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Overweight People with Sleep Apnea Must Lose Weight to Escape Heart Diseases: Study

By | Jun 12, 2014 04:21 AM EDT
Overweight People with Sleep Apnea Must Lose Weight to Escape Heart Diseases (Photo : Flickr)

Shedding extra pounds minimizes the risk of heart disease in obese people with sleep apnea, according to a study.

It is known that obesity and obstructive sleep apnea exist side-by-side triggering the risk of cardiovascular diseases like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, insulin resistance and inflammation. Experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania suggest sleep apnea patients should focus on losing weight to improve their heart health.

For the trial, nearly 181 obese individuals having moderate to severe sleep apnea and high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker of heart diseases, were studied for almost 24 weeks. The participants  either followed weight reduction therapy or received continuous positive airway pressure treatment (CPAP) or a combination of both treatments. The researchers also recorded the changes in CRP levels, inflammation, insulin resistance, blood pressure and dyslipidemia to measure the efficacy of each treatment in lowering sleep apnea and obesity related- heart problems.

It was observed that participants in the weight loss group had significant reduction in all three markers of heart diseases. But patients under CPAP treatment experienced no changes in the CRP levels, insulin sensitivity or dyslipdemia.  The blood pressure levels were particularly reduced in subjects who were assigned the weight loss program and CPAP therapy. In addition, the study found the combination of the two therapies more effective in controlling blood pressure than doing either therapy alone.

"These data argue against an independent causal relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and these cardiovascular risk factors in this population and suggest that CPAP is not an effective therapy to reduce the burden of these particular risk factors," said Julio Chirinos, study author and assistant professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in a news release.

"These findings also indicate that weight loss therapy should be a central component of strategies to improve the cardiovascular risk factor profile of obese patients with OSA."

The authors say there is a need for developing more cost-effective weight reduction. The research was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. More information is available online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

© MD News Daily.

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