From Bad to Worse: What Happens if You Don’t Treat Sleep Apnea

If you have untreated sleep apnea, you may think that the biggest risk to your health is feeling tired and sluggish during the day. But the truth is, sleep disorders cause more than just sleepiness. They can have a variety of dangerous side effects that can have negative effects on your physical as well as your mental health. Here are several little-known dangers of neglecting to treat sleep apnea, and what you can do to prevent them.

High Blood Pressure

When you have sleep apnea, you can wake up repeatedly throughout the night, putting stress on your body. This in turn puts your hormones into overdrive, raising your blood pressure and decreasing your blood oxygen levels, often making high blood pressure even worse.

Stroke

Obstructive sleep apnea can limit the blood flow to the brain, increasing your risk of an ischemic stroke. This can occur due to a blocked blood vessel in the brain and can be worsened by a lack of oxygen due to sleep apnea.

Heart Disease

Having obstructive sleep apnea can increase your risk of having a heart attack. This can be due to lowered oxygen levels, because sleep apnea disrupts the way your body takes it in. This in turn makes it harder for your brain to control how the blood flows in your arteries and brain itself. Strokes and atrial fibrillation are also linked to OSA.

Heart Failure

Obstructive sleep apnea increases your risk of pulmonary hypertension or right-sided heart failure (RHF). This can occur when your right ventricle is too weak to pump enough blood to your lungs, causing it to build up in your veins and pushing it back into your tissues, causing swelling in your feet, legs, and ankles. It can also cause congestive heart failure.

Weight Gain

When you have excess weight, it can raise your chances of getting sleep apnea. Unfortunately, at the same time having sleep apnea can also make it harder to lose weight. Fatty deposits around your neck can contribute to breathing struggles while you are lying down. Worse yet, sleep apnea can increase the production of a hormone called ghrelin, which can make you crave sugar and carbohydrates, leading to even more weight gain.

Depression

When you are sleep deprived, you are more likely to become depressed, which could make it harder to get a good night’s sleep, creating a vicious cycle that worsens both your depression as well as your OSA symptoms.

Remember, while sleep apnea seems like its only a problem at night, it can cause myriad problems to your physical and emotional health around the clock. Don’t leave yourself vulnerable to the dangers of an untreated sleep disorder. Visit your sleep dentist and get the help you need before it causes more than just a bad night’s rest.

About Dr. Romack

Dr. Deborah A. Romack graduated from Baylor College of Dentistry, and since then has taken additional courses in general dentistry, orthodontics, temporomandibular joint disorders, and sleep dentistry, including classes on airway obstruction, snoring, Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS). To schedule an appointment for sleep apnea, at Weatherford Dental Sleep Medicine by visiting our website or calling us at 817-594-3806.