Snoring may signal some dire consequences

While spouses of rafter-rattling snorers may occasionally think murderous thoughts, snoring is seldom fatal.

But when snoring is a sign of sleep apnea, a condition that causes breathing to be interrupted repeatedly during the night due to airway obstructions, it can signal some dire consequences.

Researchers are certain that obesity is a major contributor to sleep apnea, but studies have also found that the condition leads to high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and diabetes, among other problems.

A report in the journal Diabetes Care in June noted that out of 306 obese patients with type 2 diabetes, testing found that 87 percent of them also had obstructive sleep apnea, although most of them did not know it.

More than half of those tested stopped breathing between 16 and 20 times per hour (moderate apnea) or more than 30 times an hour (severe).

But the sleep-obesity loop is even more complicated. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, studying more than 200 people with sleep-related breathing disorders, found that as their conditions worsened, they actually burned more calories when they were at rest.

This is not the way nature intended. We're supposed to burn fewer calories when resting. It's estimated that some 12 million Americans have sleep apnea.

Even a temporary onset of apnea, which often occurs in pregnant women, can cause problems.

About 4 percent of pregnant women develop gestational diabetes, in which a woman without previously diagnosed diabetes develops high blood-sugar levels during pregnancy.

Half of nearly 300 participants with sleep apnea and diabetes went into a group behavioral weight-loss program that included portion-controlled diets and prescribed 175 minutes of exercise a week. The control group got three lectures on diabetes management, diet and physical activity over the yearlong study.

Other research shows that sleep disruption can also set the brain up for disease. A mouse study reported last week by the Washington University School of Medicine found that chronic sleep deprivation makes the brain plaques that characterize Alzheimer's disease appear earlier and more often.

Medical professionals treating Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative illnesses have long noted that many patients experience disturbed sleep. But until recently, it was thought that sleep disruption was more a byproduct of disease than a contributor.

And scientists at the University of California, San Diego, showed that treating sleep apnea in patients with Alzheimer's actually seemed to improve cognitive function.

Specifically, putting patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's and sleep apnea on a machine that delivers pressurized air into the lungs during sleep over six weeks resulted in improved verbal learning and mental processing.

While the mouse study indicates that sleep disruption may actually accelerate the disease process, the California scientists said the improvements they registered could simply be the result of improved oxygen levels in the brain and a clearer mind as a result of getting a better night's sleep.

Earlier studies in adults with sleep apnea, but no dementia, have also shown improvements in mental function after receiving the pressurized air therapy.

source: newschief