Heart drugs tested as cure for snoring

MEDICINES commonly used to treat heart rhythm problems may treat snoring, too.

About 60 patients with sleep apnoea — where the throat closes, preventing normal breathing during sleep — are taking part in a trial at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, and Oxford University Hospitals in which they will be given a potassium channel blocker or placebo.

Potassium is needed for muscle contractions and the theory is that the drugs that block its effect on the muscles in the airways will help keep them open during sleep. Some 2 per cent of middle-aged women in the UK have the condition.