RNS: Snoring and Cardiovascular risk, February 2009
TIME: 2:05
URL: http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=1031
U-M Health Minute: Today’s top health issues and medical research
‘Wake up’ to the health risks of heavy snoring
Vodcast Intro: Heavy snoring can be far more than a nuisance. It can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea and possibly heart disease. So ‘wake up’ to the possible health risks that heavy snoring may signal.
RNS suggested lead: Heavy snoring can be far more than a nuisance. It can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea and possibly heart disease. Here is Andi McDonnell to help you ‘wake up’ to the possible health risks that heavy snoring may signal.
Heavy snoring can be far from a nuisance. It can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition where an individual briefly stops breathing during the night which raises the risk of heart failure and strokes.
Dr. Melvyn Rubenfire, (M.D.), director of Preventative Cardiology at the University of Michigan Health System’s Cardiovascular Center explains the connection. . . .
“When we think of coronary risk factors, the factors that are associated with cardiovascular disease, we all think of smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, family history, high cholesterol but there are other risk factors that relate to cardiovascular disease and obstructive sleep apnea or sleep disordered breathing is one that we’re getting more and more interested in because we see a very strong association with strokes, heart attacks and, and other types of problems.”
Snoring is caused by a blockage in the back of the throat. What you hear is the tongue forced to the back of the throat when a person is lying on their back.
When people snore they don’t always stop breathing, but there are chemicals in the brain that should trigger breathing that are not stimulated when a person snores. Without the stimulation the person will often stop breathing.
When a person’s airway is obstructed at night and they stop breathing, oxygen levels drop dramatically and hormones and adrenaline surge. Those hormones contribute to high blood pressure, irregularities of the heart and can trigger heart attacks.
People who snore do not necessarily have obstructive sleep apnea but the relationship is pretty strong.
The most important step in treating snoring is recognition and appropriate diagnosis. Rubenfire tells us. . .
“The most important step for treatment is recognition and appropriate diagnosis. What we’ll tell some people to do is just simply sleep on your side, find a way to stay off your back. They can buy pillows, that allow them to turn themselves, and that relieves it in a significant number of people. If they’re significantly overweight and have all the characteristics of sleep disordered breathing, particularly daytime fatigue, drowsiness, we send all those patients to a sleep clinic for appropriate testing and therapy.”
Andi McDonnell U-M Health System News
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