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Untreated Sleep Apnea Causes Increase Risk of Heart Disease
If you have obstructive sleep apnea, your breathing stops or gets shallow due to a lack of airflow while you are sleeping. These pauses can occur 20 to 30 times or more an hour and leads to a significant drop in your oxygen levels. If not treated, sleep apnea can lead to type 2 diabetes, memory problems, weight gain, and an increased risk of auto accidents. Even more alarming is that sleep apnea is linked to a significantly increased risk of heart disease.
A new study by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore shows that even moderate sleep apnea results in a significantly increased risk of death from heart disease and other causes, particularly among middle-aged meni. "The primary finding of our study is that sleep apnea can increase the risk of death by about 40 percent, even after other factors have been accounted for," said study lead author Dr. Naresh Punjabi. Cardiovascular disease has the highest correlation with sleep apnea among men aged 40-70, according to the study.1
These findings are disturbing and they highlight the need to improve diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is considered to be massively under-diagnosed, because the symptoms, such as snoring, are somewhat vague. In addition, patients don’t know or remember having sleep troubles during the night, and general awareness about sleep apnea among physicians is low.
Dr. Avi, Director of Aviisha Medical Wellness Institute says, "Many patients too readily accept that being tired is a normal part of working hard and growing older. It's not. Being tired puts a person at a significantly higher risk level for conditions such as heart disease. Being tired on a daily basis is not something that we should accept. Getting diagnosed and treated for sleep apnea can provide quick relief from fatigue and reduce the risk of a heart attack."
Fortunately, there are highly effective diagnosis and treatment methods for sleep apnea. The condition can be diagnosed in a sleep lab, and home sleeping tests are becoming increasingly available. Home testing is considered to be as effective as being tested in a sleep lab. The Aviisha Wellness Medical Institute makes available a home sleeping test at http://www.aviisha.com/sleep-well/home-sleep-test.
For those diagnosed with sleep apnea, continuous positive airway pressure therapy or CPAP, usually results in improved sleep and reduced symptoms. CPAP treatment involves wearing a mask that delivers a steady stream of air through the nose during sleep. If treated properly, patients will not only see an improvement in symptoms such as snoring and quality of life, but they could also significantly reduce their risk of heart disease and other serious conditions
1 Naresh Punjabi, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Jim Cappuccino, sleep apnea patient and study participant, Parkville, Md.; Aug. 18, 2009, online, PLoS Medicine.
