Comments
Night shift workers may be more susceptible to developing Type-2 diabetes, a new study has claimed.
Researchers suggest that night shift may impair glucose tolerance that can increase the risk of Type-2 diabetes.
Results show that peak glucose levels were 16 per cent higher during one night of simulated shift work, compared with one day of a simulated daytime work schedule.
Compared with the daytime protocol, insulin levels during the night shift protocol were 40-50 per cent higher at 80 minutes and 90 minutes after a meal.
“It is surprising that just a single night shift can significantly impair glucose tolerance and increase insulin levels,” said lead author Christopher Morris, postdoctoral research fellow in the Medical Chronobiology Programme of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
“These findings are important because they demonstrate, under highly—controlled lab conditions, that acute exposure to night work impairs glucose tolerance. Chronic impaired glucose tolerance is likely to lead to Type 2 diabetes,” said Morris.
The study group comprised 13 healthy, non-obese adults without significant shift work history, who completed two, eight-day, in-laboratory protocols in random order, one including day work and the other night shift.
Each condition included four baseline days, followed by either day or night shifts.
The diet was isocaloric, identical between conditions, and included standardised mixed meals on Days 1 and 3 of day/night shift to assess serum glucose and insulin responses. Subjects began eating at 8 am (day work) or 8 pm (night shift) and were required to finish eating in 20 minutes.
A fasting blood sample was taken before the meal, and then additional blood samples were drawn every 10 minutes for 90 minutes, then every 30 minutes for 90 minutes.
Only results pertaining to mixed meals consumed on Day 1 of day work and night shift were included in the current analysis.
The study was published in the journal Sleep .
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.