Sleep apnea is on the rise because the most frequent cause is obesity – which continues its unrelenting climb among American adults

Diagnosis: Obstructive sleep apnea, an increasingly common yet often missed or untreated condition that can result in poor quality of life, a risk of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even cancer, and perhaps most important of all, a threefold increased risk of often-fatal motor vehicle accidents.

Did You Know…

Obstructive sleep apnea afflicts about 9 percent of women and 24 percent of men, most of them middle-aged or older, yet as many as 9 in 10 adults with this treatable condition remain undiagnosed, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

The condition is on the rise because the most frequent cause is obesity, which continues its unrelenting climb among American adults. “Sleep apnea afflicts more than two people in five who have a body mass index of more than 30, and three in five adults with metabolic syndrome”, Dr. Sigrid C. Veasey and Dr. Ilene M. Rosen wrote in The New England Journal of Medicine in April.

Although sleep apnea occasionally affects slender folks who may, for example, have a small jaw or large tongue, in overweight people, excess fatty tissue in the tongue and throat can block the airway when throat muscles relax during sleep.

To learn more about how the Las Vegas Sleep Center can help, please contact our office today.