Sleep apnea isn't just snoring at night; it's much more than that. It is a severe sleep disorder with consequences for your health and overall quality of life. If left untreated, it can increase your risk of depression, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and cardiac issues.
If you are dealing with sleep apnea and wondering if losing weight can help, here's what you need to know. Then you are not alone!
We are here to answer your questions and help you achieve quality sleep. So, let's dive in!
What Exactly is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea (SA) is a sleep disorder that affects your breathing. When you have sleep apnea, your breathing stops and restarts repeatedly while you are asleep.
While it happens for various reasons, the most common one is a physical blockage of the airway during sleep. This type is known as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).
Common Sleep Apnea Symptoms You Shouldn't Ignore
Common SA symptoms include;
- Pauses in breathing while sleeping
- Frequent loud snoring
- Choking sensation
- Morning fatigue
- Headache
- Irritability
- Insomnia
Who’s Most at Risk for Sleep Apnea?
Some of the risk factors include
- Older age
- Genetics
- Large tongue, tonsils, and neck
- Premature birth
- Neurological conditions like stroke
While you can't change your age or family history, there are some things that you can improve to help your condition.
- Habits like alcohol and smoking
- Sleeping position
- Nasal congestion
- Sedatives use
- Medical conditions like hormonal imbalance, heart disease, etc
- And excess weight or obesity
How Weight Gain And Sleep Apnea Are Connected?
SA and weight loss are closely related. Being heavy weight person is considered one of the most significant factors contributing to developing obstructive sleep apnoea, and if you already have one, it's going to make it worse. The reason for this is
- Fat deposit around the neck and throat: Making the upper airway smaller, more likely to collapse
- Fat deposit around the chest and upper back: Reducing chest movements while breathing by preventing full inhalation
- Fat deposit around the tummy: Puts pressure on muscles responsible for breathing. Furthermore, it constricts your lungs, making your breathing harder.
Well, it's a double-edged sword. While gaining weight can worsen the condition, your OSA can actually make you gain weight. OSA makes your body store more visceral fat, making it lethargic, reducing physical activity causing weight gain over time.
What Research Says About It?
Across multiple studies, obesity has consistently been linked to Sleep Apnea. In fact, 70% of people with SA also has a higher weight.
What's important to focus on here is that gaining weight can actually increase your risk. Just a 10% increase in body weight increases your chances of developing OSA by 6 times.
It doesn't just stop here; being higher-weight person makes your SA more severe. Whenever your BMI (body mass index) goes up, so does your Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI), which roughly measures the breathing interruptions per hour.
Well, the good news is that weight management or losing weight actually helps to treat SA. Losing just 10% of your body weight can lead to a 26% reduction in AHI, meaning better sleep and a healthy you.
Final Thoughts
Now that you have managed to understand the effect of weight loss on curing sleep apnea, start your journey today towards quality sleep. Although weight loss is integral to obstructive sleep apnea, it's not a single-day process. Meanwhile, you need to start a sleep apnea treatment according to your needs. Your dentist might prescribe you a sleep medicine or an oral appliance according to the severity of your sleep apnea.
Contact us today to learn about your treatment options and get rid of your sleep apnea.