Sleep Apnea affects Diabetes, other disorders
Pillows
Millions of Americans suffer Sleep Apnea, making it one of the Nations top problems. Scientists state:
“What our research tells us is that SDB is characterized by multiple physiological deficits that increase the predisposition for type 2 diabetes mellitus,” study leader Dr. Naresh Punjabi, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in an American Thoracic Society news release.
Another Hopkins study found that obese people with chronic intermittent hypoxia, the lack of oxygen that occurs during obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), showed liver issues in proportion to the severity of the sleep disorder.
“We hypothesize that severe obesity, per se, acts as a first hit in the progression of liver disease, inducing hepatic steatosis, whereas the presence of the chronic intermittent hypoxemia that often characterizes OSA acts as a second hit,” lead researcher Dr. Vsevolod Y. Polotsky, of the Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center, said in the same news release. “The hypoxic stress of OSA may induce oxidative stress in the livers of patients with severe obesity, leading to further inflammation.”
Enzyme levels and other findings, though, suggest that obesity and sleep apnea are not completely tied to each other, he said, meaning that each condition must be dealt with separately to also address the complications of both.
“Our data suggest that patients with OSA and severe nocturnal hypoxemia should be screened for liver disease, and, conversely, patients with liver disease should be screened for OSA,” Polotsky said.
The researchers found these changes in people who were sedentary but not obese and who they suspected had obstructive sleep apnea — a discovery that might help explain why 40 percent of people with the breathing disorder are not obese and why exercise without weight loss appears to reduce sleep apnea issues in some people.
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