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How Does Obesity Cause Sleep Apnea? What Do You Need To Know

In adults, the most common reason for sleep apnea is excess weight and obesity. In any case, if you need help in addressing your sleep disorder such as this, go to this page for further information. So, how does obesity cause sleep apnea? Can losing weight cure sleep apnea? Continue reading this article to know the other side effects of obesity and sleep apnea on your health. You can go to SleepClinicMelbourne.com.au if you need help in your sleeping disorders.

 

About Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a generally common sleep disorder wherein individuals encounter disrupted breathing while they are dozing. In obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the most widely recognized sleep apnea, troublesome breathing happens due to a narrow or impeded upper airway. It is like breathing through a straw. Patients with obstructive sleep apnea may have as much as 30 breathing disturbances every night.The man falls asleep while thinking about does obesity cause sleep apnea.

Moreover, not exclusively would excess weight result in sleep apnea. Still, it can worsen the manifestations and fuel its detrimental health effects. Sleep deprivation may likewise prompt weight gain, making it an endless loop. Furthermore, numerous studies show that weight loss improves sleep apnea.

 

Obesity and Obstructive Sleep Apnea: How Excess Weight Causes Sleep Apnea?

A few ailments increase the probability of developing sleep apnea. However, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is most common in individuals who are overweight or obese. Overabundance weight makes fat deposits in an individual’s neck called pharyngeal fat. Pharyngeal fat can hinder an individual’s upper airway during sleep when the breathing route is loose. This is why snoring is a common symptom of sleep apnea. The air is literally being squeezed through a confined aviation route, causing a noisy commotion.

Furthermore, less usual reasons for sleep apnea include:

  • enlarged tonsils that obstruct the airway
  • endocrine disorders such as thyroid disease and diabetes
  • anatomical features such as a narrow throat or large neck
  • heart problems
  • acid reflux
  • lung diseases

In any case, most adults with obstructive sleep apnea are overweight or classify as obese patients.

 

Sleep Apnea and Obesity: Can Sleep Apnea Cause Weight Gain?

While overabundance weight has been a risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea, an expanding measure of evidence suggests the relationship is interchangeable. This is because lack of sleep is related to decreased leptin levels, a hunger-suppressing hormone, and an increased appetite-stimulating hormone called ghrelin. This condition may build a desire for calorie-dense foods.

Additionally, it shows that OSA patients might be more susceptible to weight gain than individuals with similar body mass index (BMI) but do not suffer from apnea disorder.

Sleep apnea can likewise drain individuals of the energy they require to keep healthy body weight. Daytime somnolence or sleepiness is a typical sleep apnea side effect resulting from insufficient rest. Evidence proposes excessive daytime sleepiness may lead OSA patients to exert less physical activity during waking hours. This might be especially problematic for obese individuals, who regularly encounter more shortness of breath and chest inconvenience with physical effort, bringing about restricted exercise. Without dietary changes, diminished movement levels can cause weight gain.

 

Health Effects of Sleep Apnea and Obesity

Patients with OSA can experience critical weight on their metabolic, cardiovascular, and pulmonary systems. However, this might be especially troubling for obese individuals. Since obesity can likewise expand the risk factors for lung, heart, and metabolic issues, possibly intensifying their health problems.

 

Sleep Apnea and Cardiovascular Disease

Sleep apnea influences an individual’s whole cardiovascular framework severally. Each time a breathing failure happens, the body’s oxygen supply drops, setting off a “fight or flight” response. When this condition occurs, blood pressure rushes, and heart rate expands, making the sleeper stir and resume their airway. This cycle happens again and again throughout the night.The overweight woman has a hard time to complete her workout.

Additionally, sleep apnea raises carbon dioxide and glucose levels in the blood. This disrupts the nervous system that manages heartbeat and blood flow, expands insulin resistance, and modifies oxygen and carbon dioxide flow. Thus, sleep apnea has a relationship with the following:

  • Heart failure
  • Coronary heart disease
  • High blood pressure
  • Stroke and transient ischemic attacks, also known as mini-strokes
  • Atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias
  • type 2 diabetes
  • Metabolic syndrome

 

Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome and Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea often coexists in individuals with obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS). In OHS, overabundance weight sets pressure against an individual’s chest wall, compacting their lungs. Hence, this interferes with their capacity to take deep, well-paced breaths.

Similar to sleep apnea, OHS can result in high blood pressure and heart failure. It can also diminish oxygen while increasing carbon dioxide levels in the blood. Patients with both of these issues have a critical danger of cardiovascular disease.

 

Will Weight Loss Help Cure Sleep Apnea?

Like treating numerous diseases, addressing sleep apnea begins with lifestyle and behavioral changes. For most OSA victims, this incorporates running after healthy body weight.

Weight loss lessens fatty stores in the neck and tongue, which can add to restricted airflow. Also, this decreases abdominal fat, which thus builds lung volume and further develops airway traction, making the aviation route less inclined to fall during rest.

Additionally, losing weight can essentially lessen numerous OSA-related side effects, like daytime sleepiness. Fractiousness and other neuropsychiatric conditions uniquely improve also. Weight loss of only 10-15% can decrease the seriousness of sleep apnea half in moderately obese individuals. Though weight loss can significantly improve sleep apnea, it generally does not cause a complete fix. Moreover, several sleep apnea patients require additional therapies, such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).

 

Sleep Apnea Treatment: Will It Help You Lose Weight?

Evidence proposes that OSA sufferers who successfully deal with their sleep-disordered breathing may find it simpler to shed pounds. In one research, ghrelin levels were higher in patients with sleep-disordered breathing than those without OSA of a similar weight yet tumbled to equivalent levels following two days of using CPAP therapy.

Opposingly, the long-term application of CPAP, the ideal apnea treatment, has been related to weight gain in some studies. Be that as it may, the purposes behind this affiliation are unclear, and more study is necessary. Given the intricacy of weight and sleep apnea therapy, overweight patients should not exclusively depend on CPAP treatment or apnea therapy as their sole method for weight control.

 

References:

Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Children.

https://www.aafp.org/afp/2004/0301/p1147.html

What you need to know about sleep apnea.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/178633

Body Mass Index (BMI).

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/index.html

Daytime Somnolence.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/daytime-somnolence

What is CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) Therapy?

https://www.aastweb.org/blog/what-is-cpap-continuous-positive-airway-pressure-therapy

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