Sleep Apnea Doubles Risk
Of Stroke, Death - Study

The researchers at Yale University also raised questions about whether existing apnea treatments reduced that risk, the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed.

A separate Canadian study also published in the journal concluded that breathing machines used to treat a form of apnea common in people with heart failure do not prevent death or the need for a heart transplant.

About 4 percent of Americans suffer from extreme daytime fatigue because their sleep is disrupted by sleep apnea, forcing them to repeatedly wake up if only for a second. Another 16 percent of Americans have apnea without fatigue.

A seven-year study, led by Klar Yaggi of the Yale University School of Medicine, found that people with apnea were twice as likely to die or have a stroke. The risk more than tripled among volunteers with the worst apnea.

The study involving 1,022 people also showed that the risk persisted even with treatment to keep the throat open during sleep, mostly through a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine. Other study volunteers lost weight or had surgery to ease their symptoms.

The results of the study notwithstanding, the machines are still worth it for people with apnea that produces excessive fatigue, Yaggi said.

"We're really treating you to improve how you feel. Walking around exhausted is a just a horrible quality of life," he said.

"But also we now are realizing that sleep apnea is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, for high blood pressure, for heart disease, and also for stroke, and we believe and hope that treating you will help to reduce your cardiovascular risk, much like we would treat your cholesterol or your blood pressure or your diabetes."

The Canadian study evaluated 258 people with central sleep apnea, where fluid in the lungs caused by heart failure makes sleepers hyperventilate, which temporarily prevents the accumulation of enough carbon dioxide to trigger the breathing reflex. In short, people forget to breathe.

About one third of the 5 million Americans with heart failure also have central sleep apnea.

Douglas Bradley of the University of Toronto and his colleagues said they were surprised to find that heart failure patients with apnea who used CPAP machines were just as likely to die or receive a heart transplant as those who went untreated.

In fact, in the early part of the study, people breathing through CPAP machines seemed to fare worse.

Bradley told Reuters that heart failure patients are given the machines to drive water out of the lungs and reduce the work of breathing. They also may help the heart beat more effectively.

Although using the machines during the 5-1/2-year study did not help patients live longer, they did improve the efficiency of the heart and let patients exercise more.

"As long as it didn't cause any harm, those are the kinds of things we look to do when we treat patients with heart failure with other kinds of therapy," said Bradley.

Reference Source 89
November 10, 2005

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".