Snoring And Heart Disease
Recent studies have uncovered possibly worrisome links between snoring and heart disease.
In 2004, the American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care Medicine published a study performed by medical professionals from Alfred Hospital at Melbourne, Australia. The study was headed by Prof. Matthew Naughton, the person in charge of the Sleep Disorders Center of the said hospital. The study suggests that snoring could be a possibly serious cause for heart disease like diabetes or smoking.
According to the study, sleep deprivation or interrupted sleep as well as periods of temporary breathing cessations result from severe snoring. This consequently makes the heart experience stress.
Snoring can cause people to unconsciously “wake up” from their sleep. When this happens, their blood pressure often goes up and down, an indication that the heart is put to hard work as it faces increasing resistance.
Oxygen levels are also depleted when a person snores. When oxygen levels go down, heart muscles stiffen. If this happens, the heart finds it hard to pump in its normal fashion.
The study also points out how a person determines if he’s suffering from a bad case of snoring. Excessive loud snoring, experiencing breathing problems during snoring, feeling sleepy during daytime after a snoring-punctured night as well as snoring more than three times a week are just a few examples of serious cases of snoring.
A person who is experiencing any of the aforementioned cases may be suffering from sleep apnea. If his condition is left untreated, it may gradually develop into hypertension. The latter can then lead to heart disease.
While more convincing proof is needed to strengthen the link between snoring and heart disease, it wouldn’t hurt if people nonetheless exhibit extra care with their sleeping habits.
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Tags: heart attack, heart beat, heart disease causes, heart attacks
