Snoring Matters: Here’s What You Can Do

Snoring is no laughing matter. Although it has long been a staple of sitcom gags and standup routines, the truth is that an obstructed airway during sleep is a serious medical condition— one which can portend truly dangerous risks.

CNN recently covered this issue in an article which includes this succinct summation of what snorers are up against:

Between 5% and 15% of middle-aged adults probably suffer from sleep apnea, Grandner says, although it often goes undiagnosed and untreated. And that’s bad news, since studies have shown strong associations between sleep apnea and high-blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart attacks and other cardiovascular conditions.

Although snoring can have many root causes, from obesity to alcohol, there remains a subset of chronic snorers whose main issue is anatomical. Enlarged turbinates, a deviated septum, even nasal polyps can contribute to the breathing issues which give rise to snoring—and its more serious cousin, obstructive sleep apnea.

And sleep apnea can be fatal:

Fluctuating oxygen levels throughout the night causes stress and oxidative damage to cells within your body. They also force the brain to be on high-alert all night and to deliver a shot of adrenaline to the heart every time an apnea occurs, when the body and brain are ideally supposed to be resting and recovering.

“It’s much more of a cardiovascular problem than a respiratory one,” he says. “People with untreated sleep apnea tend to develop these conditions years before they normally would.”

To learn more about essential surgical interventions such as turbinate reduction surgery, nasal polyp surgery, and septoplasty, contact the sleep apnea experts at the Los Angeles Sinus Institute today.