Are you worried that you or a loved one may have sleep apnea? Have you heard the term but aren’t quite sure what it means? The common conditions, obstructive sleep apnea, depends primarily on physical issues rather than any type of disease or neurological problem. This allows sleep apnea to affect a wide variety of people in many different circumstances. However, it also means that certain physical attributes, like weight, can have a key impact on the development or severity of sleep apnea. Understanding how this works is the first step to knowing what sleep apnea can do, and how to seek treatment for it.
The Process of Sleep Apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the throat closes up during sleep and disrupts breathing. This sends automatic signals to the brain, which immediately goes into overdrive and wakes up the patient. Once awake, the throat passage usually clears on its own and the patient falls right back to sleep – the process can happen so fast it may occur hundreds of times each night without the patient even knowing. However, this keeps the body and nervous system from getting much needed rest and creates a host of medical problems as well.
But why does the throat close? It has to do with the palate – the soft tissue around the opening to the esophagus – and the tongue. The muscles around these areas of the mouth relax when someone falls asleep. This can lead to a constriction of the throat, and the tongue may partially block the airways. This often leads to snoring, which can be annoying but is not usually dangerous. However, if the tongue does not pull forward and the surrounding palate collapses too much, breathing is cut off entirely, which is when sleep apnea occurs.
The Link to Body Weight
Why, then, is sleep apnea linking with body weight? It is true that obesity (and related conditions, like type 2 diabetes) is frequently connected to issues with sleep apnea. There are probably several different factors at play here, but one of the most important is how fat is distributed throughout the body.
Obesity can often cause fat deposits to build up around the throat and neck. This can both put more weight on the throat as well as decrease airway openings with fat accumulation – the severity depends on unique physiological characteristics and can vary from person to person. However, the combination of obesity and lying in a horizontal position can put a lot of weight on the throat and may be responsible for cause apnea.
Sleep apnea can also occur in people who are not overweight, especially the young and the elderly. In both situations, the palate may be more loose and more likely to close during sleep, creating the same problem.
Air Pressure: Difficulties and Solutions
Air pressure is another factor frequently mentioned when it comes to sleep apnea. Low air pressure in the throat can encourage sleep apnea. However, increased air pressure can push against the soft tissue around the tongue and make airways larger, clearing out obstructions. This is why several sleep apnea therapies focus on increasing air pressure in the throat and mouth. You can visit CPAPMan.com to look at related CPAP machines, face masks, humidifiers and more key elements in treatment using air pressure.
