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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The identification of a new mutation associated with type 2 diabetes suggests abnormal sleep patterns could be linked to diabetes and high blood pressure.
Scientists recently identified a mutation near a gene called MTNR1B that increases a persons risk of having high blood sugar and elevates the chance of type 2 diabetes by 20 percent. MTNR1B is part of a pathway that controls melatonin, the hormone that regulates the bodys internal clock. The proximity of the mutation and the melatonin gene suggests high blood sugar and diabetes could be directly related to a disturbed sleep pattern.
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Study authors say when a genetic mutation affects a persons sleep patterns, it may also affect the levels of insulin in that persons blood. Abnormal insulin levels are responsible for the symptoms of diabetes.
Normally, insulin is secreted at high levels during the day and at lower levels at night. Melatonin levels follow an opposite pattern -- they stay low during the day and high at night.
SOURCE: Nature Genetics, published online Dec. 7, 2008
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