The Dark Side of Sleep Apnea

We’ve long known that sleep apnea is a life-threatening disease that increases our risk of stroke, heart attack, type 2 diabetes, and numerous other deadly diseases.

A new study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research paints an even darker picture.

Sleep apnea increases our risk of dying in a terrifying way by a scary 453%.

These researchers used data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to identify 7,095 adults with sleep apnea and 28,380 controls who matched them on age, sex, and co-occurring health conditions.

The people studied were recruited between 1998 and 2010 and followed until the end of 2011 to see who would attempt suicide.

The researchers compared people with and without sleep apnea, and this is what they found.

1. People with sleep apnea were 4.53 times more likely to attempt suicide.
2. The risk was 4.82 times higher for men and 3.86 times higher for women.
3. This relationship was equally strong even when subjects with mental disorders and physical risk factors for suicide were excluded.
4. The risk for repeated suicide attempts was higher among sleep apnea patients.
5. Continuous positive airway pressure treatment did not reduce suicide risk for sleep apnea patients, possibly because they did not use it enough.

The study findings are stronger than simply linking sleep apnea with poor mental health. Not only do sleep apnea patients suffer poor mental health but also, they are much more likely to try to kill themselves, which is extremely alarming.

This is another urgent reason to tackle your sleep apnea as soon as possible. Fortunately, that can be done in as little as three minutes using the simple throat exercises explained here…