DIABETES & SLEEP APNEA

Foreign. How does sleep apnea affect diabetes? The impact of sleep apnea goes far beyond leaving you just feeling tired in the morning. For people with diabetes, sleep apnea can influence your glucose levels at all times of the day. It also changes how your body responds to insulin and and play a part in diabetes complications later in life. Now, in general population, it's estimated about 6 to 17% people have sleep apnea. But among those with diabetes, the number is dramatically higher. More than half the people with type 2 diabetes experience Obstructive sleep apnea. What is sleep apnea? Sleep apnea happens when a person strikes stops breathing while they're sleeping. Now, unlike disrupted sleep, which can be caused by poor sleep hygiene or various physical or mental conditions, sleep apnea is a breathing disorder. Signs of sleep apnea include loud snoring, gasps and breathing, choking or gasping for air while sleeping or falling asleep during day. Some people fall asleep while driving. Sleep apnea leaves the body deprived of oxygen in which it disrupts how the heart functions and the blood pressure and the metabolism. And all these effects can have severe effect in people with diabetes. And the outcomes now, of the three types of sleep apnea, the central, obstructive and the complex. It's the obstructive sleep apnea that is most common in people with diabetes. With obstructive sleep apnea, the soft tissues in the back of the throat, they collapse, blocking the airway and interrupting the person's breathing. Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with obesity, but also can happen in people who are not obese. Now, why does sleep apnea happen more in people with type 2 diabetes? There's a symbiotic relationship between sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes. One seems to worsen the other and vice versa if they're left unaddressed. Therefore, it's very important for us to recognize sleep apnea and treat inappropriate patients. Sleep apnea deprives our body of oxygen and has a direct negative effect on glucose and insulin resistance that directly promotes more insulin resistance and gets in the way of control of diabetes. Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with development of type 2 diabetes in some patients. Obesity is recognized as a comorbidity of type 2 diabetes, and that comorbidity can also increase the likelihood of developing obstructive sleep apnea, the fat deposits in the neck that can impinge on the airway and in the abdominal fat that can compress on the chest wall, both constricting the breathing while laying down or sleeping. Now, how can we manage sleep Apnea in patients with diabetes, we follow a few practical guidelines and if you follow those, most of the people can feel better. Otherwise they need more aggressive treatment. If you make healthy choices, exercise regularly, keeping diabetes under control is something that is starting point. Now, if there's more that can be done, we go there. And what are those things? There are four things we do, but one is we look at sinus or any allergy problems that interfere with breathing and address those. Now, if you're overweight, then definitely work on losing weight because that is something very important in addressing sleep apnea. By reducing weight, there's less pressure on the chest cavity and less likelihood of the fat getting the way of the airway passage. Addressing both of these decrease the likelihood of a unobstructed breathing while sleeping. Now, if allergies and weight are addressed, then we have to look at cpap. CPAP is positive airway pressure. That is a special machine that is given where you have a mask which is attached to a hose to a machine that gives a positive pressure at night when you sleep and that gives you better oxygenation. Now this is something where you have to get official sleep study at a sleep lab, right? You sleep with some sensors on your head, you have a official diagnosis of sleep study and then a sleep specialist prescribes this. There's also surgical options these days. Certain centers offer that and not everybody qualifies for surgical option. Therefore, you got to work with your doctor to understand what are your risk factors if you have sleep apnea and how you can feel better to get better oxygenation to your brain. Get a diabetes control. So few takeaways. Because of the negative effects of sleep apnea, you can have abnormal glucose patterns and that needs to be addressed, particularly for people with diabetes to pay attention to the quality of sleep and if needed, get the sleep study. Now. If left unaddressed, what seems like an inconsequential snoring at night can lead to elevated A1C, high blood pressure, heart problems, etc. Thankfully, we do have tools and treatments to identify and then address sleep apnea, ultimately avoiding more serious complications. We do offer a special lifestyle program to help people lose weight, especially in our patient population with diabetes and obesity. If you're interested, let us know. We'll be happy to help you. Thank you.