 If
you snore, you're not alone.
• Snoring affects 34% of the adult population
• As many as 60% of men over 40 snore
• Snoring significantly increases after age 35
• 60% of men and 40% of women between 41 and 65
are habitual snorers
What causes snoring?
Most typically, snoring is caused by poor muscle tone
and extra tissue in the tongue and throat. This causes
the tongue to relax
and fall backwards in the throat, resulting in restricted
airflow and vibration of the soft tissues in the back
of the mouth.
Should you be concerned?
Yes. In the short-term, snoring causes headaches and leads
to lack of productivity. Long-term, chronic snorers tend
to develop high blood pressure and are more apt to have
heart and lung problems than non-snorers. A study published
in the August 2000 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine
finds that people who snore loudly - in the absence of
other risk factors for sleepdisordered breathing, such
as obesity - are 11/2 times more likely than others to
have high blood pressure.
What is Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA)?
The most advanced symptom of snoring is called Obstructive
Sleep Apnoea or OSA. OSA is an interruption of breathing
during sleep caused by the tongue and/or excessive tissue
completely blocking the airway. When breathing stops,
air is prevented from entering the lungs, causing the
heart to work harder to circulate blood throughout the
body. Eventually, OSA can cause high blood pressure, irregular
heart beats or even heat failure.
Researchers studied sleep and cardiovascular information
on 6,132 people who were at least 40 years old. Suspension
of breathing - often while snoring - induces stress, and
stress increases the risk of hypertension, researchers
said.
Doctors at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public
Health in Baltimore and other participants in the study
found that the risk of high-blood pressure increased with
the severity of the apnoea, or suspension of breathing.
"We found that there's evidence of sleep apnoea and
high-blood pressure both in younger and older individuals,
both in men and women, and both in white, African Americans
and native Americans and other groups," said Dr.
F. Javier Nieto of Johns Hopkins.
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