Sleep Apnea And Type II Diabetes

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Sleep Apnea And Type II Diabetes
By Adrian Whittle
EzineArticles.com

Two studies, one conducted in 2005 and the other in 2007 have concluded that there is a correlation between sleep apnea and type II diabetes. This article will describe the key points of each study and their conclusions. It will then suggest what can be taken from this information.

Sleep apnea is interrupted sleep that is caused by a pause in breath. The pause in breath is because of central sleep apnea that is described as pause of breath due to lack of effort. Or is because of obstructive sleep apnea that is due to a blocked air passage. If you have witnessed anybody experiencing this condition it is unmistakable. The person will be breathing normally or snoring. There will be a pause and they will appear to momentarily splutter awake. In fact they are not aware of this 'awakening' and will go back to sleep. This may happen again and again. An instant like this is called an apnea. If 5 such instances occur within an hour the person is said to be clinically suffering from sleep apnea.

An experiment conducted by the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 2005 concluded that their was increased prevalence of diabetes in people with sleep disordered breathing. It did not investigate if sleep disordered breathing was responsible for causing diabetes.

The study used 1387 people. Sleep apnea was determined by a standard polysomnograhy test. The diabetes was determined through diagnosis or a fasting test.

Of the group of people with an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 15 or more, 14.7% had diabetes. This contrasted with 2.9% of people that had an AHI of less than 5.

The more recent study was conducted in 2007 by Yale Medical School. The experiment was focused on the correlation between diabetes II and obstructed breathing sleep disorders. 593 people were studied over a six year period. The conclusion was that people with sleep apnea were two and a half times more likely to develop diabetes than people without sleep apnea.

Again, this study does not draw any conclusions about sleep apnea causing diabetes and further research is needed.

Some ideas on the possible causal relationship between sleep apnea and diabetes are conflicting. For instance, a major cause of sleep apnea is overweight or obesity. This is also thought to worsen if not cause type II diabetes. However key researcher in the Yale Medical School study, Doctor Nader Botros believes that sleep apnea triggers the 'fight or flight' response in sufferers.

The 'fight or flight' response is the classic reaction to stress. It triggers the release of a number of hormones including adrenaline and cortisol into the body. It is believed that excessive cortisol leads to insulin resistance in the body that is a early stage of type II diabetes. Should a sleep apnea sufferer have 100 or so apneas a night this could massively increase the level of cortisol in his/her body and potentially induce insulin resistance.

Once again, more research is needed into the relationship between sleep apnea and diabetes but one thing is sure, if you suffer from sleep apnea you should get treatment for it. Left untreated it could lead to further complications and a constant feeling of tiredness.