(TUSCALOOSA, AL)-- A new grant will help health experts discover how the amount of sleep someone gets is related to chronic diseases.
Adam Knowlden is an Associate Professor of Health Science at University of Alabama. The National Institute of Health awarded him a five-year grant to study the relationship between sleep and chronic diseases, and how that’s associated with obesity.
Knowlden thinks it’s important that his work is being conducted in Alabama.
“We are kind-of known as the stroke belt,” Knowlden said. “Not only the Bible Belt but also the stroke belt. And actually, Alabama, Mississippi, some of the more southern states are kind of the belt buckle of the stroke belt. So we know there’s a lot the prevalence rate of obesity and some of these cardiovascular metabolic disease is higher in the state of Alabama.”
Obesity rates have increased in the last three decades. People have also been getting less sleep in the last few decades, which, along with obesity, can increase mental illness such as depression.