Sleep Apnea

Who Suffers from Sleep Apnea ?

Posted on 05. Dec, 2009 by admin in Diagnosing and Treating Sleep Apnea

When does a person’s tendency toward sleep apnea first arise? This is difficult to pinpoint because sleep apnea results from the combination of several risk factors.

Sleep apnea can be found at all ages. In some people the tendency may be present at birth. Sleep apnea may be the later stage of a breathing disorder that begins early in life as a slight breathing abnormality — some part of the automatic breathing reflex that is slightly irregular.

A breathing abnormality is more likely to develop into sleep apnea when other important risk factors are present: obesity; an insensitive breathing reflex; a slight failure in coordination between the breathing muscles; an upper airway that is narrowed or obstructed by blockages in the nasal passages, large tonsils or adenoids, a large tongue, or a short lower jaw; and so on. Any of these factors may combine so that a slight breathing instability in a young person gradually evolves into a permanent abnormality in sleep breathing in an adult.

The tendency to develop sleep apnea is probably inherited in some people. For example, a person may inherit an airway whose shape is easily obstructed. Or he may inherit a weak breathing response to carbon dioxide. Either one or a combination of several inherited factors may set the stage for a person to develop sleep apnea.

Sex is a factor in the development of sleep apnea. Men are about three times more likely to have sleep apnea than women. The reasons for this difference are unclear, but they may have to do with sexual differences in the structure of the airway or in muscle tone. The effects of sex hormones may also be a factor (e.g., progesterone in women versus testosterone in men). Body weight is another factor. Obese people suffer a much higher incidence of sleep apnea than people of ideal weight.

In terms of age, sleep apnea is primarily a condition of middle age or older. This is true for several reasons. First, with age there is a loss of muscle tone in the throat during sleep. Second, when people do have untreated sleep apnea, the condition becomes worse as they grow older. Third, body weight tends to increase with age, often beginning after age 40. By the time the symptoms of sleep apnea are serious enough to attract medical attention, the person may be in his 40s or 50s and may be suffering from obesity, pulmonary complications, arrhythmia, or even congestive heart failure. The average age of patients in one sleep clinic was reported to be 52.

However, sleep apnea can occur at any age. Children can develop sleep apnea. In fact, now that tonsillectomies are less common than they used to be, sleep apnea is probably more prevalent in children than it was a generation ago. Children who have enlarged tonsils or adenoids or who are obese are the most likely to develop sleep apnea.

A number of drugs aggravate sleep apnea. These include alcohol, sedatives, hypnotic drugs (“sleeping pills”), and some heart medications (short-acting beta blockers, such as propranolol).

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Tags: Diagnosing, Sleep Apnea, Treating