Include sleep apnea on the long list of health improvements associated with losing weight. The latest information comes courtesy of Brazilian researchers who found that cutting calories could improve sleep apnea and lower blood pressure in adults.
According to the American Heart Association Meeting Abstract 461 “Restricting calories may improve sleep apnea, blood pressure in obese people” the study included 21 obese people, aged 20 to 55, with sleep apnea. Over a 16-week period, some reduced their calorie intake by 800 calories a day while the others made no dietary changes.
“At the end of the trial, the patients who reduced their calorie intake had lost more weight, had fewer breathing pauses during sleep, had lower blood pressure and showed higher levels of oxygen in their blood,” writes Preidt. The findings were presented earlier this wee at the American Heart Association meeting on high blood pressure in San Francisco. Data and conclusions of research presented at medical meetings are typically viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
“This study suggests that in obese patients with obstructive sleep apnea, moderate energy restriction can reduce not only body fat but also the severity of obstructive sleep apnea,” study co-author Dr. Marcia Klein, adjunct professor in the department of applied nutrition at Rio de Janero State University in Brazil, said in a heart association news release. “So moderate energy restriction in these patients has the potential to reduce cardiovascular risk. Losing weight was most likely the key to all the benefits observed in the calorie-restricted group. A greater reduction in systolic blood pressure can be explained, at least partially, by the reduction in body weight that was associated with reduction in obstructive sleep apnea severity.”
Source: American Heart Association
