Italian Study Confirms
Loud Snoring, Stroke Link
Excerpt By Rosella Lorenzi, Reuter's Health

FLORENCE (Reuters Health) - An Italian study provides further evidence that snoring not only annoys a person's bed partner; it may also be a risk factor for stroke.

The research, presented at the national meeting of the Italian Association of Sleep Medicine, which ended on Wednesday in Perugia, is the largest case-control study to evaluate the link between stroke and snoring.

Carried out by Professor Virgilio Gallai of Perugia University's Neuroscience Department, it involved 416 patents, half of whom had suffered a stroke. The study found that 40.5% of stroke patients were habitual, heavy snorers, compared to 29.8% of the healthy control group.

"The results indicate that snoring is not only a nuisance. It is a sleeping disorder that increases a person's risk for stroke," Gallai told Reuters Health.

He remarked that only a few stroke patients had sleep apnea, a sleep disturbance in which a person stops breathing for short periods.

"This is important as it shows that not only sleep apnea, but also snoring, the kind that can be heard in the next room, can reduce the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain, putting people at risk of strokes. It means snoring will now have to be treated more seriously," Gallai said.

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