Can sleep apnea kill?

I was just wondering is sleep apnea deadly? Has anyone ever died from it? I'm a little new to this.

Most definitely.

Reggie White - Pro Football player comes to mind immediately. There are plenty of others

Michele1234 wrote:I was just wondering is sleep apnea deadly? Has anyone ever died from it? I'm a little new to this.

From the yellow lightbulb at the top of this page called "Our Wisdom":

our-collective-cpap-wisdom/sleep-apnea- ... enemy.html

Previously discussed in this thread:

viewtopic/t41340/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24363


Den

Michele1234 wrote:I was just wondering is sleep apnea deadly? Has anyone ever died from it? I'm a little new to this.

I don't think you can die from it. It is the problems that arise from having it that can be life threatening. It is a mean little killer that keeps taking things from you until you die.

Michele1234 wrote:I was just wondering is sleep apnea deadly? Has anyone ever died from it? I'm a little new to this.

Depends....just how long can YOU hold your breath?

RiverDave wrote:Most definitely.

Reggie White - Pro Football player comes to mind immediately. There are plenty of others

I too do not thing Sleep Apnea kills. What is causes kills. Reggie White died of congestive heart failure (two days before my sleep test). It is hard on your body not to sleep well.

Jim

Michele1234 wrote:I was just wondering is sleep apnea deadly? Has anyone ever died from it? I'm a little new to this.

Yes and Yes.

There is a CPAP machine for sale in a local forum with the following in the text: "Used 5 times over 5 months- total 96.8 minutes. I am clusterphobic and cannot use it. "

Michele1234 wrote:I was just wondering is sleep apnea deadly? Has anyone ever died from it? I'm a little new to this.

That's kind of like asking "is poison deadly?" Mild poison kills you slowly; strong poison kills you instantly. It is similar when it comes to not breathing when you're asleep.

The official cause of death might not always be given as "sleep apnea," since it sounds sort of silly to some to say someone 'died because he stopped breathing.' (That could be considered a factor in every death, since people who die generally stop breathing, as I understand it. )

I believe that the people you hear about who die suddenly in their sleep are often people with untreated or undiagnosed severe sleep apnea.

I don't think the proper question is will sleep apnea kill you. We all die, eventually. The proper question is "Will I die earlier if it isn't treated?". With that question in mind, then an emphatic YES. I personally want to stay on the sweet smelling side of the daisies for awhile longer.

Steve

When you're asleep and your airway collapses, your body starts struggling to breathe. During that struggle your heartbeat either slows down, tremendously because of the lack of oxygen or speeds up tremendously when the obsturction is over. There is also lot's of negative pressure created in you chest when you diaphragm pushes down, trying unscuccessfully to get air into your lungs. All these result in terrible strain on your heart -- and you may die of cardiac arrythmia. You won't die of suffocation - your breathing resumes, but you may die because the stuggle was too much for your heart.

The following (excellent) video by ResMed called "What is sleep disordered breathing" will help you understand what happens. It takes time to load - be patient.

http://www.resmed.com/us/multimedia/und ... 40x380.swf

More articles on the subject:

http://foocus.com/pdfs/Articles/MayJune08/Grenard.pdf
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2004/12/reg ... rdiac.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 100009.htm
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sl ... death-time
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/108013.php
http://www.healthyresources.com/sleep/a ... otect.html

docfox wrote:

RiverDave wrote:Most definitely.

Reggie White - Pro Football player comes to mind immediately. There are plenty of others

I too do not thing Sleep Apnea kills. What is causes kills. Reggie White died of congestive heart failure (two days before my sleep test). It is hard on your body not to sleep well.

Jim

That is like saying you do not think guns kill because it is really the bullet that kills or or the damage caused by the bullet or it is really the person who shot the gun that kills. Is is all just symmantics ... heart failure, stroke, diabetes, obesity, OSA, they are all correlated to some degree and they all kill individually or collectively.

DreamStalker wrote:

docfox wrote:

RiverDave wrote:Most definitely.

Reggie White - Pro Football player comes to mind immediately. There are plenty of others

I too do not thing Sleep Apnea kills. What is causes kills. Reggie White died of congestive heart failure (two days before my sleep test). It is hard on your body not to sleep well.

Jim

That is like saying you do not think guns kill because it is really the bullet that kills or or the damage caused by the bullet or it is really the person who shot the gun that kills. Is is all just symmantics ... heart failure, stroke, diabetes, obesity, OSA, they are all correlated to some degree and they all kill individually or collectively.

Final autopsy complete for Reggie White:
The final autopsy report on former NFL star Reggie White, released earlier this week, confirmed that the former defensive end died from complications from sarcoidosis. White died Dec. 26, at the age of 43, after having breathing problems in his sleep.
Dr. Michael Sullivan, of the Mecklenburg County (N.C.) Medical Examiner's Office, ruled that White died from a cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat that was caused by the complications from sarcoidosis.

Pulmonary sarcoidosis occurs eight times more often in African Americans than whites. Sarcoidosis often forms inflamed cells in vital organs.

-- http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2063708