Sleep Apnea Increasingly Tied to Heart Risks

Mounting data suggests causative role in cardiovascular disease.
SUNDAY. March 4 2007
(HealthDay News)
People with obstructive sleep apnea are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, a new U.S.
study suggests.
People with obstructive sleep apnea experience multiple breathing interruptions while they sleep.
This occurs when tissue in the back of the throat collapses and blocks the airway.
The authors of the study, published March 1 in the journal Sleep, said there is mounting data
indicating that the condition plays a potentially important, causative role in cardiovascular disease.
"There is abundant physiologic evidence implicating obstructive sleep apnea in perpetuating, if not
inciting, heart failure," study co-author Dr. Sean M. Caples, of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
in Rochester, Minn., said in a prepared statement.
"In addition to their association with systemic hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea-related
stressors ... have varying effects on myocardial [heart] oxygen supply and demand, particularly in
the already compromised heart," Caples said.
Treating sleep disorders and getting adequate amounts of sleep are important factors in good
cardiovascular health, noted Dr. Lawrence Epstein, past president of the American Academy of
Sleep Medicine, medical director of Sleep HealthCenters and an instructor of medicine at Harvard
Medical School.
"Sleep apnea is a know risk factor for the development of hypertension, heart disease and stroke.
Also, chronic sleep deprivation has been shown to change metabolic function in a way that
promotes weight gain and diabetes, two risk factors for heart disease," Epstein said in a prepared
statement.