Can physical activity reduce the risk of obstructive sleep apnea?

A new study shows that people who are more physically active and less television have a much lower risk of obstructive sleep apnea. This is the first research that also evaluates movement activity and seated behavior in terms of sleep apnea. This disease, in which breathing stops many times during sleep and begins again, affects more and more people. The condition lowers the oxygen content in the blood, with frequent symptoms such as snoring, sleep disorders andexcessive fatigue occur.

Changes in the lifestyle against obstructive sleep apnea

The serious complications related to poorly treated sleep apnea include an increased risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, irregular heartbeat and type 2 diabetes. The researchers estimate that around 1 billion adults aged 30 to 69 suffer from light to difficult sleep apnea syndrome worldwide. In order to examine whether less movement and more sit, the study authors analyzed health data of more than 138,000 men and women. At the beginning of the study, none of the participants had clinically diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea. At the end of the follow -up of 10 to 18 years, 8733 subjects showed symptoms of the disease. After comparison analyzes, the team found that the risk was 54 % lower for those with the higher activity level. In people who are at least four hours a day, the likelihood of developing sleep apnea was 78 % higher.

However, the study results indicate that people with office jobs could reduce the risk through increased physical activity. It was also important that any additional increase in physical activity and/or reducing the seating hours could have advantages. This study complements the evidence of the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle to prevent lung diseases. Therefore, this is an important message that the research team sends into patients in clinics for basic care and ventilation. The authorsthis studyAlso found that future research could use portable health monitoring technologies to improve the accuracy of the data.