Snoring Is No Laughing Matter

If you snore at night and feel drowsy all day, then you may be one of 18 million Americans who have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Most people with the sleep disorder don’t know they have it, but left untreated OSA can lead to serious complications. 

“People with sleep apnea have been shown to be at a higher risk for cardiovascular diseases, particularly hypertension, stroke and diabetes,” said Thomas Roth, MD, director of the Center for Sleep Disorders and Research at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

OSA, the most common form of sleep apnea, occurs when muscles in the back of the throat relax, disrupting a person’s breathing while they’re asleep. Central sleep apnea, a rarer form in which the brain doesn’t send signals to the muscles that control breathing, affects less than 5 percent of people and is usually the result of another condition such as Parkinson’s disease or stroke.

Anyone can have OSA, but there are several risk factors. Being overweight can lead to fat deposits around the upper airway that obstruct breathing. A recent study found that the obesity epidemic may be responsible for a 55 percent jump in sleep apnea cases over the past 20 years.

“Weight loss can be helpful in reducing the severity of sleep apnea or even curing it with mild forms of the condition,” said Ashish Adlakha, MD, director of the Middlesex Hospital Comprehensive Sleep Disorders Center in Middletown, Conn.

Age and gender are factors: Most sleep apnea patients are over age 60, and men are twice as likely to have it as women. People with naturally narrow throats, or who develop enlarged tonsils or adenoids have a greater risk; as do people who smoke or drink alcohol.

Sleep apnea is more than a mere annoyance, and it can lead to potentially life-threatening health conditions. “When a person has chronic sleep deprivation and they’re waking up a lot during the night, there are frequent drops in blood oxygen levels, which trigger the response of the systemic nervous system,” said Dr. Adlakha.

These “stresses to the nervous system and low oxygen levels have a big impact on blood pressure and a person’s cardiovascular system and metabolism,” said Tucker Woodson, MD, director of the Froedtert Hospital/Medical College of Wisconsin Sleep Disorders Program in Milwaukee.

Recent studies suggest sleep apnea may be responsible for up to 60 percent of hypertension cases that don’t respond to medication. The condition has also been linked to increased risk of sudden cardiac death.

Research has shown that sleep apnea patients have a greater likelihood of suffering from other diseases, including type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney failure, and asthma.

“A big challenge for sleep medicine doctors is knowing what’s associated or related to the sleep apnea versus what’s causing the sleep apnea itself,” said Dr. Woodson. “That’s often the case with obesity, and sometimes hypertension.”

Lifestyle changes such as weight loss, exercise, and quitting smoking and drinking are recommended for anyone with OSA. More serious cases can be treated with a device known as a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine that delivers air pressure to keep airway passages open. The patient has to wear a mask while sleeping, which can be an annoyance; and the air pressure can cause dry mouth and nose.

“It’s a big problem in trying to treat the disease because people don’t use it correctly or as much as they’re supposed to,” said Dr. Roth.

Another treatment option is wearing a mouthpiece, similar to a dental mouth guard, to correct jaw or tongue problems and keep the throat open. In severe OSA cases where no other treatment proves effective, there are surgical options to relieve airway blockages.

“The biggest reason we treat sleep apnea is to improve a person’s quality of life, as it can make almost any other condition a person has worse,” said Woodson. “If you’re not sleeping well, good health is hard to come by.”

Originally Published At:  http://www.everydayhealth.com/sanjay-gupta/snoring-is-no-laughing-matter.aspx