New Sleep Apnea Risk Factor Is Probably A Condition You Haven’t Heard Of

Smoking, obesity, being male, being older, and/or having upper airway abnormalities all put you in a much higher risk category for sleep apnea; but this is no secret – scientists have known this for quite some time.

But new research, recently published in the journal Frontiers Medicine has added a new cause to the list, and it’s definitely not one that would ever come to mind when thinking about sleep apnea.

Fortunately, you can eliminate this cause, killing two birds with one stone.

Ankylosing spondylitis can now be added to the list (try saying that quickly).

This type of arthritis in the joints causes your spine to become inflamed.

There are huge differences between ankylosing spondylitis and sleep apnea, but researchers continue to dig deeper, as previous studies found a relationship between autoimmune diseases that involve a harmful overreaction of the immune system (like rheumatoid arthritis) and sleep apnea. Spondylitis is another such autoimmune condition.

The research team collected information from about 2,210 people that had been newly diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Research Datasets and compared them to 8,840 healthy people.

They then looked for people who had been newly diagnosed with sleep apnea and then compared the spondylitis and sleep apnea records with each other.

People with newly diagnosed spondylitis were 2.8 times more likely to also be diagnosed with new sleep apnea than the healthy controls were.

During the first 24 months after the initial spondylitis diagnosis the risk was 7.9 times as high; it then dropped to 1.8 times after 24 months.

Men with spondylitis were 4.5 times more likely to develop sleep apnea compared to women, who were 2.7 times more likely to develop it.

The risk was the highest in the 48-59 year old age group and for people with asthma, esophageal disease and hepatitis B.

Ankylosing spondylitis, like other autoimmune conditions, is a risk factor for sleep apnea, so you must keep this in mind if you are ever diagnosed with it.

The good news is you can cure your sleep apnea with these simple exercises that take just 3 minutes a day…

AND if you want to eliminate your arthritis, this how it’s done in just 21 days…