Skip to main content

Decrease Your Sleep and Increase Your Risk for

Decrease Your Sleep and Increase Your Risk for
Diabetes


Chronic sleep loss can reduce the capacity of even young adults to perform basic metabolic functions, such as processing and storing carbohydrates or regulating hormone secretion, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center in the October 23, 1999 issue of The Lancet. Cutting back from the standard eight down to four hours of sleep each night produced striking changes in glucose tolerance and endocrine function--changes that resembled the effects of advanced age or the early stages of diabetes--after less than one week.

Although many studies have examined the short-term effects of acute, total sleep deprivation on the brain, this is the first to investigate the impact of chronic, partial sleep loss on the body by evaluating the metabolism and hormone secretion of subjects subjected to sleep restriction and after sleep recovery.

"We found that the metabolic and endocrine changes resulting from a significant sleep debt mimic many of the hallmarks of aging," said Eve Van Cauter, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and director of the study. "We suspect that chronic sleep loss may not only hasten the onset but could also increase the severity of age-related ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and memory loss."


[...]


A chronic lack of sleep may cause far more serious problems than a tendency to nod off
the next day. People who do not get enough sleep on a regular basis may become
which, over time, can raise the risk of
less
sensitive to insulin
obesity
high blood pressure
diabetes
In fact, Dr. Eve Van Cauter at the University of Chicago found that chronic sleep
deprivation--
of sleep a night--had the same effect on insulin
resistance as aging.
6.5 hours or less
Just like poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, chronic stress and aging,
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body loses its ability to respond to insulin, the body's key
blood sugar-regulating hormone. This insulin resistance causes blood sugar levels to
rise, which in turn can increase the risk for a number of serious medical complications
including kidney damage, heart disease, blindness and lower limb amputations.
sleep loss is a risk
factor (for type 2 diabetes).
According to the study healthy adults who averaged 316 minutes of sleep a night--about
5.2 hours--over 8 consecutive nights secreted 50% more insulin than their more rested
counterparts who averaged 477 minutes of sleep a night, or about 8 hours.
As a result,
"short sleepers'' were
less sensitive to insulin.
40%
The researchers suggest that sleep deprivation, which is becoming commonplace in
industrialized countries, may play a role in the current epidemic of type 2 diabetes. A poll by
the National Sleep Foundation found a steady decline in the number of hours Americans
sleep each night. In 1975, the average American slept 7.5 hours, down from 9 hours in
1910. Today, adults sleep about 7 hours a night.
American Diabetes Association's Annual Meeting June 25, 2001
Philadelphia

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Insulin Resistance- cause of ADD, diabetes, narcolepsy, etc etc

Insulin Resistance Insulin Resistance Have you been diagnosed with clinical depression? Heart disease? Type II, or adult, diabetes? Narcolepsy? Are you, or do you think you might be, an alcoholic? Do you gain weight around your middle in spite of faithfully dieting? Are you unable to lose weight? Does your child have ADHD? If you have any one of these symptoms, I wrote this article for you. Believe it or not, the same thing can cause all of the above symptoms. I am not a medical professional. I am not a nutritionist. The conclusions I have drawn from my own experience and observations are not rocket science. A diagnosis of clinical depression is as ordinary as the common cold today. Prescriptions for Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, etc., are written every day. Genuine clinical depression is a very serious condition caused by serotonin levels in the brain. I am not certain, however, that every diagnosis of depression is the real thing. My guess is that about 10 percent of the people taking

Could Narcolepsy be caused by gluten? :: Kitchen Table Hypothesis

Kitchen Table Hypothesis from www.zombieinstitute.net - Heidi's new site It's commonly known that a severe allergy to peanuts can cause death within minutes. What if there were an allergy that were delayed for hours and caused people to fall asleep instead? That is what I believe is happening in people with Narcolepsy. Celiac disease is an allergy to gliadin, a specific gluten protein found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye. In celiac disease the IgA antigliadin antibody is produced after ingestion of gluten. It attacks the gluten, but also mistakenly binds to and creates an immune reaction in the cells of the small intestine causing severe damage. There is another form of gluten intolerance, Dermatitis Herpetiformis, in which the IgA antigliadin bind to proteins in the skin, causing blisters, itching and pain. This can occur without any signs of intestinal damage. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a similar autoimmune reaction to gliadin, however it usually involves the

Blue-blocking Glasses To Improve Sleep And ADHD Symptoms Developed

Blue-blocking Glasses To Improve Sleep And ADHD Symptoms Developed Scientists at John Carroll University, working in its Lighting Innovations Institute, have developed an affordable accessory that appears to reduce the symptoms of ADHD. Their discovery also has also been shown to improve sleep patterns among people who have difficulty falling asleep. The John Carroll researchers have created glasses designed to block blue light, therefore altering a person's circadian rhythm, which leads to improvement in ADHD symptoms and sleep disorders. […] How the Glasses Work The individual puts on the glasses a couple of hours ahead of bedtime, advancing the circadian rhythm. The special glasses block the blue rays that cause a delay in the start of the flow of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Normally, melatonin flow doesn't begin until after the individual goes into darkness. Studies indicate that promoting the earlier release of melatonin results in a marked decline of ADHD symptoms. Bett