Can apnea stop the beat?

Understanding sleep apnea and heart health

If you suffer from untreated sleep apnea, you could be causing serious damage to your heart. When you stop breathing during sleep, your involuntary reflexes cause you to startle awake, accelerating your heart rate and increasing your blood pressure. As your blood pressure rises, your heart walls thicken and become stiffer due to increased workload. These structural changes make the heart less efficient at pumping blood and more susceptible to arrhythmias. When you stop breathing more than 30 times per hour, you have increased risk of cardiovascular damage, but there is likely risk even at lower frequencies.

Take it from the sleep disorder experts

Sleep disorder specialist Harneet Walia, MD, found in her research that those with serious apnea were 4x more likely to have elevated blood pressure – even though they were taking three or more medications. All these patients either had or were at risk for cardiovascular disease, despite being under the close care of heart specialists. The study suggests that treating sleep apnea can improve blood pressure control and, in turn, patients’ heart health.

Sleep apnea and heart failure

Sleep apnea occurs in about 50% of people with heart failure or atrial fibrillation, the most common sustained abnormal heart rhythm. Sleep disorders research director Reena Mehra, MD, says that episodes of upper airway collapse in sleep apnea may trigger arrhythmia events. Other ways sleep apnea can increase risk of arrhythmias and heart failure include:

• Repeated episodes of oxygen lowering (what doctors call hypoxia)
• Changes in carbon dioxide levels
• Direct effects on the heart due to pressure changes within the chest
• Increased levels of markers of inflammation

With the high prevalence of sleep apnea in hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, and heart failure, experts recommend that you don’t delay in seeking the advice of your physician.