Sleep Apnea Less Known High-Risk Factor For Heart Attack

Thursday is World Heart Day, serving as a good reminder that most heart-related can be prevented.

In a seminar on heart health, Cookeville Regional Medical Center Cardiologist Dr. Stacy Brewington said one high-risk factor for heart attacks is the treatable condition of sleep apnea. However, he said that the general population might be unaware of this fact.

“Probably because the science behind that is younger than the science behind other traditional risk factors,” Brewington said. “Preventing heart attacks is something that’s been on everyone’s minds for probably 50 years now, and a lot of things have come and a lot of things go.”

Brewington said things like Fish Oil and Vitamin E used to be prescribed for cardiovascular health, but the science doesn’t support them having major impacts. He said it wasn’t until the last 15 years or so that good sleep apnea trials were created and conducted

Brewington said when the treatments from CPAP machines and surgical nSpire breathing aids became more popular, it also raised awareness.

“Most people know smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol increase your risk of heart attack,” Brewington said. “But not evyerone gets that message that treating sleep apnea lowers the risk of stroke, lowers the risk of heart attack, and lowers the risk of heart failure, and here comes the big one: it lowers the risk of dementia.”

“So people who have untreated obstructed sleep apnea, their oxygen drops when they sleep or they stop breathing, they say they feel fine and that they’re breathing fine, but they could put themselves at risk five, 10 years down the road for a cardiovascular or neurological complication.”

Brewington said it’s like high blood pressure: you don’t know that you have it until you check for it.