Sleep apnoea, a disorder that can leave people gasping for breath at night could be linked to the amount of fat on their tongues.
People with untreated sleep apnoea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times. This means the brain and the rest of the body may not get enough oxygen.
In a report by BBC based on a research conducted by University of Pennsylvania school under the Perelman School of Medicine, people with fatty tongues may be at risk of sleep apnoea.
“It’s not clear why – it could be genetic or environmental – but the less fat there is, the less likely the tongue is to collapse during sleep.” The study states.
Further the researchers stated when patients of the sleep disorder lose weight the tongue fat reduced resulting into improvements.
Low-fat diets were also recommended to be good at slimming down the tongue.
Sleep apnoea is a common disorder that can cause loud snoring, noisy breathing and jerky movements when asleep.
It can also cause sleepiness during the day, which can affect quality of life.
The most common type is obstructive sleep apnoea, in which the upper airway gets partly or completely blocked during sleep.
Those who are overweight or who have a large neck or tonsils are more likely to have the condition.
Sleep apnoea can be managed by trying to lose weight if you are overweight, sleeping on your side, give up smoking, avoiding too much alcohol especially before bed and one is also advised not to take sleeping pills unless recommended.
More serious sleep apnoea may need treatment from a sleep clinic. This can include using a CPAP machine, which gently pumps air into a mask over the mouth and nose during sleep, holding the airways open.
Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, scanned 67 people with obstructive sleep apnoea who were obese and had lost 10% of their body weight, improving their symptoms by 30%.
By looking at the size of patients’ upper airway structures, the research team was able to find out what changes had driven the improvements.
The patients’ weight loss also led to a reduction in the size of a jaw muscle that controls chewing and muscles on either side of the airway, which also helped.
