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Study supports link between sleep apnea, high blood pressure |
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April 13, 2000
CHICAGO, APR 12 (AP) - The breathing disorder known as sleep apnea may raise the risk of high blood pressure, researchers say.
Sleep apnea is characterized by brief pauses in breathing during sleep and is usually accompanied by loud snoring. The disorder is more common in people who are obese.
In a study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers measured breathing pauses and blood pressure in 6,132 men and women 40 and older.
Those with moderate to severe apnea - more than 30 breathing pauses per hour - were more than twice as likely to have high blood pressure as those without apnea. The risk increased with the severity of the apnea, regardless of weight, age or sex.
More research is needed to confirm that apnea can cause high blood pressure, but the link makes sense, said Dr. Javier Nieto, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins University School Public Health who led the study.
Continuous breathing lapses could force the nervous system and other bodily systems to work harder, ultimately creating high blood pressure, Nieto said. Previous research also suggested such a link, but this study was the largest to date, Nieto said.
Dr. Claude Lenfant, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the study, called the findings extremely important, since high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, the No. 1 cause of death in the United States.
But Dr. Clifford W. Zwillich of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver said that treating apnea would not necessarily be more effective than using medication to lower blood pressure.
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