Active legs at night linked to heart problems

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NEW YORK: Men who jerked and flexed their legs involuntarily at night were more likely to develop cardiovascular disease in a new study of sleep and chronic disease in the 65-and-up crowd.

During a one-night sleep assessment, more than two-thirds of men had the involuntary movements, which usually occur in the foot or at the ankle or hip joint, and most of them woke up during the night because of it.

Those men had a higher risk of a combination of heart and blood vessel conditions, including heart attack, stroke and blocked or ruptured arteries. Although those events happened over a few years after researchers measured nighttime leg movements, the study isn't proof that overactive limbs caused the heart problems, researchers said. (Reuters)