Don’t lose sleep over obesity, cardiac woes

 

Don’t lose sleep over obesity, cardiac woes
Subhayan Dutta letters@hindustantimes.com
Hindustan Times (Kolkata)
Sep 10 2015

Obesity is the start of many health problems in our lives like high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiac problems. One of these that doctors say is quite frequent, but largely ignored because of its slow impact, is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). OSA occurs when there are repeated instances of complete or partial blockage of the upper airway while sleeping. During this, the diaphragm and chest muscles work harder to open the obstructed airway and pull air into lungs. Breathing resumes with a loud gasp, snort or jerk of the person’s body. These usually interfere with sound sleep and in some cases reduce oxygen flow to vital organs, causing irregular heart palpitations.