Working Shifts? Beware. You Are at Risk of Developing Diabetes

Studies show that disruptions to the biological clock, when they occur over the years, affect insulin response to sugar, exacerbate glucose resistance, and cause imbalances in insulin and glucagon sugar levels. This can lead to significant metabolic disorders, such as diabetes.

Recently, even the National Insurance recognized a diabetes patient who contracted the disease while working shifts.

One of the hypotheses about the link between shift work and diabetes is that at night, insulin sensitivity decreases compared to daytime, which can lead to diabetes. Another factor is the lack of sleep, which negatively impacts metabolism.

The human biological clock is balanced over 24 hours a day. Light and dark hours affect the body's hormonal activity. For this reason, shift work disrupts the body's ability to synchronize wakefulness and sleep cycles and meal timings. This may impair the body's metabolic activity and develop cell wall resistance to insulin, disrupting hormonal secretions.

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder characterized by high glucose concentration in the blood and urine. In Latin, the disease is called Diabetes mellitus meaning "sweet urine."

The World Health Organization recognizes three main types of diabetes: Type 1 diabetes (previously classified as insulin-dependent diabetes and "juvenile diabetes"), Type 2 diabetes (previously classified as non-insulin-dependent diabetes), and gestational diabetes, which have similar symptoms and consequences but different causes and distributions in the population. All forms of diabetes are caused by some problem in insulin production or utilization: either the beta cells in the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to prevent hyperglycemia, or, insulin is produced at a sufficiently high level but faces resistance in being absorbed by cells.