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Item
#3 Item Revisited: June 27, 2001
Issue #58 (ADA
2001)
Lack
Of Sleep Linked To Diabetes
Another
new study this year shows even 2 hours deprivation of sleep can
cause problems
New
evidence that inadequate sleep may prompt development of insulin
resistance, a well-known risk factor for diabetes, was reported
Tuesday at the American Diabetes Association's 61st Annual
Scientific Sessions.
"We
have shown that failure to get the slightly more than eight hours
sleep per night that clinical experts recommend may contribute to
the rising incidence of diabetes," said Bryce A. Mander, a
research assistant in the Endocrinology Section of the Department
of Medicine at the University of Chicago.
The
research was done in the laboratory of well-known sleep researcher
Eve Van Cauter, Ph.D., a professor of medicine at the university.
"When
you chronically get inadequate sleep, you are not merely
developing a sleep debt but also disrupting other body
functions," said Mander. "Such endemic sleep loss is
widely seen in industrialized countries and has now been shown to
decrease the body's sensitivity to its own insulin."
Approximately
16 million Americans have diabetes, a group of serious diseases
characterized by high blood sugar levels that result from defects
in the body's ability to produce and/or use insulin.
Another
20 to 30 million have impaired glucose tolerance, a potentially
pre-diabetic condition that results from poor insulin sensitivity.
Diabetes
can lead to severely debilitating or fatal complications, such as
blindness, kidney disease, heart disease and amputations. It is
the sixth leading cause of death by disease in the U.S.
The
sleep research was undertaken to explore the hypothesis that one
of the many functions of sleep is to help assure normal metabolism
of sugar. This is a special concern as people in industrialized
societies drive themselves for high work performance,
progressively curtailing their sleep duration.
The
sleep researchers studied 27 healthy, non-obese adults, aged 23 to
42 years; 14 were "normal" sleepers, whose average
weekday sleep duration was 7.5 to 8.5 hours, while 13 were chronic
"short" sleepers, whose average weekday sleep duration
was under 6.5 hours. Their sleep patterns had been stable for at
least six months.
The
two groups were matched for gender and ethnic distribution,
exercise habits, and diabetic family history. The participants
wore a wrist activity monitor for eight consecutive nights and, on
the last two, recorded their sleep at home using an ambulatory
recording system.
Over
the course of the study, the short sleepers averaged five hours
and 16 minutes per night, while the normal sleepers averaged three
minutes under eight hours of sleep per night.
On
the final day of the study, the participants were admitted to the
Clinical Research Center and, after an overnight fast, underwent
an intravenous glucose tolerance test.
"Insulin
sensitivity in the short sleepers was almost 40 percent lower than
in the normal sleepers," said Mander. "Our research
demonstrates that chronic sleep curtailment in otherwise healthy,
young adults impairs the ability of insulin to do its job
properly."
FACT:
Studies
show that up to 92 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are
insulin resistant. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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