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You can not sleep at night? Maybe genetics is to blame.
In a new study, dozens of gene regions related to insomnia have been located, and researchers have also reported a link between insomnia and heart disease.
Genetic regions identified
US and UK researchers badyzed data from more than 450,000 people in the UK – 29% of whom reported frequent insomnia – and identified 57 gene regions badociated with insomnia.
These links were independent of known insomnia risk factors such as lifestyle, caffeine consumption, depression or stress.
"Our results confirm the role of genetics in the symptoms of insomnia and develop the four [genetic regions] Jacqueline Lane, lead author of the study, is a researcher at the Center for Genomic Medicine at Mbadachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
"All these identified areas help us understand why some people suffer from insomnia, which pathways and systems are affected, and point to new potential therapeutic targets," Lane said in a hospital press release.
The link between insomnia and chronic disease
The researchers also found evidence that an increase in insomnia symptoms almost doubled the risk of coronary heart disease. They were also linked to depression and a loss of well-being.
"Insomnia has a very significant impact on millions of people around the world.We have known for a long time that there is a link between insomnia and chronic diseases." Our findings now suggest that depression and heart disease is actually the result of persistent insomnia, "said co-author Samuel Jones. He is a university researcher at the University of Exeter in England.
New therapeutic targets
Lane said these results open up possibilities for future drugs. "All these identified areas are potential new therapeutic targets for insomnia, and 16 of these regions contain known drug targets," she said.
This in turn could have an effect on heart disease because "the new causal relationships indicate the potential usefulness of insomnia treatments as possible treatments for coronary heart disease and depression," he said. said Lane.
The study was published online on February 25 in Nature Genetics.
Insomnia affects 10 to 20% of the planet's inhabitants and studies have shown that about a third of the risks of insomnia are hereditary.
Previous research suggested that insomnia increased the risk of anxiety disorders, alcoholism, major depression and heart disease, but the mechanisms involved in this increase were poorly understood.
Image credit: iStock
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