How Sleep Apnoea Affects Your Microvascular System

“Laugh and the world laughs with you but snore and you sleep alone,” wrote novelist and critic Anthony Burgess.

It’s an apt comment on sleep apnoea. While not all people with sleep apnoea snore, many do. And sleep apnoea has a range of other negative effects on your body, including your microvascular system.

Let’s take a closer look at what all that means.

What Is Sleep Apnoea?

Sleep apnoea is a disorder where your breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep. You may be completely unaware this is happening but you probably will notice that you’re more tired than you should be after a supposedly full night’s sleep. What’s going on?

Well, while you’re sleeping, the muscles at the back of your throat are relaxing too much and obstructing your airway. This can reduce or even stop your breathing for a brief time, lowering the oxygen in your blood and causing a build-up of carbon dioxide. Your body responds by briefly interrupting your sleep (known as an arousal) to kick-start normal breathing again. You may wake up gasping or choking or you may not notice. That cycle can happen many, many times per night. No wonder you feel tired!

Is Sleep Apnoea A Big Issue?

So you’re a bit tired and your partner complains about your snoring. Is it really a big deal?

Yes, it is. Though people tend to downplay sleep apnoea, it causes stress on your body and can have serious consequences. People with moderate to severe untreated sleep apnoea are at increased risk of:

• Depression
• Car accidents or workplace accidents
• Relationship stress
• Daytime sleepiness and fatigue
• High blood pressure
• Heart attack
• Stroke
• Diabetes.

The first few items on that list have a clear relationship to tiredness. But what about the last few items? How does poor sleep increase your risk of heart attack, stroke or diabetes? It’s because of sleep apnoea’s effect on your microvascular system.

What Is Your Microvascular System?

Your vascular or circulatory system is made up of all the vessels (arteries, veins and capillaries) that carry blood and lymph through your body.

The microvascular system is a branching network of tiny vessels that transport and exchange many vital components between blood and the body’s tissues. That includes heat, gases, nutrients, waste products, water and hormones. It plays a key role in your immune system, blood pressure regulation and the flow of blood to (and within) your body’s tissues and organs.

How Does Sleep Apnoea Affect Your Microvascular System?

A 2011 study found that obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) affected the lining of small blood vessels due to increased oxidative stress (an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants). Many other studies, before and since, have demonstrated that obstructive sleep apnoea has a range of negative effects including increased oxidative and nitrosative stress, increased inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction in both humans and rodents.

Other researchers looked more closely at the impact of sleep disorders on microvascular complications in patients with type 2 diabetes. This is an interesting group because people with type 2 diabetes are already at risk of microvascular complications affecting their feet, kidneys, eyes and nervous system.

Cross-sectional studies have shown that diabetes-related chronic kidney disease, peripheral neuropathy and sight-threatening retinopathy are more common in patients with OSA and type 2 diabetes compared to those with type 2 diabetes alone despite adjustment for a wide range of variables.

What Should You Do If You Think You Have Sleep Apnoea?

If you (or your family) are concerned that you might have sleep apnoea, then we encourage you to take action to protect your health. The first step is to see your GP.

Sleep apnoea is often successfully treated by the use of a CPAP machine which delivers continuous air pressure through a mask while you sleep. This keeps your airways open, ensuring that you gain refreshing sleep and relieve the stress on your body.

Lifestyle changes can also help in the management of sleep apnoea. Your doctor may recommend quitting smoking or treating allergies that irritate your nasal passages.

If you’re overweight or obese, one of the best things you can do is lose weight. Weight loss improves your airflow by reducing fatty deposits in the neck and tongue. It also reduces abdominal fat which improves your lung function and makes your airway less likely to collapse during sleep. Losing 10-15% of your weight can significantly reduce the severity of obstructive sleep apnoea.

How Can Dr Phil Lockie Help?

Losing weight is not easy. If you’re overweight or obese, you’ve probably tried to lose weight many, many times already. You already know that your weight is damaging your health and well-being but you don’t know how to change it successfully.

That’s where we can help. We believe that behavioural, dietary, psychological, physical and medical considerations all play a role in long-term weight loss so we offer a multidisciplinary approach to weight loss.

Weight loss surgery can make a significant and long-lasting difference to people struggling with obesity and may help to reduce the rate of diabetes, heart attack and stroke.

If you’d like to learn more about how Dr Lockie could help you, please book your free consultation with Shirley Lockie, SCOPE Certified PNSA today.

Disclaimer

All information is general and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Dr Phil Lockie can consult with you to confirm if a particular treatment is right for you.

Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks. A second opinion may help you decide if a particular treatment is right for you.