Good sleep is also important for your health, for your lungs and respiratory system. In fact, poor sleep quality may increase genetic susceptibility, doubling his risk of asthma diagnosis, according to a British Biobank study. Early detection and treatment of sleep disorders can help reduce these risks, regardless of genetic predisposition.
Large studies have shown that healthy sleep patterns are associated with reduced risk in adults.
A UK Biobank study published in BMJ Open Respiratory Research suggests that poor sleep quality may increase genetic susceptibility to asthma, doubling the risk of diagnosis. The study included his 455,405 participants aged 38–73 years, whose sleep patterns and hereditary asthma risk scores were analyzed. The results showed that people with high genetic risk and poor sleep patterns were 122% more likely to be diagnosed with asthma than those with low genetic risk and healthy sleep patterns. Researchers suggest that early detection and treatment of sleep disorders may help reduce the risk of asthma, regardless of genetic predisposition.
A large UK Biobank study suggests that poor sleep increases genetic susceptibility to asthma and may double the risk of being diagnosed with asthma, published in an open access journal. . BMJ Open Respiratory Study.
Healthy sleep patterns appear to be associated with lower risk of asthma, and early detection and treatment of sleep disorders may reduce risk, regardless of genetic predisposition person suggests.
People with asthma often complain of sleep disturbances, such as lack of sleep, lack of sleep, and insomnia. However, it is not clear whether sleep quality itself affects asthma risk, or whether healthy sleep patterns reduce this risk, researchers say.
For the study, they used 455,405 UK Biobank participants who were aged between 38 and 73 when enrolled between 2006 and 2010.
Participants were asked about their sleep patterns based on five specific characteristics. sleep duration; insomnia; snoring; and excessive daytime sleepiness.
A healthy sleep pattern was defined as an early chronotype. Log 7-9 hours of sleep each night. None or rare insomnia; no snoring; no frequent daytime sleepiness.
Based on their responses, 73,223 met the criteria for healthy sleep patterns. 284,267 Intermediate sleep patterns. and 97,915 have poor sleep patterns.
The genetic makeup of all UK Biobank participants was routinely mapped and a genetic asthma risk score for each of the 455,405 individuals in this study was generated according to the number of asthma-associated genetic variants in the genome.
Approximately one third of participants (150,429) were classified as “high” genetic risk, and another third (151,970) were classified as “intermediate” risk. The rest were classified as ‘low’ risk.
Participants’ respiratory health status was tracked to date of asthma diagnosis, date of death, or March 31, 2017, whichever came first.
During the nearly nine years of monitoring, 17,836 people were diagnosed with asthma. They were more likely to have potentially influential risk factors than those who had not been diagnosed with the disease.
Lower education levels and more likely unhealthy sleep characteristics and patterns. Obesity; high hereditary asthma risk score. higher levels of smoking and drinking; high blood pressure, diabetes, depression,[{” attribute=””>acid reflux; and greater exposure to air pollution.
Some 7,105 people at high genetic risk of asthma and 5,748 at intermediate genetic risk were diagnosed with the condition during the monitoring period.
Compared with those at low genetic risk, those with the highest risk were 47% more likely to be diagnosed with asthma, while those with a poor sleep pattern were 55% more likely.
But people at high genetic risk who also reported poor sleep patterns were 122% more likely to be diagnosed with asthma than those with both a healthy sleep pattern and a low genetic risk—in other words, they were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with asthma.
All five sleep traits were independently associated with lower risks for asthma, with never/rare insomnia and sleep duration of 7-9 hours a night seemingly the most influential, with risk reductions of 25% and 20%, respectively.
Further in-depth analysis on a smaller group of people indicated that a healthy sleep pattern might reduce the risk of asthma in those at high genetic risk by 37%, suggesting that a healthy sleep pattern might help offset asthma risk, regardless of genetic susceptibility, say the researchers.
In theory, at the population level, a low genetic risk combined with a healthy sleep pattern might translate into 19% fewer cases of asthma, suggest the researchers.
The association between sleep and asthma may be two-way, they suggest, offering some possible explanations for their findings.
“The negative impact of sleep disorders on asthma, which is generally considered a chronic inflammatory disease, might be mediated by sleep-induced chronic inflammation. Previous studies have demonstrated that sleep disorders, such as unfavorable sleep duration and insomnia, are associated with chronic inflammation.
“In theory, the immune response to inflammation could generate pro-inflammatory cytokines that result in cellular infiltration and airway inflammation, further increasing the risk of asthma,” they write.
This is an observational study, and as such can’t establish cause, and the researchers acknowledge several limitations to their findings.
As the UK Biobank only provided information on 38-73 year olds, the effect on children and younger adults is still unclear, added to which the findings apply only to people of European ancestry. Lastly, the UK Biobank may be subject to a ‘healthy volunteer’ selection bias.
Nevertheless, the researchers conclude: “Considering that poor sleep combined with high genetic susceptibility yielded a greater than twofold asthma risk, sleep patterns could be recommended as an effective lifestyle intervention to prevent future asthma, especially for individuals with high-risk genetics.”
Reference: “Highlighting the importance of healthy sleep patterns in the risk of adult asthma under the combined effects of genetic susceptibility: a large-scale prospective cohort study of 455 405 participants” by Bowen Xiang, Mengxiao Hu, Haiyang Yu, Yike Zhang, Qing Wang and 6Fuzhong Xue, 3 April 2023, BMJ Open Respiratory Research.
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Funding: Future Program for Young Scholars and National Key Research and Development Program
