Over the past several weeks, I have seen several patients that have told me that their snoring at night has markedly decreased as they have lost weight. Snoring is an obvious annoyance to the person you share a bed with, but medically, this could be a sign of a potentially dangerous disease. i.e. sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea patients experience many episodes of oxygen desaturation at nighttime which can lead to serious heart disease and/or cardiac dysrhythmias. The patients will also experience significant daytime somnulence. For the patient that complains of snoring and daytime fatigue, a physician will order a sleep stuyd that demonstrates the oxygen desaturation that occurs, confirming the diagnosis of sleep apnea. A continuous positive airway pressure machine ("CPAP") is then prescribed.
Excessive soft tissue around the neck can cause this obstructive sleep apnea and weight loss can greatly improve the situation. Yet another great reason to lose weight!
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