Avoid metabolic syndrome with the proper amount of sleep

The New You

Let’s say you celebrated your 50th birthday, read the handwriting on the wall, and made a decision to get rid of that expanding middle-aged gut. Obesity? Type 2 diabetes? Heart disease? Not for you. No way.

With no small amount of personal struggle, you set yourself to turning over a new leaf. You started exercising nearly every day. You changed your diet to include more fresh whole foods, minimizing processed foods. You kept sweets to a minimum. And you started taking some of the supplements (such as fish oil for omega-3 fatty acids) that have been linked to lower risk of developing diabetes.

Your reward? You’ve cut back a few inches around the middle. You feel more energetic. And you have peace of mind about your prospects for a healthy future.

But there’s one thing you might not have thought of – something you might not associate with your overall health picture: sleep.

Getting it just right

New research confirms evidence that I told you about in a previous e-Alert: If you don’t get enough sleep you might increase your risk of developing metabolic syndrome (sometimes abbreviated as MSX). But this new research adds a new wrinkle.

The definition of MSX varies slightly, depending on guidelines established by different health organizations, but the core symptoms include:

• Excessive abdominal fat
• Elevated blood pressure (130/85 or higher)
• Low HDL cholesterol level (Less than 50 in women, less than 40 in men)
• Elevated Triglyceride level
• Elevated C-reactive protein level
• Fasting glucose level that indicates insulin resistance/glucose intolerance

The presence of three or more of these symptoms is enough to diagnose MSX.

To assess the effect of sleep on MSX, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine examined more than 1,200 subjects between the ages of 30 and 54, and interviewed them about their sleep habits. When medical conditions were compared to sleep patterns, researchers found a significant link between insufficient or excessive sleep and the risk of developing MSX.

About 20 percent of the subjects tended to get less than six hours of sleep each night. These subjects had nearly twice the risk of MSX compared to subjects who slept seven to eight hours per night. Less than 10 percent of the subjects slept more than eight hours nightly, and while their MSX risk was higher than normal sleepers, it was slightly less than subjects in the short sleep group.

Finding the balance

In 2002, the Archives of General Psychiatry published an analysis of a study that’s probably the largest and longest sleep study to date. More than 1.1 million adult subjects participated in the six-year American Cancer Society research.

Analysis results:

• Subjects who reported an average sleep time of more than eight hours had a “significantly increased mortality hazard”
• Insufficient sleep was also linked to increased mortality, but only when average sleep time was under five hours per night
• No link was found between periodic insomnia and early mortality
• Regular use of prescription sleeping pills was linked to increased risk of early mortality

If you need help getting the right amount of sleep, you can find information about natural sleep aids in the e-Alert “Sweet Dreams” (10/12/06).

Source:
“Sleep Duration Related to Having the Metabolic Syndrome” American Academy of Sleep Medicine” 5/1/08, eurekalert.org