Sleep apnea therapy fights heart disease

Jun 17 (HeartCenterOnline) - A common therapy used to treat sleep apnea may protect patients from various forms of heart disease, according to a recent study.

Sleep apnea is a condition in which patients temporarily stop breathing throughout the night. It is associated with heart disease, especially high blood pressure, and various risk factors for heart disease, including obesity, smoking and alcohol use.

Patients with sleep apnea are frequently treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy at night to assure even, continuous breathing. CPAP uses an oxygen mask that is worn at night to deliver a continuous supply of low-pressure oxygen. The air flow raises the air pressure in the throat, keeping airways open while still allowing the patient to exhale.

In a study published in the June issue of CHEST, researchers compared patients who used CPAP therapy over the long-term versus sleep apnea patients who used only short-term CPAP therapy.

They found that long-term use of CPAP therapy was associated with a significant decrease in heart disease and death due to heart disease. After 7.5 years of follow- up, the long-term patients experienced a cardiovascular event rate of 18 percent, versus 31 percent for the short- term group. Cardiovascular events included heart attack, stroke and heart failure.

Similarly, the cardiovascular death rate among the long- term group was 1.9 percent, compared with 14.8 percent for the short-term group.

However, researchers also noted the short-term CPAP therapy was effective in relieving the symptoms of sleep apnea, even if it did not appear to confer long-term cardiovascular benefits.

The researchers, from St. Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, speculated that long-term therapy might benefit the heart by maintaining relatively stable blood oxygen levels. Low blood oxygen levels, such as those found in sleep apnea patients, may contribute to arterial inflammation, which in turn contributes to blood flow constriction and high blood pressure.

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Gotta love your machines...

Hehe. I do.

Yep, I love my machine. I travel for my job from time to time and I'm paranoid even about leaving my machine in my hotel room, even for less than an hour while I go get dinner at a restaurant, for fear that it will get stolen. I even use it when I take a 15 minute nap; I can't imagine not having it, and I wonder how I survived for so long without it.
:rolleyes:

I dont blame you. I had my first 12 hour sleep study night before last, and they decided to see how I did all night without any machine. GOD! It was horrible.
I could sleep for nothing, and when I did I tossed and turned all night. The results verified my previous Stardust test with an average of over 26 apnea episodes per hour. And between the EEG and the EKG, I am now officially mixed apneatic.
I was awoke yesterday morning and felt like death warmed over. My back hurt, I had a near migraine level headache and probably would have felt better rested if would have stayed up all night. Not to mention the fact that I was a mean dude at work all day yesterday, which makes dealing with professional trying to help them with the computers and applications very difficult. Needless to say, I am glad to have my machine. I have another sleep study but this time it is to make sure my auto-cpap if effective enough a treatment for the severity of my case.
But sleeping without one is simply out of the question. I too will not even nap without it.