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January 1, 2008

Get a Good Nights Rest

We've pointed to the correlation between poor sleep patterns and the risk for developing diabetes. However, recent studies appear to be closer to pinpointing the mechanisms involved and provide further motivation for those with diabetes to prioritize their time in bed:

Successive nights of disturbed sleep appear to put people at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to research in which scientists interfered with volunteers' sleep patterns.

The research is the first to show that disturbed sleep can affect the production of insulin, and consequently a person's ability to metabolise glucose. It could have huge implications for understanding and tackling the diabetes epidemic that is predicted to grip western countries due to increasingly obese populations.

According to the leading charity Diabetes UK, there are more than 2.3 million people with diabetes in the UK, and up to 750,000 more who have the condition but do not know it.

Between 85% and 95% of diabetes cases are type 2, which typically develops later in life and is linked to obesity.

Posted by Diabetologica at January 1, 2008 2:19 AM