British researchers said that middle-aged adults who get less than the ideal amount of sleep at night may be at risk for declined brain function, or in simple terms, it causes the brain to age.

The researchers said that the severity of the decline in brain function can be as much as seven years more.

Jane Ferrie, a senior research fellow, said that the society today pressures people to fit more things in our 24-hour schedule. The entire struggle to balance work and life has caused us many of us to trade hours of sleep for more “productive” things.

Ferrie said that their studies showed a link between lack of sleep and impaired or declining cognitive function.

Moreover, the study shows that women who reported an average of 7 hours of sleep have the highest cognitive score while men who sleep for 6-8 hours scored the highest. Consequently, those who reported sleeping less than 6 hours every night – regardless of gender – scored relatively low in the cognitive scores.

Since most of the biological processes in our body take place at night, sleeping gives human beings the ability to recuperate from stressors and oxidants.

Although most people can function relatively well even with less than optimal hours of sleep, it may cause a long-term detrimental effect to us, Ferrie said.

Ferrie further said that chronic short sleep leads to the production of hormones inside the body that causes high blood pressures, diabetes, heart problems, and issues in cholesterol levels.

Hormone-blocking therapy used by the male population to treat prostate cancer may increase their risk of developing colon cancer, according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The drug treatment is called ‘androgen deprivation therapy’ also known as ADT, which is used to suppress the production of male hormone testosterone which increases the development of prostate cancer.

ADT is commonly used to treat prostate cancer even though it has known potential effects such as diabetes and obesity. Diabetes and obesity are the two main risk factors in the development of colon cancer.

The U.S Food and Drug Administration just informed last month that hormonal treatments for prostate cancer such as Lupron and Trelstar should bear new warnings regarding their potential risks of heart problems and diabetes.

According to the researchers, studies in animals suggested that the male hormones stop the signals that cause cancer cells to grow, which in turn suppresses the development of colon cancer.

The authors say it might be possible that inhibiting the release of hormones in the body could lead to greater risk for colon cancer.

Dr. Vahakn Shahinian of the University of Michigan, along with his colleagues studied more than 100,000 older men that were diagnosed with prostate cancer between the years 1993 and 2002.

They discovered that those men who received ADT had about 30 to 40 percent greater risk of developing colon cancer during the follow-up period. However, the case is still based on an observational study, and not a proven cause and effect.