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Recently, researchers did a study involving obese participants. According to their findings analyzed from the participants who were taken through a lifestyle intervention program, people who don’t get assistance for sleep apnea condition can see their condition progressing to a more severe ailment, unlike those who get help for a similar condition.

Symptoms of sleep apnea

One of the symptoms of sleep apnea is that the patient tends to stop breathing momentarily after the collapse of their airways. Also, the same airways can even be blocked when the person is sleeping, which can be very disastrous. Sleep apnea has been found to be more common among middle- aged, heavy adults. As such, overweight and obese persons are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea. When the condition advances, it is come in different cardiovascular problems, which can be deadly.

According to Dr. Henri Tuomilhto who led the study team in Finland at Oivauni Sleep Clinic, progressing from a less serious sleep apnea condition to a severe disease will only take just some few years. In most cases, this progress is caused by weight gain. According to the results obtained, advancing of sleep apnea can possibly be tamed through lifestyle change. However, Dr. Henri informed Reuters Health the worst thing is that people do not seem to care on how they can prevent the condition from progressing.

During the research, the team randomly provided 81 overweight and obese adults suffering from mild sleep apnea with one year aided intervention on their lifestyle. This started by assigning them a meal plan with very low calories and also included exercise and diet counseling and compared the group to another that was only provided with just a few information sessions on physical activity and diet.

The findings of the results and conclusion

The initial results of the study revealed that the invention came with some health benefits. However, Dr. Henri was keen to add that it was not clear on whether the good effectives were going to persist even after the end of the program. To ascertain this, a new analysis was undertaken where the team continued to monitor 57 participants from the original group of 81 participants for a period of four years after the completion of the project. The researchers noted that participants in the diet and exercise group were quite successful in dropping some weight. To be more precise, they weighed 12 pounds less than they were five years before on average and participants in the other group were at least a pound heavier on average.

As such, it was certain that sleep apnea could be contained successfully with exercise and diet as they promote weight reduction. Obesity has been noted as the main risk factor which can lead to sleep apnea and advancement of the condition to a more life threatening condition. As such, the researchers concluded that reducing weight is one way to treat sleep apnea effectively.