FRIDAY, March 1, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Women who snore regularly are twice as likely to develop Type II diabetes as those who have a quiet night's slumber.
Snoring has been tied tightly to obesity, but the authors of a new study say their findings about diabetes apply regardless of waistline.
"To our surprise, the association didn't disappear after adjusting for weight," says Dr. Wael K. Al-Delaimy, a Harvard nutrition expert and lead author of the study. "It seems that regular snoring is an independent risk factor" for developing diabetes.
Snoring often accompanies sleep apnea, too, though many of those in the study didn't have the sleep-disrupting condition. Some scientists have found insulin resistance increases in patients with sleep apnea who snore heavily, Al-Delaimy says. He adds that giving oxygen during slumber can improve the problem.
A report on the findings appears in today's issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
About 40 percent of middle-aged men, and roughly 30 percent of middle-aged women, snore regularly, experts say. The noise is often a symptom of sleep apnea, a condition that affects an estimated 22 million Americans. Men are about twice as likely as women to develop the disorder.
Patients with sleep apnea have narrowed upper airways that cause them to stop breathing repeatedly during the night. Because they sleep fitfully, they are typically tired throughout the day, falling asleep at their desks or behind the wheel. Sleep apnea is believed to be a major cause of motor vehicle accidents in the United States.
The new findings come from the Nurses' Health Study, a long-term project that has looked at a wide range of risk factors and health conditions.
In earlier work with these volunteers, the Harvard researchers found women who snore are more likely to have high blood pressure. This time, Al-Delaimy and his colleagues compared rates of Type II, or non-insulin dependent, diabetes in nearly 70,000 women, depending on their snoring habits. None of the nurses had been diagnosed with diabetes when they began the study in 1986, but by 1996, 1,957 had developed the blood-sugar disease.
After considering factors like age, body mass, smoking habits and how much they drank, women who reported snoring nearly every night were about twice as likely as non-snorers to develop diabetes, the researchers report. That makes snoring about as powerful a risk factor for the condition as smoking. Occasional snorers saw their risk rise 40 percent.
The study relied on the nurses' recollection of their own snoring habits, which may be suspect. However, Al-Delaimy says earlier research has shown that people's sense of their own snoring generally agrees with what their sleeping partners relate, and with lab measures as well.
Dr. Arthur Friedlander, an oral surgeon in Los Angeles who has studied snoring, says the Harvard results make sense, but adds he was "puzzled" that weight wasn't the driving force.
A possible explanation, says Friedlander, an oral surgeon at the University of California at Los Angeles, might lie with hormone replacement therapy, which may reduce the risk of snoring and sleep apnea. About a third of the nurses who said they never snored were taking estrogen after menopause, compared with roughly a quarter of those who snored sometimes or usually.
What To Do
So, what should you do if you snore? That depends, Al-Delaimy says. If you're not overweight and don't have sleep apnea, try to stay healthy by exercising and eating well.
If you have apnea already, there are ways to correct the condition, including surgical and non-surgical remedies.
To learn more about sleep disorders, check out the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, or the American Sleep Apnea Association.
For more on diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.
