Eating late at night is putting millions of people in danger
of heart attacks and strokes, experts warn.
A late-night meal keeps the body on ‘high alert’ when it
should be winding down, researchers found.
Heart experts have advised that adults should never eat
within two hours of bedtime – and ideally, nothing after 7pm.
In a healthy person, blood pressure drops by at least 10 per
cent when they go to sleep.
Millions of people are putting themselves at higher risk of
a heart attack or stroke by eating after 7pm, researchers have warned.
But the results of a study of more than 700 people with high
blood pressure found that eating within two hours of bedtime meant their levels
stayed high.
Experts think this is because eating releases a rush of
stress hormones when the body should be starting to relax.
People who do not see their blood pressure fall at night are
known as ‘non-dippers’ – and have a much higher rate of heart-related death.
Late eaters were nearly three times more likely to be non-dippers, the Turkish
researchers found.
Researcher, Dr Ebru Özpelit, presenting her results at the
European Society of Cardiology congress in Rome, said, “If we eat late at
night, the body essentially remains on high alert as during the day, rather
than relaxing for sleep.”
Stress hormones are secreted, causing blood pressure not to
decrease during sleep, which should normally happen.
Dr Özpelit, from the Dokuz Eylül University in Turkey,
tracked 721 people diagnosed with high blood pressure, with an average age of
53. She found that those who ate within two hours of going to bed were 2.8
times more likely to retain high blood pressure overnight.
Some 9.4 million people in the UK are diagnosed with high
blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension.
They are already at a higher risk of heart disease, but if
their blood pressure does not fall at night, that risk increases to a far
higher level.
Experts estimate that 40 per cent of patients with
hypertension are non-dippers – potentially 3.76million people in Britain–
putting them at serious risk of major heart problems.
A late-night meal keeps the body on ‘high alert’ when it
should be winding down, increasing the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Dr Özpelit says it is more dangerous if blood pressure
doesn’t drop by more than 10 per cent as this increases cardiovascular risk and
these patients have more heart attacks, strokes and chronic disease. But even
healthy people with normal blood pressure should take note of the findings. How
we eat may be as important as what we eat. She advised that people do not skip
breakfast, eat lunch, and keep dinner to a small meal.
Eating breakfast and lunch is important but dinner must not
be later than 7 o’clock in the evening. The findings add to a growing body of
evidence which suggests keeping all meals to within a fixed time – and fasting
at night – can have a wide range of health benefits.
Previous research has found that an early dinner reduces the
risk of breast cancer, lowers blood sugar levels, and helps burn off calories.
Experts think part of the reason is that the body evolved to expect meals much
earlier in the day – because people went to sleep when it got dark.
Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British
Heart Foundation, said this research suggests that eating a meal late at night
may contribute to the failure of their blood pressure to reduce. It is normal
for blood pressure to reduce overnight, even in people with high blood
pressure. However, in some, their blood pressure remains elevated throughout
the night putting them at potentially higher risk of future complications.
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But can all these work in Nigeria especially in Lagos where you get home very late at night
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