Vidcast: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqlsBw2LUL9/

Stocky, young athletes often experience disordered sleep snd breathing patterns that could predispose them to heart attack and sudden death. Exercise scientists from Japan’s Showa University explored this situation by studying 42 male rugby players 18-19 years of age.

After formal sleep studies were completed, 43% of the players experienced significant sleep disordered breathing with snoring, dangerous pauses in their breathing, higher than normal heart rates, and lower than normal oxygen levels. Further studies of these athletes’ hearts revealed rhythm abnormalities suggesting they had potentially lethal cardiac damage already.

If you have a teen or a spouse, male or female, “sawing wood at night,” don’t ignore it. Push for a formal sleep study to determine if the noisy breathing is accompanied by dangerous oxygen level dips and heart rate abnormalities.

Yoshitaka Iso, Hitomi Kitai, Etsushi Kyuno, Fumiyoshi Tsunoda, Naoya Nishinaka, Masahiko Funato, Eiichi Nishimura, Shuichi Akihiro, Hiroyuki Tanuma, Toru Yonechi, Eiichi Geshi, Takeyuki Sambe, Hiroshi Suzuki. Prevalence and significance of sleep disordered breathing in adolescent athletes. ERJ Open Research, 2019; 5 (1): 00029-2019 DOI: 10.1183/23120541.00029-2019

#Snoring #apnea #hypoxia #sleepdisorderedbreathing #teens #athletes

Snoring And Sleep Apnea May Lead to Young Athletes’ Sudden Death: Best Of: 0319

Dr. Howard Smith Reports