OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA’S TOLL ON THE HEART

As one of the most prevalent sleep disorders, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects around one billion people worldwide. For those with this condition, the muscles in the back of the throat relax too much during sleep, creating a narrowed passage for air and causing breathing to stop and restart repeatedly. Each time this happens, the sleep cycle gets interrupted, which often leaves sufferers feeling tired all day. But the potential consequences don’t stop there. Untreated sleep apnea may also raise the risk of dying from heart disease by up to five times.

A recent Finnish study explored one of the reasons for this by recording OSA patients’ nighttime heart rhythms. When the body runs low on oxygen and suddenly awakens, this causes a surge of activity in the sympathetic nervous system—and releases stress hormones in the body. The longer a participant’s breathing was interrupted, the faster the heart raced and the more the short-term heart rate varied. Over time, too much of this strains the cardiovascular system.

Fortunately, there are treatments that work well for OSA. Mild cases may improve with lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking or shedding excess weight. For more serious cases, the most effective solution is a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine that pumps a constant stream of air into your throat by way of a mask.