It is estimated that almost 12 million people in the United States suffer with sleep apnea . Almost half of them have one other thing in common: they are over weight. Due to these findings researchers could not help but link the sleep disorder with obesity or an excessive weight problem. This makes the condition bigger risk factor for any person to develop or suffer from sleep apnea. An Overview When you suffer from sleep apnea, the airways become blocked while the person is sleeping. This causes the breathing to pause, this can happen anywhere from 5 to 30 times in just an hour. The pausing of breath hardly ever leads to sudden death, but this sleep disorder could lead to other health problems. When there is a lack of oxygen, the body would send out stress hormones that could change the amount of sleep of make the body tired the next day. It may also be that untreated sleep apnea may lead to heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, and an irregular heartbeat. Diagnosis and Risk Factors For sleep apnea to be treated you need a correct diagnosis. Without a diagnosis a regular person could not tell if they were suffering from sleep apnea. Most often it is the roommate or partner who relays the information about the sleep apnea to the diagnosing doctor. This is usually because sleep apnea may come with a loud sound that may be alarming and disturbing to some people. With every disorder there are certain risk factors that come with it. As earlier said, excessive weight can be a risk of sleep apnea. Studies have also found that sleep apnea occurs more in men then women. They have also found that the issue gets more common as you age. Women are more common to develop sleep apnea after they go through menopause. The disorder is also hereditary, which means if anyone in your immediate family has a history of sleep apnea, they are at a higher risk to develop sleep apnea. People who have smaller airways within their throats, nose, or mouth are also at higher risk to develop sleep apnea.

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