Overweight individuals are not just at greater risk of having sleep-disordered-breathing, they are also likely to suffer greater consequences, according to new research. According to the study , published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, excess weight increased the severity of oxygen desaturation in the blood of individuals with SDB during and after apneas and hypopneas.
About two-thirds of children with sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) — snoring or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) — have some degree of cognitive deficit, but the severity of the cognitive deficit has been notoriously difficult to correlate to the severity of the sleep-disordered breathing, suggesting that other important issues may be at play, or that the right factors were simply not being measured.
A study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine opens the door to understanding the complex relationship between sleep, breathing and brain function in a whole new way.
Clinicians have long considered smoking during pregnancy a major contributing risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), but had not proved a casual relationship. A new study using rats provides the most direct evidence showing a causal link exists, at least, between prenatal smoking and SIDS.
Other contributing factors include disturbances of breathing and heart rate regulation and impaired arousal responses, thermal stress (primarily overheating from too high temperatures or too much clothing) and sleeping in the prone (belly-down) position.
People with obstructive sleep apnea have been reported to have increased markers of oxidative stress and exhibit architectural changes in their brain tissue in areas involved in learning and memory. Chronic intermittent hypoxia in rats produce similar neurological deficit patterns.
“Obstructive sleep apnea has been increasingly recognized as a serious and frequent health condition with potential long-term morbidities that include learning and psychological disabilities,” wrote David Gozal, M.D., professor and director of Kosair Children’s Hospital Research Institute at the University of Louisville, lead author of the article.
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As of May 2, 2009 at 9:47 p.m. (-0500) (ET), the U.S. population
was 306,340,710. Sleep researchers estimate approximately seven percent
of the population suffers from obstructive sleep apnea. Using that
estimate, there are potentially 21,443,850 apneics in the U.S.
~~ Apnea around the world ~~
As of May 2, 2009 at 9:47 p.m. (-0500) (ET), the world population
was 6,777,286,604. Sleep researchers estimate approximately seven percent
of the population suffers from obstructive sleep apnea. Using that
estimate, there are potentially 474,410,062 apneics in the world.
