Sleep Apnea and Weight Gain: Alliance with Fatal Results

Though this may come as a shock, but the alliance between sleep apnea and weight gain is a reality and one condition is the cause and effect of the other. This close relationship between one of the worst sleep disorders and an avoidable health condition can yield disastrous results, if not controlled and managed well in time. No matter how common obstructive sleep apnea, the most common type of sleep apnea is, not many of us know much about it – especially aspects related to its origin and relationship with body weight, leave alone what sleep apnea is all about. Things really look complicated when the doctor recommends sleep apnea surgery! However, let us not fret and fume over this issue – some background knowledge about the condition, its origin and cause could clarify a host of doubts and fears. What is sleep apnea and what causes it? Sleep apnea is a very serious sleep disorder, marked by frequent and intermittent pauses in breathing during sleep. A person may stop breathing 5 to 30 times in an hour, where the duration of a single pause could be for 10 seconds of more. Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by a collapse or blockage in the upper respiratory tract and central sleep apnea, when the muscles controlling breathing stop getting relevant signals from the brain. Sleep apnea is a potentially dangerous disorder that is closely associated with several heart ailments, many of which are fatal, like heart attacks, stroke and ischemic heart disease. The critical alliance between sleep apnea and weight gain starts getting evident from the very onset of the condition. While sleep apnea is mostly evident amidst obese individuals, weight gain is one of the most recognizable sleep apnea symptoms. Additionally, sleep apnea prevents the victim from entering deep restorative phase of sleep – a situation that directly impacts appetite and weight gain is a natural consequence. The condition also interferes with the production and assimilation of two appetite-related hormones – Grehlin and Leptin, and this disruption also results in weight increase. Perhaps the most important cause of developing obstructive sleep apnea is neglected snoring. Snoring is most commonly caused by deviated septum, a condition where one nostril is narrower than the other. This causes the victim to use the mouth for breathing, which subsequently results in snoring. Deviated septum and sleep apnea is perhaps the most common situation encountered by doctors treating the condition, where no other treatment option seems to be viable, other than sleep apnea surgery. However, before considering surgery, doctors usually try out some effective and non-surgical options and sleep apnea exercises are common recommendations. These exercises aim to reduce the excessive fat tissues accumulated in organs directly involved with breathing, like the neck, tongue, throat and soft palate. Tongue curling, gun chewing or even simple singing to exercise the vocal cord is some of the usual sleep apnea exercises recommended. Hopefully, with the insight provided, you now have a better idea how the dangerous liaison between sleep apnea and weight gain can ultimately prove fatal, if not controlled with the right treatment as soon as possible.