Sleep Apnea Promotes Cancer Growth

If you’ve ever slept next to someone who has sleep apnea, you know how annoying it can be. For them however, it’s even worse; while they might be keeping you up, their body isn’t really getting the sleep it needs, and they are at risk for high blood pressure and heart diseases. Sadly, according to a new study, that’s not all. They might also be promoting cancer growth.

At the 2016 European Association of Urology Congress, in Munich, Germany, Dr. Antoni Vilaseca from the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona in Spain suggested a possible link between worsening cancer and sleep apnea.

From the article at Collective Evolution:

“In the study, the researchers studied a group of mice with kidney tumors. Half of these mice were placed in the control group (aka: Do nothing), and the other half, the experimental group, were introduced to a reduction of oxygen to simulate intermittent hypoxia. Hypoxia basically means insufficient oxygen in the body, which is a condition people with sleep apnea would experience, because of the breathing pause due to collapsed airway. People with sleep apnea will experience intermittent hypoxia throughout the night.

The experimental group of mice was found to have an increased amount of vascular progenitor cells and endothelial cells within their kidney tumors. These cells basically promote the creation of new blood vessels in the tumours. This is problematic because, as Dr. Vilaseca notes, ‘Patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea usually suffer from intermittent hypoxia at night. This work shows that intermittent hypoxia has the potential to promote the formation of blood vessels within tumors, meaning that the tumors have access to more nutrients.’”

Do I Have Sleep Apnea?

If you suspect you have sleep apnea, you should consult your doctor and he can prescribe a sleep study. However, here are some things you can do to find out if you have the condition:

  1. Listen to your body. Do you wake up tired or find yourself tired during the day? If you don’t, then your sleep is most likely healthy; but if not, something is causing your poor rest.
  2. Ask the person you sleep next to. If you sleep with someone, they may have already told you! If you have the more common sleep apnea (obstructive), you would snore continuously for a duration, and then the noise would disappear. After 10 or 20 seconds to a minute of silence, there would be a big gasp for air, and then back to snoring. This cycle can repeat for a couple of times throughout the night. With the less common type of sleep apnea (central), one would also pause their breathing for some time before the gasp for air, but there is no snoring.
  3. Download a free sleep monitoring app on your smartphone. There are a lot of great apps which can monitor snoring at night.
  4. Talk to your doctor and do a sleep test.

If you find that you do have sleep apnea, there are some things you can do right away to help it: stop smoking and drinking- now; start exercising too, but don’t go overboard, start small- this should lead to weight loss and that’s another thing that will help; establish a regular sleep schedule, keep your bedding and bedroom cool during the night, and don’t eat 3 hours before bed. And lastly, sleep on your side and keep your mouth shut! 😉

 

Source: Collective Evolution