Mouthguard lowers high blood pressure

A device typically used to tackle snoring can help lower blood pressure, suggests a new study.

chronic snoring raises the risk of hypertension, but now cardiologists have found that wearing a mouthguard that holds the lower jaw and tongue forward to prevent snoring can substantially lower blood pressure, too.

in a trial at St Marianna University School of Medicine in Japan involving 250 patients with mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnoea (chronic snoring caused when the patient temporarily stops breathing), the device led to an average two-point drop in systolic pressure.

This is the measure of blood pressure when your heart contracts.