Obstructive sleep apnea may worsen diabetes

Obstructive sleep apnea makes it harder for type 2 diabetes patients to control their blood sugar levels, a new study by researchers at the University of Chicago suggests.

The sleep disorder was also found common among type 2 diabetes patients, according to the study reported in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

For the study, Renee S. Aronsohn, M.D.at the University of Chicago and colleagues surveyed 60 patients with type 2 diabetes for their diabetes history, medical history, medication, levels of physical activity.

The researchers monitored the patients for five days for their sleep/wake cycles using wrist actigraphy and self-reported sleep logs, run overnight polysomnography test for OSA, and measured hemoglobin A1C, which is a clinical marker for glycemic control in type 2 diabetes patients.

Severe obstructive sleep apnea was found associated with poor blood sugar control. Compared with those who did not have the health condition, those who had mild, moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea had their HbA1C levels increased by 49, 93 and 269 percent, respectively.

The study could not tell whether type 2 diabetes increases risk of obstructive sleep apnea or otherwise.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a potentially a serious sleep disorder with which a person repeatedly stop and starts breathing during sleep.

The common symptoms of the disorder include daytime sleepiness or hypersomania, loud snoring, episodes of breathing cessation during sleep, wakening with a dry mouth or sore throat, morning headache, and insomnia.

Type 2 diabetes is a condition in which patients are able to produce a hormone called insulin, which is needed to metabolize blood sugar or glucose, but somehow cannot use insulin effectively.  The condition can lead to severe complications.

An estimated 20 million Americans live with type 2 diabetes and another 20 live with pre-diabetes.

By David Liu