Snoring: a new tip-off to stroke and heart disease

Do you or your bed partner snore? It turns out that what seems like an annoyance is actually an alarm bell. New research conducted by otolaryngologists at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit finds that snoring is a bigger risk factor for stroke and heart attack than smoking, being overweight, or high cholesterol. According to research by Robert Deeb, MD and Karen Yaremchuk, MD, snoring can reveal damage to the carotid arteries - the arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to the brain. The study which has been submitted to the journal The Laryngoscope, was presented at the 2013 Combined Sections Meeting of the Triological Society. The researchers looked at the carotid arteries in snorers and found increased thickening of the artery walls, indicating damage already setting in. The researchers suggested that the damage could be due to the trauma and inflammation caused by the vibrations of snoring. However, previous research on the connection between sleep apnea and artery disease has found a reverse connection - the arterial damage comes first, lowering the amount of oxygen in the blood, leading to breathing interruptions. It could be that thickening of the arteries is contributing to the snoring as well, not just the other way around. One more thing to pay attention to: the patients in the Henry Ford study were all between the ages of 18 and 50