Published on September 5, 2024
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Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is more than “just” snoring. OSA, attributed to a reduction in throat size because of fat deposits there, is periodic interruption or cessation of breathing during sleep.
Mild sleep apnea: 5 to 15 episodes per hour
Moderate: 15 to 30 per hour
Severe: 30 or more per hour
About 70% of obese people suffer from OSA. With age and increased obesity comes a rapid progression of episodes to as many as 100’s of times per night. This leads to hypertension, stroke and often death from cardiovascular causes — risks that are already elevated because of their obesity.
There’s also a confirmed connection between apnea and #cancer mortality.
People who have cancer and who have the most severe sleep apnea—30 or more episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour of sleep—have almost 5X the risk of cancer death compared to someone without apnea. This is because when you have cancer and you repeatedly have episodes of low or no oxygen, the cancer cells, as a defense mechanism, try to compensate for the lack of oxygen by growing additional blood vessels to get more oxygen; and as those blood vessels keep growing, it helps the tumor to spread.
Losing weight is very effective in relieving apnea symptoms!
