A new study helps explain why getting too littlesleep might boost diabetes risk.Researchers say lack of sleep can lead to increased levels of substances called free fatty acids in the blood. These substances interfere with the ability of the hormone insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.
107. And argue not on behalf
of those who deceive themselves. Verily, Allah does not like anyone who is
a betrayer of his trust, and indulges in crime.
108. They may hide (their
crimes) from men, but they cannot hide (them) from Allah, for He is with them
(by His Knowledge), when they plot by night in words that He does not approve,
And Allah ever encompasses what they do.
110. And whoever does evil or
wrongs himself but afterwards seeks Allah's Forgiveness, he will find Allah
Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
111. And whoever earns sin,
he earns it only against himself. And Allah is Ever All-Knowing, All-Wise.
112. And whoever earns a
fault or a sin and then throws it on to someone innocent, he has indeed burdened
himself with falsehood and a manifest sin. 4. Surah An-Nisa' (The Women)
The researchers said these findings suggest that high rates of obesity and diabetes could be reduced by something as simple as having people get more sleep.
"At the population level, multiple studies have reported connections between restricted sleep, weight gain and type 2 diabetes," said study senior author Dr. Esra Tasali in a University of Chicago news release. She is an assistant professor of medicine at the university.
The study included 19 healthy men. They were between the ages of 18 and 30. The volunteers participated in two sleep scenarios. In one, they got a full night's sleep -- about eight hours a night -- for four nights. In the other, they only got slightly more than four hours of sleep a night, according to the researchers.
After a few consecutive nights of getting too little sleep, the men's blood levels of fatty acids increased and stayed high for about five hours in the early morning hours. These levels usually peak and then drop overnight.
As long as fatty acid levels remained high, the ability of insulin to regulate blood sugar levels was impaired, according to the study.
Study lead author Josiane Broussard explained in the release, "The result was a significant loss of the benefits of insulin. This crucial hormone was less able to do its job. Insulin action in these healthy young men resembled what we typically see in early stages of diabetes." Broussard is a former graduate student at the University of Chicago, and is now a postdoctoral research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute in Los Angeles.
The study was published online Feb. 19 in the journal Diabetologia.
The findings add to growing evidence that lack of sleep may disrupt fat metabolism, and suggest that increasing people's amount of sleep may reduce rates of obesity and diabetes, the researchers said.
Diabetes is a disease that's characterized by high blood sugar, which doctors refer to as hyperglycemia.
What makes type 2 diabetes different from type 1 diabetes, gestational diabetes, and other types of diabetes is the underlying cause of high blood sugar.
In type 2 diabetes, the two main contributors to high blood sugar are insulin resistance and reduced production of insulin by the pancreas.
Prevalence of Diabetes
- More than 29 million people in the United States - almost 10 percent of the total population - have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
- The vast majority of those people (90 to 95 percent) have type 2 diabetes.
- About 8.1 million people with diabetes are undiagnosed.
- Diabetes is now the seventh leading cause of death among Americans, according to the CDC.
- If current trends continue, one of every three adults in the United States will have some form of diabetes by 2050.
- The CDC also estimates there were 1.7 million newly diagnosed cases of diabetes among people aged 20 and older in the United States in 2012 (the most recent year for which statistics are available).
- Worldwide, about 347 million people currently have diabetes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And children, who were rarely diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the past, now account for a growing proportion of those diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
Insulin Resistance
Insulin resistance is a state in which the body’s cells do not use insulin efficiently. As a result, it takes more insulin than normal to transport glucose (the main type of sugar found in the bloodstream) into cells, where it can be used for fuel or stored for later use.
It’s not entirely clear why some people develop insulin resistance and others don’t. Obesity, which is the main risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes, is known to increase insulin resistance.
But not all people with type 2 diabetes are obese — and not all obese people develop the condition — so other issues such as genetics are contributing factors as well.
Reduced Insulin Production
Insulin resistance develops over time, and as the body becomes more and more insulin resistant, the pancreas responds by releasing more and more insulin. This higher-than-normal level of insulin in the bloodstream is called hyperinsulinemia.
For a while, the pancreas may be able to keep up with the body’s increased need for insulin, and blood sugar levels may stay within the normal range — about 70 to 100 mg/dl before meals and lower than 140 mg/dl after meals. Eventually, however, the pancreas can no longer keep up, and blood sugar levels begin to rise.
In the early stages, higher-than-normal blood sugar may cause no symptoms. But catching it early is important, because over time, high blood sugar can have negative effects on just about every part of the body.
Screening Tests for Type 2 Diabetes
Currently, the American Diabetes Association recommends that everyone get screened for diabetes beginning at age 45. People who have risk factors besides age (the risk of type 2 diabetes rises with age) should get screened earlier.
The two types of blood tests most commonly used to screen for type 2 diabetes: fasting plasma glucose test and the HbA1c test (also called the A1C test or the hemoglobin A1c test).
The fasting plasma glucose test requires fasting for 8 to 10 hours before blood is drawn. The test result shows the blood sugar level at the time the test was done. A result of 126 mg/dl or higher indicates diabetes. In a person with no other signs or symptoms of hyperglycemia, the test should be repeated on another day to confirm the diagnosis.
The HbA1c test does not require fasting before the test. The test result reflects the average blood sugar level in the blood over the previous two to three months. A test result of 6.5 percent or higher indicates diabetes.
Like the fasting plasma glucose test, in a person with no other signs orsymptoms of hyperglycemia, the test should be repeated on another day to confirm the diagnosis.
Treating Type 2 Diabetes
Treatment for type 2 diabetes includes dietary changes, regular physical activity, and usually one or more blood-sugar-lowering drugs. Most people start with the oral diabetes drug metformin (Fortamet, Glucophage, Glucophage XR, Glumetza), then increase the dose of metformin or add other oral drugs as needed to maintain blood sugar control.
Several new injected drugs can also be effective at helping to control blood sugar.
Although type 2 diabetes used to be called non-insulin-dependent diabetes, many people with type 2 diabetes eventually need to use insulin for optimal blood sugar control. This occurs because the pancreas can no longer produce enough insulin to keep up, not because you don’t try hard enough to control your blood sugar.
Everyone’s type 2 diabetes treatment is different — and will likely change over time due to age and lifestyle choices.
Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which your pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or your body does not properly use the insulin it makes. As a result, glucose (sugar) builds up in your blood instead of being used for energy.
Your body gets glucose from foods like bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, milk and fruit. To use this glucose, your body needs insulin. Insulin is a hormone that helps your body to control the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood.
The good news
You can live a long and healthy life by keeping your blood glucose (sugar) levels in the target range set by you and your health-care provider. You can do this by:
- Eating healthy meals and snacks
- Enjoying regular physical activity
- Monitoring your blood glucose (sugar) using a home blood glucose meter*
- Aiming for a healthy body weight
- Taking diabetes medications including insulin and other medications, if prescribed by your doctor
- Managing stress effectively
* Discuss with your health-care provider how often you should measure your blood glucose (sugar) level.
Who can help you?
Your health-care team is there to help you. Depending on your needs and the resources available in your community, your team may include a family doctor, diabetes educator (nurse and/or dietitian), endocrinologist, pharmacist, social worker, exercise physiologist, psychologist, foot care specialist, eye care specialist. They can answer your questions about how to manage diabetes and work with you to adjust your food plan, activity and medications.
Remember, you are the most important member of your health-care team.
Get the support you need
A positive and realistic attitude towards your diabetes can help you manage it. Talk to others who have diabetes. Ask your local Canadian Diabetes Association branch about joining a peer-support group or taking part in an information session.
Although people around the world are eating more healthy foods, that positive trend has been outpaced by a rising consumption of unhealthy foods, a new study finds.
Researchers analyzed the diets of nearly 4.5 billion adults in 187 countries and found that the intake of healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, rose between 1990 and 2010. However, there was an even greater increase in consumption of unhealthy fare such as processed meats and sugar-sweetened drinks.
The findings were published Feb. 18 in The Lancet Global Health.
"By 2020, projections indicate that non-communicable diseases will account for 75 percent of all deaths. Improving diet has a crucial role to play in reducing this burden," study leader Fumiaki Imamura, of the Medical Research Council epidemiology unit at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, said in a journal news release.
"Our findings have implications for governments and international bodies worldwide . . . [and] indicate the need to understand different, multiple causes of these trends," Imamura explained.
The greatest improvements in diet quality were in high-income nations, with increases in the amount of healthy foods people ate and slight decreases in their intake of unhealthy foods.
However, people in the United States and many of the other wealthiest regions (Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand) still had among the lowest-quality diets in the world due to their high consumption of unhealthy foods.
Some countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia (such as China and India) showed no improvement in diet quality between 1990 and 2010, according to the study.
Several low-income countries, such as Chad and Mali, and Mediterranean countries, such as Turkey and Greece, had the highest scores for healthy foods. The analysis also showed that older people and women tended to have the healthiest diets.
The finding that unhealthy eating is increasing faster than healthy eating in much of the world is cause for concern, and action is needed to reverse the trend, the researchers said.
"There is a particularly urgent need to focus on improving diet quality among poorer populations. If we do nothing, undernutrition will be rapidly eclipsed by obesity and non-communicable diseases, as is already being seen in India, China and other middle-income countries," study senior author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, said in the news release.
In a commentary accompanying the report, Carlo La Vecchia, from the University of Milan in Italy, and Lluis Serra-Majem, from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain, wrote: "The key focus of the paper remains the need to understand the agricultural, trade and food industry, and health policy determinants, to improve dietary patterns and nutrition in various areas, taking into account the traditional characteristics of diets worldwide."
Skipping just a single night of sleep leads to a shift in brain activity that seems to spark a desire to consume more fat the following day, a new study suggests.
The study offers potential insights into the relationship between lack of sleep and the risk of obesity, researchers said.
"The main finding of this study is that one night of sleep loss altered function within the brain's 'salience network,' " explained study senior author Hengyi Rao.
The salience network is a pathway in the brain thought to guide decision-making, according to Rao. He is an assistant professor of cognitive neuroimaging in neurology and psychiatry within the division of sleep and chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.
What's more, Rao added, a brain scan analysis revealed exactly how the network changed in response to sleep loss, which ultimately enabled his team to accurately predict how much more fat an individual might consume following lack of sleep.
"This study is the first to link [such] changes in regional brain function with actual food intake after sleep deprivation," he said.
Rao and his colleagues reported their findings recently in Scientific Reports.
The study authors explained that the salience network is composed of three sections that are all positioned at the front part of the brain. These areas are collectively involved in the onset and interpretation of emotions, sensory perception, and mental strategizing.
To explore the network's reaction to a lack of sleep, the study enlisted 46 healthy, mostly non-obese adults aged 21 to 50.
All were nonsmokers, and all said they routinely slept between 6.5 and 8.5 hours a night. None suffered from any particular sleep disturbances or any ongoing medical or psychological complications.
All were asked to spend five consecutive days (including four nights) in a sleep laboratory. On the first night all got a full night of rest, amounting to nine hours of time spent in bed, after which brain scans were conducted to record normal network function following good sleep.
Then, 34 of the participants were randomly selected to be in the "sleep-deprived group" on the second night. This meant they were kept awake all night, while the remaining participants got eight hours of sleep.
Brain scans were then conducted again, after which all participants were allowed to move about, watch TV, read, play video and board games, and eat as much or as little as they wanted. All food was ordered from an available menu, and all intake was recorded.
The result: those in the sleep-deprived group consumed roughly 950 extra calories after the night they were forced to stay awake. Total calorie consumption was about the same among the sleep-deprived group during the day that followed their all-nighter as it was among those who had normal sleep.
However, when calories were broken down by content, investigators found a big difference between the groups. Those who hadn't slept consumed a lot more fat and a lot less carbohydrates than those who had slept.
At the same time, the sleep-deprived group showed markedly greater activity in terms of salience network function.
The researchers concluded that people who experience bouts of forced wakefulness -- such as those in the military, truck drivers or medical personnel -- may be prone to making unhealthful food choices due to a related shift in brain activity.
Rao acknowledged that the current study only explored the impact of a single night of sleep loss. However, "it is likely that chronic partial sleep deprivation would affect the brain in a similar way," he said, "and that maintaining adequate sleep may be a key strategy for maintaining a healthy weight and diet."
Derk-Jan Dijk is a professor in the departments of sleep and physiology, and director of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey in England. He suggested that going forward it will be important to examine how both the brain and dietary habits are affected by ongoing sleep loss experienced by people who routinely get only five to six hours of sleep a day.
Overall, the study findings support the link between sleep patterns "and changes in food intake and subsequent obesity. Of course, in the real world it is not total sleep loss that is the main problem, but chronic insufficient sleep," Dijk explained.
"Nevertheless," he added, "the current study is important because it provides hints to the brain mechanisms involved in the link between sleep loss and changes in food intake."
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