Sleep changes as we age. When we were kids, we needed 10 to 12 hours of sleep, for teens it is eight to 10 and it decreases to seven to nine as we reach adulthood. But there is always a lack of urgency when it comes to sleep and young adults, many of whom prefer staying up and doing different activities. According to the Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, many national surveys show that about 37% of men, and 39% of people from the age of 45 to 64 reported not getting enough sleep.

Many people in America don't sleep the right amount. This means they either sleep too long or not long enough. But what happens to your body when you do not sleep enough? You just feel tired right? No, when you don't get this much sleep, your body can get stressed. This can make you more likely to get sick. A study published by the JAMA Network Open Sleep Trajectories and All-Cause Mortality Among Low-Income Adults showed that people who don't sleep the right amount have a higher chance of dying early. It's like your body needs that time to rest and fix itself. Without enough good sleep, things can start to go wrong. So, getting the right amount of sleep is super important for staying healthy.

How Was The Study Done?

Scientists wanted to see how sleep habits affect people's health over many years. They looked at almost 47,000 people who were between 40 and 79 years old. They asked them about their sleep habits when the study started, and then again, a few years later. The scientists wanted to see if people's sleep habits changed. They divided people into groups based on if they started with too much or too little sleep, and if their sleep changed over time. For example, some people started sleeping a lot but then started sleeping very little. This helped the scientists see how different sleep patterns affected people's health. They wanted to see the long-term effects of sleep.

The study found that people who had sleep habits that changed a lot had a higher risk of dying early. This means if you started sleeping too much and then switched to sleeping too little, or the other way around, you were more likely to die sooner. They also found that these people had a higher risk of heart problems. The risks were even higher for some groups of people, like white adults and people with higher incomes.

Sleep Deprivation And Its Effect On The Body

If you often doze off when you are sitting and reading, watching a movie, talking to someone, sitting quietly after lunch or even during a few minutes of traffic, you may be sleep deprived according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. They explain how sleep deprivation can cause issues with learning, focusing and reacting to certain things. The symptoms of sleep deprivation in kids differ a little as they might be overly active and have trouble paying attention to certain things. If you are experiencing sleep issues, make sure to speak to a healthcare professional who will help you identify the issues and direct you towards the treatment or changes you must make. Here are some ways sleep helps your body.

Repairs Your Heart

Good sleep allows your heart and blood vessels to heal. This keeps them strong and healthy, reducing the risk of heart problems.

Controls Hunger

Sleep helps balance your hunger hormones, so you don't feel too hungry. This helps prevent eating too much and keeps your weight healthy.

Manages Blood Sugar

Proper sleep helps your body use insulin correctly. This lowers the chance of high blood sugar, which can lead to diabetes.

Supports Growth

Deep sleep releases growth hormones, helping kids and teens grow. It also repairs body tissues, which is important for everyone.

Boosts Immunity

When you sleep well, your body's defense system gets stronger. This helps you fight off germs and stay healthy.

The bulge that appears when an internal organ pushes through a weakened muscle wall will not recede with rest or medication—it will, in most cases, grow larger and more uncomfortable over time. Surgery is the only definitive treatment. What has changed significantly in recent years is what that surgery looks like and what recovery from it requires.

Dr Rajesh Sharma, Director – General Surgery, Minimal Access & Bariatric Surgery, CK Birla Hospitals, Jaipur, in an interview with Health and Me, spoke about the introduction of robotics in hernia treatment and how it can benefit patients.

How hernia surgeries are becoming less painful

With advances in surgical technology, minimally invasive approaches have significantly improved patient outcomes. One of the most important developments in recent years is robotic-assisted hernia surgery using the da Vinci Surgical System. In robotic surgery, the surgeon operates from a console equipped with a high-definition, three-dimensional, magnified view of the surgical field. The robotic system translates the surgeon’s hand movements into extremely precise movements of miniaturised instruments inserted through small incisions. The system also filters natural hand tremors and provides a greater range of motion than the human wrist, enabling meticulous dissection and suturing.

For hernia repair, these capabilities allow surgeons to perform delicate steps such as accurate defect closure and optimal mesh placement, which are important for the long-term durability of the repair.

Benefits for patients

Robotic hernia repair offers several advantages for patients:

1. Smaller incisions and minimal scarring
2. Reduced postoperative pain
3. Lower risk of wound complications
4. Shorter hospital stay
5. Faster return to normal activities

Because the procedure is minimally invasive, most patients experience earlier mobilisation and quicker overall recovery compared with traditional open surgery. Robotic surgery is particularly useful in complex, recurrent, or large ventral hernias, where precise reconstruction of the abdominal wall is important. While not every hernia requires a robotic approach, the technology expands the surgeon’s ability to perform advanced minimally invasive repairs with improved ergonomics and visualisation.

The future of hernia surgery

The integration of robotic platforms such as the da Vinci system represents a major step forward in modern general surgery. By combining surgical precision with minimally invasive techniques, robotic hernia repair aims to enhance patient comfort, improve recovery, and deliver durable surgical outcomes.

The liver and heart are two of the most vital organs of the body, and although they perform very different functions, they are closely connected. When the liver is not functioning properly, it can place significant stress on the heart and circulatory system of the body.

Liver disease not only affects the digestion process, metabolism, and detoxification but can also trigger serious cardiovascular changes that may go unnoticed in the early stages. Understanding this particular connection is significant for timely diagnosis and better overall care.

The Liver-Heart Connection

The liver helps to regulate the flow of blood, fluid balance, cholesterol metabolism, and inflammation as well. When liver disease develops—whether due to fatty liver, hepatitis, cirrhosis, or alcohol-related damage—all these processes become disturbed.

As a result of the same, the heart may have to work harder to maintain circulation, while blood vessels may also undergo certain changes that impact blood pressure and delivery of oxygen as well.

Changes In Blood Circulation

In well-advanced liver disease, especially cirrhosis, the flow of blood through the liver becomes restricted. This can also increase pressure in the portal vein, a condition known as portal hypertension. At the same point in time, blood vessels in the rest of the body may also widen, causing a drop in effective blood pressure.

To compensate, the heart pumps faster and harder. With the passage of time, this constant strain can weaken cardiac function and even lead to a condition sometimes referred to as cirrhotic cardiomyopathy, where the heart does not respond normally under stress.

Fluid Retention And Heart Stress

Liver disease often causes the body to retain both salt and water. This can also lead to swelling in the legs, abdomen, and surrounding tissues as well. Extra fluid in the body increases the workload on the heart, making it more difficult for it to pump blood in an efficient way. In severe cases, this may also contribute to shortness of breath, fatigue, and worsening cardiovascular strain.

Inflammation And Metabolic Impact

Some of the conditions, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, are also linked with diabetes, obesity, high levels of cholesterol, and high blood pressure – all of which are the major risk factors for heart disease. Chronic inflammation, well-associated with liver damage, may further increase the risk of atherosclerosis and other cardiac complications.

GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy have shown significant benefits for people with diabetes and obesity. However, not everyone experiences the same results.

Now, a study suggests that this variation may be due to genetic resistance, which means that some people are biologically less responsive to these medications, making these drugs less effective.

Also Read: NAFLD to MASLD: Experts Explain Why This Common Yet Dangerous Liver Condition Got Renamed

The new study by scientists at Stanford University in the US showed that about 10 per cent of the general population carry genetic variants that lead to what the researchers called “GLP-1 resistance”.

The GLP-1- receptor agonist drugs typically work by mimicking the hormone GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), which naturally helps regulate blood sugar by stimulating insulin release. The process slows the emptying of the stomach and reduces appetite.

However, in individuals with certain genetic variants, the team found that higher levels of GLP-1 did not regulate blood sugar better.

The researchers noted that the findings, published in the journal Genome Medicine, may be key to developing new therapies for people with GLP-1 resistance.

“There are a whole class of medications that are insulin sensitizers, so perhaps we can develop medications that will allow people to be sensitized to GLP-1s or find formulations of GLP-1, like the longer-acting versions, that avoid the GLP-1 resistance,” said Anna Gloyn, professor of pediatrics and of genetics at Stanford Medicine.

The Gene Linked to GLP-1 Resistance

Also read: Foundayo: US FDA Approves Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 Weight Loss Pill

To zero in on the gene resistant to GLP-1 drugs, the team conducted experiments in humans. They traced this resistance to a PAM variant known as p.S539W.

PAM (peptidyl-glycine alpha-amidating monooxygenase) is an enzyme that is uniquely capable of activating many hormones in the body, including GLP-1.

While the researchers suspected that people with the PAM variant would have lower levels of GLP-1 in their blood, it actually increased levels of GLP-1. Although the exact mechanism is still unclear, experiments in both humans and mice confirmed signs of reduced response to GLP-1.

Analyzing diabetes drug trial data, they found that individuals with these variants were less able to lower their blood sugar levels even after six months of treatment. This suggests that despite having more circulating GLP-1, their bodies are less responsive to it.

“When I treat patients in the diabetes clinic, I see a huge variation in response to these GLP-1-based medications and it is difficult to predict this response clinically,” said Mahesh Umapathysivam, an endocrinologist and clinical researcher at Adelaide University in Australia.

“This is the first step in being able to use someone’s genetic make-up to help us improve that decision-making process,” he added.

Also read: Can Weight Loss Jabs Surge Divorce Rates? What Experts Are Saying

Importantly, participants with the PAM variants did not respond differently to other common diabetes treatments, including sulfonylureas, metformin, and DPP-4i.

The finding may help develop precision medicine, the researchers said. Knowing ahead of time who is likely to respond would help patients get on the right drugs faster, Gloyn said.

Reasons Why Ozempic May Not Help All People Lose Weight

Ozempic is primarily indicated for type 2 diabetes management. But some doctors may prescribe it for weight loss in appropriate patients without diabetes.

Previous research has shown that medical conditions such as sleep apnea, along with certain common medications, such as antidepressants, steroids, and contraceptives, can hamper the process of shedding extra pounds.

Another major reason that can hamper weight loss is the side-effects of these drugs that can prompt a person to halt their prescription mid-way.