Shocking Risk Factor for Type 2 Diabetes REVEALED
If you’re trying to avoid type 2 diabetes, chances are good that you’re already paying attention to your diet, monitoring your weight, and increasing your activity levels.
That’s an excellent start. And you should be proud of the changes you’ve made.
But there’s more to maintaining healthy blood sugar levels than how many calories you eat and miles you can walk.
In fact, there’s another hidden risk factor for type 2 diabetes that can increase your risk by almost 50 percent.
Researchers studied 5,000 people to determine the connection between type 2 diabetes, fat distribution, and sleep timing.
Participants filled out information on when they typically fell asleep and woke up, which the researchers used to determine the timing of their midpoint of sleep.
They were divided into early, late, or intermediate sleep time groups.
Six years later, people who had a later midpoint of sleep had a 46 percent higher risk of type 2 diabetes than those with an intermediate sleep time.
This connection held true even after the researchers adjusted for age, body fat, activity level, and smoking status.
They even factored in total sleep duration.
The fact that the connection between diabetes risk and bedtime STILL EXISTED after considering these other factors tells me there’s something else at play here.
Can you guess what it is?
People who go to bed later are out of sync with their body’s clock—their circadian rhythm—which negatively impacts metabolism no matter how much you weigh or exercise.
In addition, the late-to-bed volunteers also tended to have higher liver fat levels, larger waist circumference, and more visceral fat.
That’s because later bedtimes can increase cortisol levels, insulin resistance, and blood sugar levels.
If you’re concerned about your risk of type 2 diabetes, a whole lifestyle approach is your best bet for maintaining balanced blood sugar levels.
That has to include a bedtime that supports a healthy circadian rhythm.
P.S. Discover simple solutions for fixing a broken body clock and put yourself on the path to healing—starting TODAY!
SOURCE:
“Associations between chronotype waist circumference, visceral fat, liver fat, and incidence of type 2 diabetes,” Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Madrid, Spain (9-13 September), EASD 2024, Abstract 283
