Recently, researchers at the University of Wisconsin Medical School established that sleep apnea is likely to be an important cause of hypertension. Results of their eight-year study involving more than 700 people were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers reported that even mild to moderate levels of sleep apnea produced a substantial risk of hypertension. They observed that the more severe the sleep apnea, the greater the likelihood of developing hypertension. In the study, 709 participants, all randomly selected, were monitored in an overnight stay in a special sleep laboratory at University of Wisconsin Hospital. Researchers measured the number of episodes of breathing pauses each participant had during sleep to determine the presence and severity of sleep apnea. Five to fifteen pauses per hour represented mild to moderate sleep apnea; 15 or more pauses indicated moderate to severe sleep apnea. Participant health was reassessed four years later and in some cases eight years later as well. The Wisconsin team statistically accounted for other factors related to hypertension—age, gender, weight, menopause, smoking, and alcohol use—but still found that sleep apnea played a significant and independent role in hypertension risk. - People with mild to moderate sleep apnea were twice as likely to become hypertensive.
- People with moderate to severe sleep apnea were almost three times as likely to become hypertensive.
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