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Sleep Apnea Boosts Risk Of Death In Middle-Aged Man

A government funded study found that sleep apnea, which is an airway blocking condition robbing millions of people of their restful sleep, especially those who are over-weight, also rises the risk of death.

Doctors of seven institutions, including Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, measured the sleeping and breathing patterns of over 6,400 people and they were followed for the next 8 years. Adults who were more than 40 years of age and whose sleeping and breathing was disrupted very often were 50% more likely to die as compared to those who had a normal sleep.

Over 12 million people in US are believed to be suffering from sleep apnea. The National Institutes of Health said that four out of every five people do not even know that they are going through this condition and as a result, they do not get any treatment for it.

The rates of sleep apnea are also rising with the obesity levels for the reason that excessive fat in the throat and neck may block the airways, temporarily choking them, resulting in people gasping for breath.

Jonathan Samet, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine in the University of Southern California and the co-author of the study said in a phone interview that with the increasing number of obese people in US, this is an important matter of concern. Around 65% of the adults are obese or over-weight and this is causing increased cases of sleep-disordered breathing.

NIH reported that men are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea than women as 24% of adult men have this condition as compared to only 9% adult women. The most frequent cause of deaths among the men suffering from sleep apnea is heart disease.

A machine was used to measure the subjects of the study when they were sleeping at their homes. The machine recorded the length and number of interruptions that came in their breathing. In the 8 years during which they were followed, 1,047 subjects of the study died. Among men aged between 40 and 70 years whose breathing was blocked more than 30 times in an hour had double the risks of dying. The PLOS Medicine journal also published a report about a study conducted on women and the results found were not significant.

Samet, the former chairman of Department of Epidemiology of Johns Hopkins said that people who feel sleepy in the day and snore at nights should consult professional doctors. Weight loss or getting the treatment for boosting oxygen supply during sleeping reduces risks of getting heart disease and many other health related problems.

Night time equipment, known as CPAP or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, is used for treatment which helps in keeping the breathing regular. Some of the companies that are marketing this equipment are Respironics Inc. from Murrysville, Pennsylvania and ResMed Inc. from Poway, California.