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Gastric Sleeve can improve sleep apnea in 2022? Let’s Find Out

December 6, 2022

Gastric Sleeve can improve sleep apnea? Let’s Find Out

Obesity can cause different problems in each person. One of the most common is sleep apnea which can be improved with bariatric surgery. Let’s find out how!

Sleep apnea is considered a condition that derives from being overweight. It is a consequence that makes night rest much more complicated for people since they cannot breathe continuously while they sleep. People feel like they are drowning and often experience daytime sleepiness.

One of the manifestations that they present the most is night snoring and can even have sudden interruptions of breathing and even gasping. Today we will help you learn much more about sleep apnea and how the Gastric Sleeve can improve this situation.

What does Sleep Apnea mean for obese patients?

It means torment since they cannot sleep peacefully and they cannot experience tranquility during the day since they are tormented and in a bad mood because of how they spend the night.

Sleep apnea, known in the literature as OSA, is considered to be a disease characterized by decreased breathing due to an obstruction in the flow of air to the lungs that occurs when they are asleep. Patients can stop breathing for up to 10 seconds and wake up desperate for oxygen.

After this episode of apnea, the person usually enters a light and alert sleep that ends up becoming insomnia since they will always be aware of whether or not another apnea attack will come.

What do you have to do with obesity?

It happens that the fat around the tongue and the soft tissues of the pharynx are responsible for the air flow to the trachea decreasing. When sleeping, the patient decreases their nasopharyngeal muscle tone, thus obstructing the airways.

It is said that the main cause of sleep apnea is obesity itself. Even so, there are other factors that are capable of increasing the probability of suffering from it. The people most likely to suffer from it are obese men and those over 50 years of age who have a neck with a circumference greater than 40cm.

Patients suffering from hypothyroidism, adenoid hypertrophy and even tonsillar hypertrophy may also experience sleep apnea. Craniofacial anomalies, smoking habits and alcohol consumption are factors that contribute to early sleep apnea.

Bariatric Surgery and Sleep Apnea

The most effective treatment to eliminate sleep apnea is weight loss. If you really want to relieve your sleep apnea you have to commit to weight loss and one of the ways people do this is with bariatric surgery.

Achieving a weight loss of between 10 and 20% causes the body to reduce the apnea-hypopnea index by 26%. The best way to achieve this is with bariatric surgery. It has been shown to be the most effective method for weight loss in those patients whose diet and exercise methods are no longer working as their obesity is extreme.

Studies published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) confirm that there is evidence on how bariatric surgery cures obstructive sleep apnea in those who have been morbidly obese. The reports comment that 85% of the patients who underwent the gastric sleeve, together with modifications in their lifestyle and nutrition, left sleep apnea behind.

Bariatric surgery not only has benefits regarding the elimination of sleep apnea but also helps with cardiovascular, joint and even mental problems.

How does bariatric surgery help eliminate sleep apnea?

It does this by reducing weight.

Bariatric surgery seeks to help its patients lose weight considerably so that they can have a better quality of life and thus feel much better about themselves. When it comes to bariatric surgery improving people’s health, one of the ways it does so is by reducing fat in the throat and neck so sleep apnea disappears as suddenly as it appeared.

It is also important to know that the gastric sleeve is capable of helping with many other problems apart from sleep apnea specifically. For example, by improving mental health, people can sleep more peacefully and put aside the anxious component that had developed.

Although, surgery does not work immediately to eliminate sleep apnea. This is something that many patients should be clear about so that they understand that the benefits come after at least 2 months. Sleep apnea begins to fade after at least 2 or 3 months when it “completely” fades. This can vary from patient to patient.

Consequences of Sleep Apnea

This pathology causes people to experience different episodes that are uncomfortable for their health and sleep at night or at any time of the day. For example, sleep apnea causes breathing to be absent at various times so the oxygen levels in the blood drop considerably.

This leads to hypoxia and must be resolved quickly as it can create arrhythmias (characteristic in obesity), pulmonary hypertension and even high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood so that sleep decreases much more. Patients may even experience minimal strokes until they progress to a fulminant one.

What other treatments exist?

Other treatments that exist are based on different techniques. A common one is the use of the CPAP machine that makes use of a nasal mask to help prevent the pressure from collapsing the airway and the patient can continue breathing.

If there is any damage to the airway then a surgical solution should be considered to remove the tonsils or other damaged structures. Even so, the most recommended is bariatric surgery since it is the most effective procedure in the long term and it is also definitive.

sleep apnea can become a real problem if not treated quickly. Therefore, if you are considering having a gastric sleeve, this may be a good time.

The gastric sleeve has changed the lives of many people and has made sleep apnea a thing of the past for all of its patients. For this reason, we recommend that you seek advice from a doctor who will allow you to know in depth everything you need to completely decide to have surgery such as gastric sleeve surgery.



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