A health expert has warned that people suffering from constant snoring are exposed to stroke.
Prof Ikenna Onwuekwe, a neurologist, urged these persons to seek urgent medical attention.
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He added that sufferers of insomnia are also at risk of severe cardiovascular conditions.
The neurologist highlighted the following conditions of sufferers of insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea:
- Stroke.
- Heart problems.
- Heart attack.
- Other critical cardiovascular health conditions.
He explained the obstructive sleep apnea also known as snoring can lead to insomnia. This is because it often prevents one from having a good night sleep.
Onwuekwe added that people who suffer from both insomnia and snoring may die early. This is because they are predisposed to severe health risk.
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Onwuekwe, who is also the head of neurology unit at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital said snoring people should be taken care of.
He said that people who snore heavily don’t sleep well and they wake up tired.
His words:
“If you know anybody who snores heavily, you’d see that they don’t sleep well at night. So, when they wake up in the morning, they still feel like going to sleep during the day time. So, they never get refreshed. When you have insufficient sleep every day, you’d now have a lot of other problems such as hypertension, diabetes risk, coronary artery risk.
“It is quite a huge combination of health problems just by not sleeping well at night because of snoring and waking up and having a night of interrupted sleep”.
The Professor of medicine said that the risk factor of interrupted sleep has been confirmed.
Researchers at Flinders University backed the claim of Nigerian Neurologist. They suggested that both insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea leads to heart problems. They added that 50 per cent sufferers of both conditions die earlier than persons without either condition.
This was based on research published in European Respiratory Journal. It was collated by Eurealert from a US-based dataset. See details below.
- 5000 Participants.
- 52% women and 48% men.
- Aged: 60 years and above.
- Study duration: 15 years.
Result:
- 1,210 people died.
The resulted affirmed that co-morbid persons with insomnia and snoring were more likely to have a high blood pressure.
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Also, “70% more likely to have cardiovascular disease than participants with neither insomnia nor sleep apnoea.
“The study also showed participants with COMISA had a 47% increased risk of dying (for any reason) compared to participants with no insomnia or sleep apnoea, even when other factors known to increase mortality were taken into account.”
The lead researcher, Dr Bastien Lechat said this was the first study to prove this.
“Given that these people are at higher risk of experiencing adverse health outcomes, it is important that people undergoing screening for one disorder should also be screened for the other,” he advised.
Source: PUNCH HealthWise