The Correlation between Obesity and Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a type of sleep disorder where people suffering from this condition have difficulty in breathing while asleep and often get up during their sleep. The two types of sleep apnea include Central and Obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is more common in people who are extremely obese to such an extent that they need to breathe through a mask supplying oxygen as their excess weight has a crushing effect on their lungs making it difficult for them.

As per available statistics, sleep apnea generally affects more men than women and is considerably more in people who are highly obese. These people generally do not have any difficulty falling asleep and only begin to experience the problem once they are sound asleep. If the condition is not diagnosed and managed, it can have profound effects on the health and wellbeing of the person and might even have fatal effects. People who experience the problem are more likely to have other problems like snoring and gasping for breath while asleep. As people who suffer from sleep apnea have lowered levels of oxygen due to periodic cessation of breathing, they can suffer from cardiovascular problems if left unchecked.

They might also suffer from other symptoms like difficulty with anxiety, decreased levels of concentration, depression, headache, increased rate of the heart, gastro esophageal reflux disease, irritability, increased night sweating, increased urination and nocturia (waking up at night to pass urine), mood swings and reduced libido.

Sleep apnea is more common in cardiac problems such as congenital cardiac failure and congestive cardiac failure. People with Downs’ syndrome also have a higher chance of developing the condition and is known to occur in more than half of the cases with this condition owing to the presence of a huge head, tonsils, tongue, adenoids and constriction of the airways. People who go in for surgical process like pharyngeal flap surgery have it as a post surgical complication.

Sleep apnea can be managed in many different ways and specialist doctors will assess each individual patient and develop a treatment plan to help overcome the problem. Prior to advising the treatment options, the doctor will take a thorough history and perform an examination to determine the cause of the problem as well as the severity of symptoms.

Based on the assessment, a combination of management methods that include lifestyle alterations and using medications will be advised. Lifestyle alterations will include avoiding alcohol and smoking, reducing weight and using pillows while sleeping to keep the head at an elevated position. People who are morbidly obese generally have trouble adapting to lifestyle changes like reduction of weight as they have difficulty getting out of bed which in turn again adds up to further increase in weight.

People who are morbidly obese will have an improvement in their condition if they lose at least about 50 pounds. But, weight loss in such individuals is very difficult and should be monitored by an expert professional who will advise and regulate their diet and routine to help the person lose enough weight such that they will be able to try out other weight loss measures like gastric bypass or further improvise their lifestyle changes. Instead of gastric bypass, the person can also go in for lap band surgery as this procedure is reversible if necessary at a later point in time.