-regulating neurons in the brain to induce ‘slow-wave’ sleep, a deep sleep phase characterised by slow brain waves, during which the body carries out crucial repair and restoration activities.  

"These findings reveal how our bodies are naturally programmed to seek more rest after traumatic cardiovascular events"

When the researchers disrupted this deep sleep in mice, inflammation in the brain and the heart increased. Excessive heart inflammation decreases cardiac function by disrupting the heart’s normal rhythms. These results suggest that sleep works to regulate immune and neural pathways after a heart attack, supporting heart recovery.

To see if sleep plays a similar role in cardiovascular recovery in humans, the researchers monitored the brains and sleep quality of heart attack patients. Just as in mice, they found higher numbers of monocytes in the brains of patients who had experienced heart attacks. In addition, those who slept poorly in the weeks following a heart attack had double the risk of experiencing another cardiovascular event compared to those who slept well.

These findings reveal how our bodies are naturally programmed to seek more rest after traumatic cardiovascular events and suggest that both healthy individuals and heart attack survivors should prioritise quality sleep for better heart health and recovery.