Sleep Apnea Linked To Insulin Resistance, Independent Of Obesity

Medical News Today

Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia
Also Included In: Diabetes;  Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness;  Liver Disease / Hepatitis
Article Date: 23 Jan 2009 - 1:00 PST

From The Moderator:

Readers may wonder why  sleep apnea related topics may appear in a forensics blog. The reason is that sleep apnea creates  significantly increased risk of traffic accidents, particularly among commercial drivers who commonly drive for long hours at a time. Accident investigation is but another field using forensic investigation techniques to determine those at risk and those at fault in motor vehicle accidents.

Sleep Apnea Linked To Insulin Resistance, Independent Of Obesity:

     In a study that addressed the issue of insulin sensitivity with respect to sleep disordered breathing (SDB), Naresh Punjabi, M.D., Ph.D. sought to examine the relationship between SDB and insulin resistance using the best tools at his disposal to do so.

The results definitively link SDB to pre-diabetic changes in insulin production and glucose metabolism. It was published in the first issue for February of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.

"In the past researchers have used body mass index, or BMI, as a proxy measure for body fat, but we know this to be a variable and crude tool to assess the true percentage of body fat," said Dr. Punjabi. "In addition, previous studies have used surrogate measurements to assess the body's response to insulin without investigating the interaction that occurs between reduced insulin sensitivity and increased insulin production in the body." ...

"Our major finding was that, as we suspected, SDB was strongly associated with a decrease in the three major metabolic pathways that the body uses to metabolize glucose - insulin sensitivity, glucose effectiveness, and pancreatic cell function - independent of adiposity," said Dr. Punjabi. "What our research tells us is that SDB is characterized by multiple physiological deficits that increase the predisposition for type 2 diabetes mellitus."

Sleep Apnea linked to the Progression of Liver Disease

In another study published in the same issue of the Journal, other researchers from Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Bariatric Surgery Clinic found that the chronic intermittent hypoxia that often characterizes OSA, a common form of SDB, is also independently linked to the progression of liver disease.

 

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