Sleeplessness and heart disease

[Claire]

Merry Christmas to all, and may ye sleep well over the holidays.

As I was cruising around the Internet this snowy but bright morning, I found the following article in the New York Times. Not the most cheerful news for the holiday, but info we need to know about.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/healt ... ep.html?em

[packitin]

For some strange reason, though, if one survives beyond their 50's, there seems to be conflicting studies.

http://www.medindia.net/news/Sleep-Apne ... 2581-1.htm

I don't know, perhaps when one is as old as I (age 70), and after fighting off numerous conditions (flues, pneumonia, encyphalitis, gerd, irritable bowel syn.prostrate trouble, etc), I've learned to fight back. So far, none of them has been life-threatening, and sleep apnea is just one in a series of other maladies.

Or maybe, with all we hear about the negative side of OSA, maybe I'm just holding on too hard to something positive. Can't say for sure.

But, I've learned to try to keep as positive outlook as I can.

Jay

[Julie]

Wow, I'd sure like to know more about the study population, i.e. if they were also excluded for having other known risk factors like diabetes, smoking, even GERD (not exactly a risk, but a definite problem in OSA pts.).

[eutychus]

Six years ago, when I was 30, I had 2 stents places in my LAD artery after it was discovered to be 95% blocked. At the time, I had no risk factors and was a fairly healthy man. Eleven years ago, when I was 25, I had my gall bladder removed. Again, at the time, I was a fairly healthy man. I've always been someone who seems to do alright on about 5 hours of sleep a night - or so I thought. I have no idea how long I've had OSA, but I'm beginning to think it's been a long time, and that my 5 hours a night was really something a lot less. And I'm wondering how much all that has contributed to a failed gall bladder and blocked artery, all before age 31?