Originally published October 11 2005
New study links sleep deprivation to obesity and diabetes
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In Norfolk Virginia, Dr. Robert Verona and his colleagues report that people who are obese are more often sleep deprived than people of normal weight.
Obesity often travels with diabetes, and the predicted diabetes epidemic has lit a torch under research efforts to find novel ways of decreasing both.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by 2025 more than 300 million people will be diagnosed with diabetes worldwide.
Diabetes has moved from the Rodney Dangerfield of diseases to center stage.
Dr. Robert Verona and his colleagues in Norfolk, Virginia, report findings that people who are overweight get less sleep than people of normal weight.
Body mass index (BMI) defined weight categories (normal, overweight, obese, or extremely obese) by calculating height and weight into a ratio.
This study and others note that lack of sleep causes changes in the brain, leading to abnormal secretion of hormones which can result in several body disturbances that include excessive daytime sleepiness, mood changes such as depression or anxiety, altered hunger and eating patterns, and ultimately further sleep disturbances.
As sleep has decreased in America, obesity has increased along with its travel partner, diabetes.
That means increasing sleep time by just 20 to 30 minutes each night could assist in weight loss.
People wake up tired and throughout the day experience increased irritability, lack of concentration, and possibly decreased work performance, even though they may have had enough hours of sleep.
The discussion brings us to the ultimate question of "What is enough sleep?"
In my harried life of clicking keyboards, hopping airplanes, and working faster and smarter, I've often thought of sleep as that thing you do when too exhausted to do anything else.
We've all heard about the early bird; heaven forbid we should miss out on the worm.
Sleeping is as vital to life as breathing.
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