Let’s have a case discussion
A 50 year old man was rushed to emergency department after suffering from heart attack.
On arrival his daughter informed that he has been suffering from uncontrolled diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity despite being on his medicine dosage. She also informs that he has consumed alcohol regularly, slept late and has a bad lifestyle.
Was this the reason behind his heart attack?
Not entirely
While diabetes, hypertension, obesity and poor lifestyle are well known risk factors but they don’t explain why the patient condition still deteriorate despite treatment.There was likely another underlying problem that had silently worsen his condition.
During evaluation his wife mentioned something that they had never considered important:
“That is he snores so loudly that it sounds like a tractor every night.”
That one detail changed everything
The patient obesity has caused excess tissue around his throat,allowing his airway to collapse repeatedly during sleep. Due to which his breathing stopped and restarted multiple times during night without him even realising it.
Each episode cause drop of oxygen level (hypoxia), forcing the brain to wake him enough to resume breathing. This triggered repeated surge of stress hormone like adrenaline and cortisol making his heart work much harder night after night and contributing to poor control of diabetes and blood pressure level.
This vicious cycle continued for years, eventually increasing the risk of heart attack.
Diagnostic tests: A Polysomnography (Sleep study) was advised which confirmed the diagnosis of “Obstructive Sleep Apnea”.
Patient was started on “CPAP (Continuous positive airway pressure)” therapy which keeps the airway passage open during sleep, prevents repeated oxygen drop,improves sleep quality and reduce strain on heart.
Snoring isn’t always just a nuisance.Sometimes,it’s your body alarming sign of potentially alarming condition
If someone in your family snore loudly,gasp for breathing during sleep or wakes up tired even after sleeping long hours,Will you still dismiss this as normal “Snoring”?
MBH/DB