Snoring damages your health, not just your relationships!   

A consistent theme of this newsletter is that snoring should not be ignored. Especially not if your snoring is related to sleep apnea: last months headlines -- "Train Wreck Blamed on Apnea" -- act as a reminder that apnea must be treated.  But new research shows that even primary snoring may be bad for your health.

In the largest ever case-control study to evaluate the link between stroke and snoring, doctors at Perugia University in Italy studied 416 subjects, half of whom had suffered a stroke before the study began. Of these stroke victims, 40.5 percent were described as habitual and heavy snorers, compared with 29.8 percent who snored in the healthy control group.  An important finding was that only a few of the stroke patients had sleep apnea.  "This is important as it shows that not only sleep apnea, but also snoring can reduce the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain, putting people at risk of strokes," the author of the study is quoted as saying.

The Italian study builds on February's report from the American Stroke Association's Conference.  Researchers reported on the connection between snoring, sleep duration and daytime sleepiness with stroke in 1,348 adults in Buffalo, New York. The snorers and sleepyheads were far more likely to have had a stroke or transient ischemic attacks.

So, do these findings suggest that even primary snorers who show no sign of sleep apnea should be fitted with CPAP machines to ensure they breathe properly at night? Obviously not, but those who snore should certainly take steps to deal with their snoring, whether through conservative means (lose weight, stay away from alcohol before you go to bed) or any of the dozens of remedies described on our web site.

Note that PutanEndtoSnoring is not written by a medical professional. I'd welcome comments and supplementary research from any physician or sleep specialist reading this.

Is this information useful to you? Send us questions or feedback.  And remember, information provided by PutanEndtoSnoring does not substitute for the advice of your physician. 

  Obstructive sleep apnea and stuttering: connected at birth? 

Interesting research in November's Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine suggests obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may result from a genetic defect that may also cause stuttering in childhood.  Researchers at the Univeristy of California in Los Angeles analyzed three-dimensional images done on the brains of 21 patients with OSA and 21 healthy control subjects.  The volume of gray matter in the brains of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) was reduced by up to 18 percent compared with normal controls. The gray matter losses occurred in brain regions that are responsible for upper airway motor function, and respiratory control. 

Until now, doctors have assumed that any brain damage in an apnea patient is caused by reduced oxygen flowing to the brain -- in other words, apnea is the root of the problem.  But this research indicates that the reverse may be true. The brain defect causes the sleeping disorder, not the other way round. 

The same defect may affect speech patterns.  In an online supplement to the article, the researchers said 38 percent of sleep apnea patients reported a history of stuttering or speech impairment.  That compares with just seven percent of the US population that stutters.

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