Comment (1) Tweet Share on LinkedIn Related Articles FDA proposes rules for nanotechnology in food Vietnam asks WHO to help identify killer disease FDA: Gulf Seafood Safe Despite Oil Spill Concerns 
April 17, 2012 RSS Feed Print 
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — More people pull the night shift. Teens text past midnight and stumble to class at dawn. Travelers pack red-eye flights.
Nodding off behind the wheel isn't the only threat from a lack of shut-eye. There's growing evidence that people who regularly sleep too little and at the wrong time suffer long-lasting consequences that a nap won't cure: An increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and other health problems.
"We have a societal conspiracy for sleep deprivation," says Russell Sanna of Harvard Medical School's sleep medicine division, who attended a TEDMED conference last week where scientists called sleep loss one of health care's big challenges.
[Read: Common Plastics Chemical Might Boost Diabetes Risk.]
Just how unhealthy is it? Consider how sleep may play a role in the nation's diabetes epidemic.
Studies have long shown that people who sleep fewer than five hours a night have an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, the kind that tends to strike later in life.
Rotating shift work — three or more night shifts a month interspersed with day or evening hours — raises the risk, too, says a recent report from researchers who analyzed years of medical records from the huge Nurses' Health Study.
Diet and physical activity are big factors in Type 2 diabetes. Certainly it's harder to work out or choose an apple over a doughnut when you're tired, especially at 3 a.m. when your body's internal clock knows you should be sleeping.
But a study published last week shows sleep plays a more complex role than that. As sleep drops and normal biological rhythms are disrupted, your body physically changes in ways that can help set the stage for diabetes, reports neuroscientist Orfeu Buxton of Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Buxton's team had 21 healthy volunteers spend almost six weeks living in a laboratory where their diet, physical activity, sleep and even the light was strictly controlled.
[Read: Disrupted Sleep May Raise Risk for Obesity, Diabetes.]
The volunteers started out well-rested. But for three of those weeks, they were allowed only about 5½ hours of sleep every 24 hours — at varying times of the day or night, to mimic a bad shift rotation or prolonged jet lag. That knocked out of whack the body's "circadian rhythm," a master biological clock that regulates such patterns as when we become sleepy and how body temperature rises and falls.
What happened was startling: Blood sugar levels increased after meals, sometimes to pre-diabetic levels, because the pancreas stopped secreting enough insulin, Buxton reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
At the same time, the volunteers' metabolic rate slowed by 8 percent. The researchers had them on a diet so they didn't gain weight — but Buxton says typically, a metabolism drop of that size could mean gaining 10 to 12 pounds over a year.
The results make sense, says Dr. Michael Thorpy, sleep center director at New York's Montefiore Medical Center and a neurology professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
"If we're going to spend a third of our day sleeping, there's got to be a good reason for it," says Thorpy, who notes that diabetes is far from the only worry.
Up to 70 million Americans are estimated to suffer from chronic problems with sleep, from insomnia to sleep apnea. Impaired sleep has been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, depression, memory impairment and a weakened immune system. Still another concern: The World Health Organization has classified night shift work as a probable carcinogen, because too much light at night may hamper a hormone involved both with sleep and suppressing tumor cells.
Don't people adjust to the night shift if they're on it long enough? Buxton says rotating shifts probably are most worrisome. In his study, the volunteers' bodies went back to normal after nine nights of sufficient sleep at the right time. No one knows how long it takes before sleep deprivation and an off-kilter biological clock may cause permanent damage.
1 2 > Tags: diabetes, sleep, Associated Press, health Reader Comments Read all comments (1) Add Your Thoughts Comment Your comment will be truncated to the first 3000 characters. Name State Select One AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY International Email Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image. Incorrect please try again
Enter the words above: Enter the numbers you hear: 
Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ. advertisement
U.S. News Rankings & Research U.S. News's "Best" delivers recognized, authoritative information and clear, objective rankings that help readers plan for their life and ultimately, make the most of it.
Best Hospitals Best Health Plans Best Nursing Homes Best Diets Featured Videos 
Depression Learn how to recognize the symptoms.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Rheumatoid Arthritis can affect the young and old alike.
Suffering from Migraines? Know your triggers to prevent a migraine meltdown.
advertisement
Get the Guidebook 
Best Hospitals 2012 The definitive U.S. News guide to hospitals, with 172 full-color pages of rankings, special reports, and more.
Order it now Hospitals » Hospitals by Specialty Cancer Hospitals Cardiology & Heart Surgery Hospitals Diabetes & Endocrinology Hospitals Orthopedics Hospitals Hospitals »#bottom dl.editors-picks dd p {font-size:1.1em;}Hospitals by City
Chicago Hospitals Dallas-Fort Worth Hospitals Los Angeles Hospitals New York City Hospitals Philadelphia Hospitals Diets » Best Diets for You Best Diets Overall Best Weight-Loss Diets Best Diabetes Diets Best Heart-Healthy Diets Best Commercial Diet Plans Senior Housing » Best Nursing Homes California Nursing Homes Florida Nursing Homes Illinois Nursing Homes New York Nursing Homes Penn. Nursing Homes Health Plans » Top Health Insurance Companies Calif. Health Insurance Florida Health Insurance Mass. Health Insurance Texas Health Insurance Virginia Health Insurance advertisement
Home Hospitals Doctors Health Plans Nursing Homes Diets RSS Employment Opportunities Contact Us Site Map Privacy Policy Masthead Advertise With Us Subscribe Copyright © 2012 U.S.News & World Report LP All rights reserved.
Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our Terms and Conditions of Use and Privacy Policy.
View the Original article
No comments:
Post a Comment