Well rested for a blood sugar test

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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The oral glucose tolerance test, also known as OGTT, can indicate diabetes at a very early stage, when normal blood tests are still not suspect. However, patients must not have eaten or smoked eight to twelve hours beforehand. Now it turns out that another point is crucial: getting enough sleep.

Researcher around Dr. Donald Biliwise from the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta had investigated how the length of sleep affects blood sugar levels. None of their 1,500 subjects had diagnosed diabetes at the time of the study.

Healthy and despite high values?

In test subjects who did not get more than eleven hours of sleep in the last two nights before the test, the OGTT researchers frequently determined blood sugar values ​​above the critical limit of 140 mg / dl, although their so-called HbA1c value was completely normal. This measured value is a particularly sensitive long-term indicator for diabetes - much more meaningful than a one-off measurement.

A closer look at the sleep behavior of the test subjects showed, however, that the false-positive diabetes diagnosis only affected those participants who regularly slept for less than seven hours a night. For participants who had only rarely slept poorly, the blood sugar values ​​determined in the OGTT usually matched the HbA1c values: Either both were too high or both were in the normal range. The risk of misdiagnosis was then not increased.

On the trail of diabetes precursors

The OGTT shows how well the body can process sugar. In this way, he can detect diabetes at a very early stage. The patient undergoes the morning examination on an empty stomach. First of all, the current glucose level in the blood is determined. Then the patient drinks 75 grams of glucose dissolved in water. Two hours later, the blood glucose level is tested again. If it is significantly increased, this shows that the body is having trouble getting the sugar out of the blood into the body's cells. The cause is usually type 2 diabetes or a precursor to it.

Important for pregnant women

The current study is particularly important for pregnant women. Because for them, the OGTT is a routine examination between the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy in order to detect gestational diabetes, which is dangerous for mother and child, in good time. If they come to the test overtired, there is an increased risk that they will be diagnosed with gestational diabetes - and possibly treated - even though the metabolic disorder does not actually exist. So if you suffer from chronic lack of sleep, you should discuss this with your doctor before the examination.

Disturbed sugar metabolism

Diabetes mellitus is a pathological disorder of the sugar metabolism with permanently high blood sugar. An estimated eight million people in Germany suffer from it. The disease has serious effects on the entire body, so early detection and treatment is important.

Source: Bliwise D. et al .: Habitual and Recent Sleep Durations: Graded and Interactive Risk for Impaired Glycemic Control in a Biracial Population. The American Journal of Medicine. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2016.12.007

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