Sleep Apnea Ups Diabetes Risk

Ivanhoe Newswire
Tuesday, May 22, 2007; 12:00 AM

Heather Kohn, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- There may be a new diabetes risk factor to add to the list. In addition to obesity, sleep apnea seems to also put people at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Yale University School of Medicine researcher Nader Botros, M.D., explained that previous research has shown sleep deprivation seems to induce metabolic changes, putting people at risk for "pre-diabetes" over the short-term. He and his colleagues set out to determine whether sleep apnea -- a condition where the airway narrows during sleep and can cause hundreds of sleep disruptions a night -- puts people at greater risk for full-blown type 2 diabetes.

In their new study, they followed participants with and without sleep apnea from 2000-2006. Results revealed sleep apnea made a person 3.5-times more likely to develop diabetes. Even after adjusting for other risk factors, participants still had a three-times greater risk. Also, the greater the severity of sleep apnea, the more likely a person was to develop diabetes.

Dr. Botros says they aren't sure exactly why sleep apnea is associated with diabetes development but believe it has something to do with the "fight or flight" response that comes with excitation during sleep. He says the next logical step will be to see whether treating sleep apnea improves "diabetic parameters."

SOURCE: Heather Kohn at the American Thoracic Society's 103rd International Conference in San Francisco, May 18-23, 2007