breathing) and the much more common obstructive sleep apnea (in which there is interference – or obstruction – to the proper flow of air down the throat and into the lungs).
. .. Why does sleep apnea matter? Because those bouts of interrupted breathing have been linked to higher risks of high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, and even cognitive decline, all of which makes a lot of sense when you consider that oxygen is the driving force of life and if you cut off the oxygen supply, even temporarily, you very likely increase the risk of damaging every organ in the body. Not only that, but since sleep apnea interferes with deep sleep, people with sleep apnea are notoriously more at risk of suffering daytime injuries, including, of course, much higher risks of motor vehicle accidents (you really don’t want to be driving anywhere near a trucker with sleep apnea, or worse, fly to Singapore or even Kelowna with a pilot who suffers from that condition).
. .. Risk factors for sleep apnea include:
• (as for nearly everything) being male (although
perhaps that’s at least partly due to the fact that– see above - women don’t admit to snoring and
men aren’t dumb enough to argue with them)
• being overweight (the more you weigh, the more
loose tissue you have to flop around and narrow
the airway).
• having a thick neck (studies have claimed, for
example, that sleep apnea is especially prevalent
in those behemoths who play in the National
Football League)
• being born with a narrow, thin neck
• being older (although sleep apnea is also highly
prevalent in middle-aged men, and even impacts
young kids)
• a family history (if your dad shook the house
with his snoring, for example, there’s a good
chance you may have inherited his problem, too)
• using tranquilizers, sleeping pills, or alcohol (all
of which relax the tissues in the throat)
• smoking.
. .. As I said earlier, a cardinal sign of sleep apnea is loud snoring, as well as the observation by a bedmate of interrupted breathing during sleep, but another key sign that is often overlooked is excessive daytime sleepiness. |
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