Written by Jamie Stowe | Tuesday, 09 June 2009 | There are 0 comments
a 35% increased risk of obesity if you were black
At Ukmedix News we have written on more than one occasion about the importance of the link between good sleep and a healthy weight. Statistics clearly show that those people who get good sleep are less likely to suffer from being overweight or obese but new research shows that certain racial groups are even more likely to become obese if they lack a good night’s sleep.
Research done in the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center at the Brooklyn Health Disparities Research Center and authored by Professor Jean-Louis Girardin makes clear that the obesity risk for black people is significantly greater if they don’t get enough shut eye.
Medical data from almost 30,000 adults up to the age of 85 was examined for the study and the statistics showed that 52% of black people and 38% of white people were obese overall with a BMI of 30+. They also observed that 12% of blacks and 8% of whites got less than five hours of sleep per night. When they did mathematical calculations on the figures it was seen that the ‘obesity to short sleep duration’ ratio was 1.78 for black people and 1.43 for white people which translated into a 35% increased risk of obesity if you were black and didn’t sleep well compared to if you were white and didn’t sleep well.
This study will be of great interest to African Americans who suffer from above average rates of obesity in the United States and it should be made available to nutritional experts and dietitians. It should also be noted that the obesity risk of not sleeping to white people was also significant and that good sleep should always form part of a healthy lifestyle.
Apart from other biological and metabolic reasons, simply by not getting enough sleep your body automatically craves more energy which it tries to get from inducing hunger pangs to make you consume more calories. Getting a good eight hours sleep a day could be all that you need to stay thin.
This research was announced at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies meeting in Chicago.
