A Look at the Serious Health Problems which can Accompany Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is not a condition to be ignored and is a condition that is not going to disappear on its own with time. In fact sleep apnea is classed as a "progressive disease" which means that like heart disease, cancer and diabetes it gets worse with time. There is a great deal of argument amongst medical professionals about the effect that sleep apnea has on other medical problems. Nevertheless, there is a definite link between sleep apnea and a number of physical conditions including high blood pressure, heart failure, heart attack, diabetes, kidney failure, stroke and pulmonary hypertension.

An increasing amount of research is looking at why these conditions are connected with problems that erupt the upper airways of a person with sleep apnea. It is well known of course that smoking, excessive weight and the overuse of alcohol are important factors in sleep apnea and lead to a higher chance of developing hypertension and heart disease. It is not clear however why some people who do not have any of these lifestyle problems still have sleep apnea.

Whenever there is a cessation of breathing during a sleep apnea episode the blood has higher carbon dioxide levels and decreased levels of oxygen. As a result of this, several both physical and chemical events occur in the body that then increases the possibility of other problems arising.

In people with sleep apnea who are overweight researchers have discovered that they have high levels of immune factors referred to as interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). High levels of these factors can lead to serious inflammation that can cause cell damage, especially in the arteries. In one particular study it was demonstrated that people with elevated tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels had shortness of breath, excessive tiredness and a weak heart-pumping action. However it must be said that at this point no clear causal relationship has been established between obstructive sleep apnea and heart disease.

Numerous studies have been done to study sleep apnea and high blood pressure and a link has been established between the two. For example, a study done in 2000 followed patients over a four year period and reported that the more sleep apnea episodes they experienced during the first year the greater the possibility of developing high blood pressure by the third or fourth year. Even amongst those people who snored or who experienced mild sleep apnea there was a weak but nonetheless higher than usual link with high blood pressure.

In the past the link between sleep apnea and high blood pressure was believed to be strongly connected to obesity. But recent studies suggest that high blood pressure is seen particularly in those who suffer from sleep apnea regardless of what their weight is.

Blood pressure has an effect on sleep apnea because it varies markedly during repeated sleep apnea episodes. These changes are also linked to changes by way of sudden surges that take place in the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system controls involuntary muscle movements and most importantly those in the blood vessels and heart. It is believed that as time passes these fluctuations could play a significant part in the development of permanent long term high blood pressure.

Help-Me-To-Sleep.com provides detailed information on a number of different sleep disorders including insomnia, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, shift work sleep disorder, jet lag and sleep apnea.