Sleep Apnea Carries Various Other Series Health Problems With It

Sleep Apnea Carries With It A Lot Of Other Serious Health Problems

Sleep apnea is not a disorder to be taken lightly and is a condition that will go away by itself with time. In fact sleep apnea is classified as being a “progressive disease” and this means that just like cancer, diabetes and heart disease it gets worse with time. There is a great deal of discussion in the medical community over the effect which sleep apnea has on other medical conditions. Nevertheless, there is a definite link between sleep apnea and several physical conditions including high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and pulmonary hypertension.

An increasing amount of research is looking at why the above health problems are connected with problems that erupt the upper airways of people with sleep apnea. It is well known of course that cigarette smoking, alcohol abuse and being overweight contribute to sleep apnea and lead to a higher likelihood of developing high blood pressure and heart disease. It is not clear however why a lot of people without these lifestyle problems still get sleep apnea.

Whenever breathing ceases during a sleep apnea episode the bloodstream encounters increased levels of carbon dioxide and lower levels of oxygen. As a result of this, several both physical and chemical changes takes place within the body which then raises the risk of other problems arising in the body.

In people with sleep apnea who are overweight doctors have discovered high levels of immune factors known as interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). High levels of these factors can lead to serious inflammation in the body that can lead to cell damage, especially within the arteries. In one particular study it was found that individuals with raised levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha suffered from shortness of breath, excessive tiredness and weak heart pumping. It should be noted however that at this time no clear causal relationship has been established between obstructive sleep apnea and heart disease.

Numerous studies have been conducted to look at sleep apnea and high blood pressure and a link has been established between the two. To give an example, a study performed in 2000 followed patients for four years and reported that the more sleep apnea episodes they experienced in the first year the greater was the chances of developing hypertension by the third or fourth year. Even amongst those people who snored or who experienced only mild sleep apnea there was a small but still higher than usual link with hypertension.

Previously the connection between hypertension and sleep apnea was thought to be strongly connected to obesity. But recent studies point to the fact high blood pressure is seen particularly in people with sleep apnea regardless of what their weight is.

Blood pressure has an effect on sleep apnea simply because it fluctuates markedly during repeated sleep apnea episodes. These variations are also connected to changes by way of sudden surges that occur in the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system controls involuntary muscles and especially those in the blood vessels and heart. It is strongly believed that as time passes these changes may play an important role in the development of permanent long term high blood pressure.

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