Nearly a billion people worldwide suffer from sleep apnea. Now, a common drug could help.
The Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disordercharacterized by repeated interruptions in breathing during sleep. This phenomenon, often underestimated and undiagnosed, can have significant consequences on health and quality of life. Now, however, science gives us hope: a common medicine it could be very effective against sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea occurs when the upper airway becomes blocked partially or completely, temporarily preventing breathing. These episodes can last from a few seconds to several minutes and can occur many times during the night. But, as we will see shortly, the repercussions on health are then in daytime life, in everyday life, and they are also quite serious.
There are many causes and risk factors that can trigger them. Age is definitely a factor. But obesity is certainly the main element that distinguishes those who suffer from sleep apnea. Furthermore, those who are significantly overweight can often also suffer from heart problems, which are equally problematic and lead to an enormous probability of developing serious sleep apnea.
A common sleep apnea drug?
Life is not easy for those who suffer from sleep apnea, because the symptoms can be very annoying, to the point of becoming disabling. Loud and persistent snoring, breathing pauses observed during sleep, sudden awakenings with a feeling of suffocation or lack of air, fragmented and non-restorative sleep, excessive daytime sleepiness, morning headaches, difficulty concentrating and irritability. These are some of the most common symptoms.
Now, however, fortunately, a common drug could be enough to eliminate or, at least, mitigate this problem. One study suggests that tirzepatideeffective for management of type 2 diabetescould be also used for the treatment of apnoea. The study is by scientists at the University of California in San Diego, who published the results of their research in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study was conducted on 469 people and treated for 52 weeks, experiencing a marked decrease in the number of sleep apnea episodes. And the positive thing is that no particular side effects were recorded. A still embryonic study, evidently, that will require further investigation. But what gives hope to nearly a billion people who, all over the world, suffer from sleep apnea and all that it entails.
