[00:00:00] Host Amber Smith: Here's some expert advice from sleep medicine specialist Dr. Ryan Butzko from Upstate Medical University. Is it dangerous to have sleep apnea go untreated?
[00:00:13] Ryan Butzko, MD: It's a good question and something I get asked all the time. Sleep apnea can be dangerous, in the same way that you may have heard that high blood pressure is dangerous or diabetes is dangerous over a long period of time.
Sleep apnea can lead to the development of many, many other diseases, and the list is so long and involves so many other organ systems that I can't list them here, but the most dangerous ones are high blood pressure, coronary artery disease or heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and arrhythmias, which are abnormal heart rhythms. Those are the most dangerous complications of sleep apnea. They do take time to develop, but they are highly, highly associated with sleep apnea.
If you are untreated and if your doctor has told you you're in the moderate to severe range, that is the range of sleep apnea that puts you most at risk for developing these complications. And you should be treated, whether it be with CPAP, whether it be with an oral appliance, whether it be with Inspire, or even really, really trying to lose weight. Any of those things can help if you're in the mild range, your risk of developing these things is more or less the same as the general population that doesn't have sleep apnea. So it's not imperative that you need to aggressively treat it. People with mild sleep apnea, I generally only push for more aggressive treatment if they are very symptomatic with regards to their sleepiness or poor functioning during the day, or poor quality of sleep at night.
[00:01:49] Host Amber Smith: You've been listening to sleep medicine specialist, Dr. Ryan Butzko from Upstate Medical University.
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