World Diabetes Day: Sleep well to avoid diabetes

New Delhi: Diabetes, the disease once believed to be caused primarily because of overweight and unhealthy diet has now been discovered as having other causes as well. According to prominent diabetes experts staying up late and not getting a proper sleep of minimum six hours puts one at high risk of becoming a Type-II diabetic patient.

The doctors said that diabetes is just one among a number of other major health complications that includes high blood sugar, high cholesterol, extra fat around the midsection, high blood pressure and excess amounts of fats in the blood – precisely altogether known as metabolic syndrome.

The problem becomes a major one as 15-20 percent of the Indian population in the 25-35 age group are among those that are increasingly coming in the grip of diabetes.

Emphasizing that several new research have concluded that people who report five hours of sleep or less are more likely to have diabetes, compared to those who sleep for 7 to 8 hours per night, Roshani Gadge, consultant Diabetologist at Gadge's Diabetes Centre said that continuous lack of sleep deprivation is related to glucose intolerance and insulin resistance, which increases the chance of developing Type-II diabetes.

Sleeping late at nights could increase chances of getting type II diabetes. Adults who get less than the recommended amount of sleep may not have adequate control of normal sugar levels,

"Eventually, sleeplessness causes insulin-producing cells to stop working properly, elevating the glucose levels and leaving one wide open to diabetes," said Gadge, who is considered a pioneer in Diabetology in the southern part of India.

According to the WHO, India is a home to 65 million diabetic patients, the number being second only to China. Analysis by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) recently revealed that changes in lifestyle with lack of sleep were among the top reasons behind the occurrence of the disease.

Stating obesity as another result of lack of sleep, she explained: "Lack of sleep makes people physically and mentally tired, during when the body produces extra hormone that stimulates appetite, thereby piling up on more calories and carbohydrates to get a quick energy boost. These people are more likely to display impaired glucose tolerance."

The doctors have warned that it's harder to recover from sleep deprivation if one continues to have lack of sleep.

During such time the body interprets that sleep deficit as a constant stressor and the chance you'll get diabetes grows,

Ashraf Ganie, a prominent endocrinologist and professor of AIIMS, said: "There are several reasons to diabetes, lack of sleep is one of them. It is predicted that by 2030 diabetes mellitus may afflict up to 79.4 million individuals in India vs. 30.3 million in United States."

"Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in India and the majority of cases are because of diabetes whose occurrence has several reasons now."

Ghani has also cautioned that people with the problems of snoring are increasingly on the risk of diabetes.

"This is emerging as bigger problem as with the rising number of patients as sleep apnea have been common among the diabetics," he said.

Talking on the solutions, Behram Pardiwala, leading internal medicine experts, told IANS that proper sleep is necessary for the proper functioning of the body.

"Diabetes might have several reasons, but by having a proper sleep one can at least avoid one of the prime reasons behind the occurrence and as far as the snoring problem is concerned, whose prime reason is overweight, can simply be controlled by losing weight. It's just that one should know how to do it," said the doctor, who is associated with Wockhardt hospital.

(Inputs from IANS)