FitnessMantra Weekend: The Role Of Sleep In Weight Loss And Diabetes

Fitness Mantra del.icio.us page Welcome to “FitnessMantra Weekend”, your once-a-week health news update. As always you can also stay updated with the latest in fitness news by subscribing separately to the Fitness Mantra del.icio.us feed.

Sleep has always been known to have various beneficial effects on the human body. Other than the obvious rest and relaxation it offers to the mind and body, sleep is also the time when a predictably large secretion of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) occurs. HGH is vital for building cells and muscle fibers (back to the old adage: You don’t build muscles in the gym, you do it while sleeping!).

But just this week, two separate articles on sleep bring in a whole new nutrition angle to sleep that makes it all the more important that we all get our daily dose of shut-eye each and every night - particularly children. For it turns out that “Children Who Sleep Less Weigh More“. The New Zealand study reveals that children who sleep less than 9 hours a day are at an increased risk for being overweight or obese:

Sleep-deprived kids also have more than a 3 percent increase in body fat on average compared to youngsters who sleep for more than nine hours nightly.

OK, so we can make sure the kids get their sleep (most of them hate waking up early in the morning anyway!). So are we adults off the hook? Well, not so fast! As far as we go, a “disturbed sleep link to diabetes” has been discovered and it’s not pretty. Lack of sleep hits at the very crux of weight gain: insulin!:

The US team discovered that volunteers who were roused whenever they were about to fall into the deepest sleep developed insulin resistance.

This is scarier than I could have imagined. Essentially insulin resistance occurs when the body stops reacting to regular levels of insulin and requires more and more to be produced to handle the same level of sugar (typically occurs as a response to prolonged periods of unhealthy, high-sugar foods). The test subjects were definitely quite small in number: just nine. But when their glucose tolerance was measured after deep-sleep periods were disturbed, eight out of nine had become less sensitive to insulin - a precursor to Type-2 Diabetes!

Before you doze right at your desk, read through the week’s top health and fitness stories. Good night!

Battle of the Bulge Bucks: From online to the airwaves, the race is on for your diet dollars.
Confessions of a lapsed exerciser: When life gets crazy-busy, even a little sweat goes a long way
Oklahoma City mayor puts city on a diet: Mick Cornett has challenged the city to shed 1 million pounds as its New Yearâ€™s resolution.
Dieting is out, healthy is in, poll shows: Eight out of 10 dieters said their goal was both to lose weight and improve their health â€” a sign of growing acceptance that a healthy weight may not equate to slimness.
Exercise Eases Some Menopause Symptoms: Exercise is not a cure for hot flashes, but it does help postmenopausal women cope with stress, anxiety and depression
Drugmakers vie for magic weight-loss pill: The race for a magic weight-loss pill will heat up in 2008
Diabetes Group Backs Low-Carb Diets: For the first time, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) has come out in support of low-carbohydrate diets for people with diabetes who want to manage their weight.
Disturbed sleep link to diabetes: A disturbed night’s sleep may increase the risk of developing diabetes, US research has suggested.
Add exercise to diet for best weight-loss results: Exercise or diet for weight loss? It’s an issue that millions of Americans with a New Year’s resolution to lose weight are considering right now.
Children Who Sleep Less Weigh More: Children who get less than nine hours of sleep a night are more likely to be overweight or obese, new research shows.
UK and US ‘keenest on fast food’: The UK is the country most attached to fast food, closely followed by the United States, a survey has suggested.
Do those holiday pounds feel like 36 Big Macs?: To gain 5 pounds, you’d need to consume a whopping 19,500 calories â€” roughly 71 Snickers bars or 36 Big Mac hamburgers.
Ban on junk food ads introduced: A ban on adverts for junk food during television programmes aimed at children under 16 has come into force.
Ban forces Maryland restaurants to lose trans fats: Starting today, the toast at Tastee Diner in Bethesda, Md., will be buttered with something unusual: butter.