Can Sleep Apnea Cause Death

Many people wonder about the question - Can Sleep Apnea Cause Death? Is it true or just an urban myth? We will bring you the facts so you can be armed with the knowledge to combat sleep apnea.

Sleep Apnea is a dangerous medical condition. And like most delicate health conditions Patients their friends and family members should give full attention to this condition. Neglect or a careless attitude towards this illness could have serious effects and could even cause death. Speaking of hazards, Sleep Apnea can affect a person directly or indirectly.

There are different forms of Sleep Apnea, Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Mild or Occasional Sleep Apnea. Mild or occasional sleep can occur due to respiratory infections but [OSA] Obstructive Sleep Apnea is dangerous. As it’s name shows, during sleep the muscles of the upper neck can collapse and obstruct the flow of oxygen. This is called hypoxemia.

Some individuals especially the elderly and obese people have low muscle tone around their airway, and this causes the airway to become narrow and blocks the flow of oxygen. Research has shown that older people are more likely to have OSA than younger people and men are more likely victims of OSA than children and women.OSA comes with a list of symptoms which include but are not limited to loud snoring and unsettled sleep.

Can Sleep Apnea cause death?

The Human brain is the control center of the body. In the classic Central Sleep Apnea patient, there could be a “short-circuiting” of the brain and the respiratory center of the brain is not triggered to tell the body to start breathing again. Because of this the sleep apnea patient might not even breathe for seconds at a time.

Carbon dioxide builds up and puts pressure on the heart and it could begin to swell overtime and this might lead to a heart attack or even death. Also if the individual continues to miss breathing cycles, the percentage of oxygen flow will drop lower than the normal level (hypoxia) and carbon dioxide will build up (hypercapnia), overtime this trend will have adverse effects on the body. The Human Brain cells need oxygen to survive, and if the oxygen levels continue to go lower brain damage or death could set in eventually. In the average human this is not supposed to happen because the slightest drop in oxygen stimulates the brain to make the body resume the normal breathing cycle.

But as earlier stated this is not the case with OSA patients. Usually after such episodes of cessation of breath, breathing may become faster so the body can blow away all the carbon dioxide build up and receive more oxygen.

The effects of Sleep Apnea include weakness, depression and even suicidal thoughts. OSA can cause it’s victim to become “slow” during the day and this might cause the individual to react to events slowly. This could cause fatal accidents, fire outbreaks and CO poisoning.So to answer the question, can sleep apnea cause death?

Conclusion.

Sleep Apnea can cause death. Sure the condition can be managed and now there is a 70% rate of success for Sleep Apnea treatments. According to a medical news story as reported by ABC News, Millions of American suffer from Sleep Apnea leading to feelings of sleepiness during the day.

Researchers claim that 1400 traffic deaths each year is because of drivers suffering from Sleep Apnea. It is believed 3% of Americans suffer from it and there are 40 million undiagnosed Americans suffering from sleep apnea and about 1 in 50 or 2.00% or 5.4 million people in America have the disease and have not been diagnosed.

Provided By - Sleeping Disorders