Sleep apnea gets worse in the winter

Reuters – 13 hrs ago NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The breathing problems caused by sleep apnea appear to worsen during the colder months of the year, according to a new study from Brazil.

People with the common sleep disorder stop breathing multiple times throughout the night, each bout lasting from seconds to minutes.

Jerome Dempsey, who studies breathing problems at the University of Wisconsin and was not involved in the new study, said it makes sense that airway infections and weather would have an effect on sleep apnea.

But the changes in sleep apnea across seasons are small, Dempsey added, and the study does not prove that winter weather in itself makes sleep apnea worse.

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, one in 10 adults over age 65 has sleep apnea.

Seasonal changes in weight and allergies can affect sleep apnea, and the Brazilian researchers, led by Cristiane Maria Cassol at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, wanted to see if weather changes might also have any impact on the disorder.

They used data from patients who came in for testing at a sleep clinic on how many times their sleep was disturbed by breaks in breathing. The study included one night of sleep for more than 7,500 patients over a 10-year period.

The researchers then compared the severity of the patients' apnea to the weather conditions at the time, including humidity, temperature and air pollution.

Patients who came in during the colder months had more nighttime breaks in breathing than those who sought treatment during the warmer months. For instance, during the winter, patients stopped breathing an average of 18 times per hour, compared to 15 times an hour during the summer.

Similarly, the sleep clinic was more likely to see the most severe cases - people who stopped breathing more than 30 times an hour - in the colder months.

About 34 percent of patients who came in during cold weather had severe apnea, while 28 percent of patients during warm weather had severe apnea.

The team found that certain weather conditions - high atmospheric pressure and humidity and high levels of the air pollutant carbon monoxide - were tied to worse cases of apnea.

But the study could not determine whether it's the weather that's responsible for the more severe sleep apneas.

The researchers write in their report, published in the journal Chest, that more severe apnea in the winter "can be due to several circumstances, including winter-related upper-airway problems that intensify the severity of (sleep apnea) symptoms."

Another possibility is that wood burning to heat homes during the winter can cause irritation in the airways and aggravate sleep apnea.

"There are so many things that affect sleep apnea, including the decision of when to come visit" a sleep clinic, Dempsey told Reuters Health.

In other words, it might not be the weather, but the time of year that makes it more convenient for patients to take the time to seek treatment.

Dempsey said researchers would have to follow patients for at least a year and observe how their conditions change in order to say whether sleep apnea really does worsen in the winter.

While winter-related conditions such as colds or allergies might intensify sleep apnea, Dempsey said the biggest risk factor is obesity.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/MqNmmE Chest, online June 14, 2012.

View the Original article

Sleep apnea gets worse in the winter: study

Reuters – 3 hrs ago (Reuters) - Respiration problems in sleep apnea - which causes people to momentarily stop breathing multiple times throughout the night, for seconds to minutes at a time - appear to worsen during the colder months of the year, according to a study from Brazil.

Changes in weight and seasonal allergies can affect sleep apnea, and researchers writing in the journal Chest wanted to see if weather changes might also have an impact.

"More sleep disordered breathing events were recorded in wintertime than in other seasons," wrote study leader Cristiane Maria Cassol from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.

Cassol and her team said it could be due to several causes, including winter-related upper-airway problems that intensify the severity of symptoms and the use of burning wood to heat homes during the winter.

The team utilized data from sleep clinic patients and looked at how many times their rest was disturbed by breaks in breathing. The study included one night of sleep for more than 7,500 patients over a 10-year-period.

Researchers then compared the severity of the patients' apnea to the weather conditions at the time, including humidity, temperature and air pollution.

Patients who came in during colder months had more nighttime breaks in breathing than those who sought treatment during warmer months. During the winter, patients stopped breathing an average of 18 times an hour compared to 15 times an hour during the summer.

Similarly, the sleep clinic was more likely to see the most severe cases - people who stopped breathing more than 30 times an hour - during the colder months.

About 34 percent of patients who came in during cold weather had severe apnea, compared to 28 percent of patients during warmer weather.

The team found that certain weather conditions, such as high atmospheric pressure and humidity and high levels of the air pollutant carbon monoxide - were tied to worse cases of apnea.

But the study could not determine whether it was the weather itself that was responsible for the more severe apneas.

Jerome Dempsey, who studies breathing problems at the University of Wisconsin and wasn't involved in the study, said it makes sense that airway infections and weather could have an effect on sleep apnea, but that the changes across the seasons were small.

"There are so many things that affect sleep apnea, including the decision of when to come visit" a sleep clinic, Dempsey told Reuters Health.

In other words, it might not be the weather but the time of year that makes it more convenient for patients to take the time to seek treatment.

He added that while winter-related conditions such as colds or allergies might intensify sleep apnea, the biggest risk factor is obesity. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/MqNmmE

(Reporting from New York by Kerry Grens at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies and Bob Tourtellotte)

View the Original article

Sleep Apnea May Be Linked to Nerve Damage in Diabetics

HealthDay – 4 hrs ago MONDAY, June 18 (HealthDay News) -- Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with nerve damage in people with type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.

The severity of this type of nerve damage -- called diabetic peripheral neuropathy -- is linked with the extent of sleep apnea and the degree of low blood oxygen levels that occur while patients sleep, the researchers found.

People with obstructive sleep apnea subconsciously awaken many times a night -- even dozens of times an hour -- because their airways close, disrupting their breathing. Those with diabetic peripheral neuropathy may have numbness or tingling in their extremities, or damage to their major organs.

The study of 234 adults with type 2 diabetes found that sleep apnea was independently associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy even after the researchers accounted for a number of other possible factors, including obesity, ethnicity, gender, age at diabetes diagnosis, and the length of time a person had diabetes.

The findings were published online ahead of print in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

"Obstructive sleep apnea is known to be associated with inflammation and oxidative stress, so we hypothesized that it would be associated with peripheral neuropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes," lead author Dr. Abd Tahrani, a clinical lecturer in endocrinology and diabetes at the University of Birmingham in England, said in a news release from the American Thoracic Society.

However, while the study uncovered an association between obstructive sleep apnea and peripheral neuropathy in diabetic patients, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

Further research is needed to determine the role of sleep apnea and low blood oxygen levels in the development and progression of nerve damage in patients with type 2 diabetes, and to assess the potential impact of continuous positive airway pressure treatment on diabetic peripheral neuropathy, the study authors said.

Continuous positive airway pressure treatment, or CPAP, keeps obstructive sleep apnea patients' airways open while they sleep.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about diabetic neuropathy.

View the Original article

Sleep Apnea Treatment Might Boost Men's Sex Lives

background:url(http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/a/5b/a5ba32682eb601fb573b57542c19b9c1.png);width:115px;height:25px;margin-left:50px;margin-top:7px

View the Original article

Sleep Apnea Treatment Might Boost Men's Sex Lives

background:url(http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/a/5b/a5ba32682eb601fb573b57542c19b9c1.png);width:115px;height:25px;margin-left:50px;margin-top:7px

View the Original article

Watch: Sleep Apnea Linked to Risk of Hypertension

Skydiver Survives Fall Without...More Popular VideoBill Clinton and the Porn StarsNuts for NutsHunt for Bin Laden in :60George Zimmerman in Sanford Police Station5 Revealing Clues Into the 'Real' Bin LadenIn The NewsU.S.PoliticsEntertainmentWeird and WackySleep Apnea Linked to Risk of HypertensionDr. Harneet Walia says new treatments for sleep apnea show positive results.01:46

View the Original article

Sleep Apnea Linked to Higher Cancer Death Risk

HealthDay – 1 hr 30 mins ago SUNDAY, May 20 (HealthDay News) -- Sleep apnea has already been linked to a host of adverse health problems, such as high blood pressure and heart disease. Now, new research suggests that in people who already have cancer, the sleep disorder may raise their risk of dying from cancer.

People with the most severe sleep apnea -- those who have 30 or more episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour of sleep -- had almost five times the risk of cancer death compared to someone without sleep apnea.

"Sleep apnea is the periodic pausing of breathing during sleep that results in drops in oxygen levels in your blood. It causes snoring and sleepiness during the day," explained study author Dr. Javier Nieto, chair of the department of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, in Madison.

"Aside from being an annoyance to your spouse, family members and maybe even your neighbors depending on how loud your snoring is, sleep apnea is a severe problem. Drowsiness and sleepiness during the day increase the risk of accidents, and sleep apnea is associated with cardiovascular disease, heart disease, strokes, hypertension and cardiovascular mortality. Now, we see this new angle: an increase in cancer mortality," said Nieto.

Nieto is scheduled to present the study Sunday at the American Thoracic Society International Conference, in San Francisco.

Nieto said the new study was suggested by researchers from the University of Barcelona in Spain who found that when mice were deprived of oxygen periodically, skin cancer tumors grew faster in the mice. And, cancer cells in the lab that are deprived of oxygen produce molecules that stimulate the growth of blood vessels in an attempt to get more oxygen, he said.

Nieto and the Spanish researchers wondered if this effect was the same in humans. To test that theory, they reviewed data from more than 1,500 people included in the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort. This study included 22 years of mortality data, as well as information from sleep studies.

The researchers adjusted the data to account for age, sex, body mass, smoking and other factors that might affect the risk of cancer death, and they found that sleep apnea increased the risk of cancer death. They also found that the more severe the sleep apnea, the more likely someone was to die from cancer.

People with mild sleep apnea -- five to 14.9 episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour -- had a 10 percent increased risk of cancer death, while those with moderate sleep apnea -- 15 to 29.9 episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour -- had double the risk of cancer death. Those with severe sleep apnea -- more than 30 episodes of low or no oxygen in an hour -- had a 4.8 times higher risk of cancer death.

Nieto said the study didn't prove a cause-and-effect relationship, but the association was quite strong. And, he noted that the findings were consistent in humans, animals and in cells.

He added that there is also a plausible mechanism for this association. When you have cancer and you repeatedly have episodes of low or no oxygen, the cancer cells "try to compensate for the lack of oxygen by growing additional blood vessels to get more oxygen. It's a defense mechanism," Nieto said. And, as those blood vessels keep growing, it helps the tumor to spread, he explained.

Dr. Steven Park, a sleep medicine specialist and otorhinolaryngologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, said he wasn't surprised by the findings.

"This goes along with the link between sleep apnea and pretty much every chronic medical condition out there," Park said. But, he added that this study's findings need to be confirmed in other studies, and ideally be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Research presented at medical meetings should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

"Anyone with snoring, severe daytime fatigue, lack of memory or focus, high blood pressure, diabetes, and even someone who has to get up to go to the bathroom at night should be screened for sleep apnea," Park said. He added that it's possible to have sleep apnea without snoring, especially for women. So, if you're getting enough sleep at night, yet still feel tired during the day, it's important to bring this up to your doctor.

Park said there are home-monitoring devices that can be used to screen people at home initially.

Nieto said that treating sleep apnea will improve your quality of life, as well as reduce your risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. And, if you have cancer, he said, treating sleep apnea may help increase your odds of surviving cancer.

More information

Learn more about sleep apnea from the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

View the Original article

Obstructive Sleep Apnea May Be Linked to Depression

HealthDay – 1 hr 17 mins ago FRIDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) -- There appears to be a link between the common sleep disorder known as obstructive sleep apnea and major depression, a new study suggests.

In people with obstructive sleep apnea, soft tissue in the back of the throat blocks the upper airway during sleep. This results in pauses in breathing and other sleep symptoms such as snorting, gasping and snoring.

In the new study, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers surveyed about 9,700 American adults and found that 6 percent of the men and 3 percent of the women said they had been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea.

The CDC team found that symptoms of the sleep disorder were associated with many depression symptoms, including feeling like a failure and feeling hopeless. This association was not affected by factors such as weight, age, sex or race, they noted.

There was no link noted between regular snoring and depression, however, the researchers pointed out in the report, published in the April issue of the journal Sleep.

"We expected persons with sleep-disordered breathing to report trouble sleeping or sleeping too much, or feeling tired and having little energy, but not the other symptoms," such as hopelessness, lead study author Anne Wheaton, a CDC epidemiologist, said in a news release from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Although the study uncovered an association between obstructive sleep apnea and depression, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about sleep apnea.

View the Original article