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Thursday, 25 February 2010 11:30 |
 Scientists have discovered that when dolphins sleep they become insulin resistant, as if they were able to ‘switch on’ type 2 diabetes. When they wake up, they then switch it off.
The scientists believe that the dolphins have developed this ability to provide their brains with energy while they sleep. Because larger brains use a lot of energy (the human brain uses around 25% of the body’s energy) the dolphins are ensuring enough glucose is available to power their brain overnight.
Why is this important?
The ability to control insulin resistance is of great interest to scientists, because ‘switching off’ insulin resistance in humans would be a potential cure for type 2 diabetes.
Although this is an important discovery, scientists don’t fully know how this phenomenon works in dolphins. Once they figure that out, it will then be a question of whether that knowledge can be applied to other mammals and then humans. This is not a short-term project, but research already conducted into the genes of humans and dolphins may be of assistance.
Links
BBC News Story http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8523412.stm
Brain energy consumption http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain#Brain_energy_consumption
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