Sleep apnea is a disease that causes a person’s breathing to repeatedly pause during sleep. The interruptions in breathing can prevent a person from sleeping well and can leave the person feeling extra tired throughout the day. This condition affects about 50 to 70 million U.S. adults, but just because this condition is common doesn’t mean it isn’t serious.

Sleep apnea can do more than just make you tired. If it is not treated, it can lead to diabetes, depression, heart disease, anxiety, Alzheimer’s and other long-term health risks. If you have respiratory issues like asthma or COPD, sleep apnea can worsen the symptoms of these conditions, which can make daily activities and proper exercise more difficult.

Sleep apnea can actually cause type 2 diabetes as well. A person with sleep apnea is more likely to develop insulin resistance. When your cells don’t take in insulin in the way they are meant to, your blood sugar level rises. Obesity is another health risk of sleep apnea. Both of these problems caused by sleep apnea can lead to type 2 diabetes.

The condition can affect your endocrine system in other ways too; it has been associated with metabolic syndrome, multiple heart disease risk factors and weight gain.

Sleep apnea can also affect your digestive system by making you more likely to have fatty liver disease, liver scarring and higher levels of liver enzymes. It can worsen heartburn and symptoms of GERD, which can interrupt your sleep even more. Sleep apnea has often been linked to obesity and high blood pressure, increasing the strain on your heart. This increases your chance of having an abnormal heart rhythm, which then increases your risk of stroke.

Your sex drive isn’t immune to the effects of sleep apnea either – the condition could even cause erectile dysfunction in men and affect your ability to have children. What’s more, central sleep apnea, which is caused by a disruption in the brain’s signals that enables you to breathe, can cause neurological symptoms like numbness in the body.

These health problems probably sound scary if you have sleep apnea or know someone with sleep apnea. Luckily, anyone with sleep apnea can and should get help. There are many ways to treat sleep apnea, but you won’t know what treatment is best for you until you are tested by a doctor. Dr. David Buck has had comprehensive training in dental sleep medicine. He and his team can work with you to manage the serious disease of sleep apnea.

Give our office a call at 425-409-2291 to schedule a consultation.