Sleep and cardiac health; a strong connection
Sleep apnea is a major problem in many countries such as the US due to obesity and excessive use of alcohol and drugs. There is a strong link between sleep and cardiac health with obstructive sleep apnea causing oxygen starvation that reduces the nitrogen absorption in the cardiovascular system. This is a major challenge to a persons’ health as it hardens the interior wall linings of the cardiovascular system. This inhibits expansion and contraction needed to regulate blood pressure and act as a barrier to limit infections spreading to more remote locations of the body; making elimination of pathogens by the autoimmune system much more difficult. This ability to act as a barrier has never been needed more than with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Cardiovascular hardening causes proteins and blood cells in the blood to aggregate in blood vessels, when they get large enough, they typically break away and travel to the brain or heart and either cause a stroke or heart attack due to the blockage of key blood vessels. However, a healthy cardiovascular system can help remove these aggregates before an obstruction occurs. By ensuring a person gets enough oxygen during the night through stopping sleep apnea occurring, many cardiovascular issues can be avoided.
A sleep and cardiac health assessment could be a highly useful and part of a routine assessment conducted by people in their own home thanks to compact testing devices being available. Some also link to cloud-based software that not only allows a user to assess their sleep of their own home but also create an auto generated report and share it with their general practitioner. This makes it highly possible to monitor and treat sleep apnea from anywhere in the world, whether a patient is at home, traveling for work or on holiday; giving the user a greater quality of life during treatment.
It is likely that countries such as the US along with the support of insurance companies may want constant access to such records and automatically change fees and taxation accordingly. Such systems have been used in Japan now for many years to deal with obesity successfully. Annual medicals determining taxation due to the higher probability of healthcare needed accordingly.
The cardiovascular system
If the cardiovascular system cannot dilate or contract not only does protein and blood platelets build up and cause a blockage it may also cause high blood pressure, putting the heart under strain, causing a heart attack. While sleep apnea in itself may only be fatal due to tiredness cardiovascular issues may be much more serious in the short to mid-term with a greater probability of needing invasive surgery over time.
Summary
Fundamentally, it is the ability to dilate the blood vessels in a cardiovascular system that is key to a healthy body with sleep apnea and cardiac health having a strong connection. Oxygen levels must be maintained during respiration to enable the body to produce nitric oxide where it is needed before it is metabolized by the body. It is this lack of nitrogen that causes the cardiovascular hardening issue. By diagnosing sleep apnea and the low oxygen levels associated with the disorder you can help identify cardiac challenges such as those mentioned above and treat them early before invasive surgery or expensive treatments are required. Sleep apnea and cardiac health are strongly connected and by knowing about one makes it easier to identify the other along with treating and monitoring both issues more effectively with handy home sleep apnea devices helping with this. These devices for diagnosing sleep apnea will likely be used in every household once better awareness is achieved along with associated cardiovascular issues.
