Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes is one of the challenges to our modern health system in Australia. It is a disease that is largely related to poor diet, weight gain and lack of exercise, and it is aggravated in many cases by smoking and heavy alcohol use. Seven per cent of Australian men suffer from type 2 diabetes, and this figure is expected to rise. This disease can lead to severe complications, including kidney failure, blindness and potentially fatal heart disease. The growing epidemic of type 2 diabetes is a serious challenge to Australia’s public health system and health insurance system. The relatively good news about type 2 diabetes is that it is fairly easy to treat if detected early. Early detection and treatment is obviously the best way to prevent both the human cost and the potentially crippling financial cost of the type 2 diabetes epidemic in Australia.

We tend to think of sleep apnoea and snoring as no more than mildly annoying, and even somewhat amusing. It is less funny for the partners of heavy snorers who find their own sleep disrupted, but heavy snoring is also usually a symptom of sleep apnoea, which is the inability to breathe normally while sleeping. Sleep apnoea disrupts sleep patterns and prevents restorative sleep. People with sleep apnoea suffer from daytime fatigue, which increases the risk of accidents at work or while driving and affects their personal relationships and work performances.

Recent research by Professor Wilding of Liverpool in the United Kingdom has found that 90 per cent of men suffering from sleep apnoea also have what is known as metabolic syndrome: a combination of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and insulin resistance. The syndrome is known as a precursor to type 2 diabetes. In other words, middle-aged men who are overweight and heavy snorers are almost certainly at immediate risk of type 2 diabetes, particularly if they smoke. I say ‘men’ because, although a woman can suffer from both sleep apnoea and type 2 diabetes, the majority of sufferers are men. Men are more likely to be overweight and more likely to smoke than women.

We are lucky that we have in Melbourne one of the world’s leading diabetes specialists, Paul Zimmit AO, of Monash University, who is Director of the International Diabetes Institute. Recently Professor Zimmit has been working to raise public awareness about the link between sleep apnoea and type 2 diabetes and has been campaigning for more funding for prevention campaigns. Professor Zimmit points out that wives and partners of men who suffer from sleep apnoea, which is usually the most obvious symptom of snoring, are well placed to help with the problem. Zimmit argues that people who snore and their partner should talk with their GP to see whether they need further investigations. He points out that sleep apnoea can be tackled with a treatment called continuous positive airway pressure, which promotes better breathing during sleep. I want to commend the work that Professor Zimmit and his colleagues are doing. The Australian government should give them all the assistance they need because the rising incidence of type 2 diabetes is one of the most serious health challenges facing the nation.