There is a strong link between obesity and sleep apnea. There are several causes of sleep apnea but one of them is simple airway obstruction that occurs when your muscles relax while sleeping.
When you are overweight, there is excess tissue around your airways and more pressure on them due to the extra weight. This makes it easier for them to collapse and restrict their breathing once they are asleep.
Snoring is not only an annoying sound, it is a signal that your airways are partially collapsed and the air is struggling to pass. In some cases, your airway can totally shut off and while your chest moves in an effort to pull in air, none of it reaches your lungs.
The result of these episodes of sleep apnea can be very serious. You could be constantly tired the next day which makes you less alert and more prone to accidents. Obstructive sleep apnea can even lead to death from heart attack or pulmonary hypertension.
Sleep apnea is a very serious problem that has the potential for an easy solution — weight loss. Of course, for weight loss to help correct the condition, obesity must be the underlying cause of airway obstruction.
Recent studies undertaken by Temple University found that obese patients who lost the recommended amount of weight were three times as likely to eliminate sleep apnea episodes as compared to other people in the study who did not lose weight.
By losing weight, many of these participants were able to totally reverse their sleep apnea problem while those who did not lose weight continued to have episodes of apnea and in fact, their symptoms even became worse over time.
The biggest benefit occurs when you reach your ideal weight, but doctors have noted that much improvement in sleep apnea is observed after just a 10% weight loss.
Even losing some weight can lessen the frequency of your episodes and thereby reduce the detrimental effects on your health.
Weight loss is never easy, but it is just a matter of simple math. You must burn off more calories than you consume each day. This is why exercise is such a vital component of losing weight.
When it is combined with a healthy diet, you can lose weight quickly and safely. Plus it is more likely to stay off than weight that is lost rapidly from a fad diet.
Of course, weight loss has many other important health benefits as well. It can reverse or improve other diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
There are many compelling reasons why you should lose weight. If you have sleep apnea, this should be one of your primary considerations. Other methods used to treat the condition are only temporary and treat the symptoms but do not correct the underlying cause.
If you are overweight, it is possible that you could have sleep apnea and not even be aware of it. Some of the symptoms are headaches, irritability, excessive daytime sleepiness, and snoring at night.
For a diagnosis, you should visit your doctor for an examination which might include a sleep test.
The sleep test monitors your respiration, oxygen levels, and cardiac status while you are sleeping. You may be shocked to discover how often you stop breathing during the night.
Now Listen Very Carefully Here:
Stop Snoring in 3 Minutes - Starting Tonight
These easy throat exercises defeated the most stubborn snoring and sleep apnea the very first night
I couldn’t believe it.
I did these simple throat exercises for three minutes in the morning and hardly snored at all the next night.
A few nights later, my snoring was gone entirely and had never returned.
This short video explains the easy exercises in detail. You can start using them within 10 minutes from now (right where you’re sitting) and treat your snoring as soon as tonight.