A snoring man. Photo credit: Jordon http://flic.kr/p/8pZ8
The background
Snoring can raise cancer risk five-fold. That’s according to recently released epidemiologic evidence which has found that snoring and other types of ‘sleep disordered breathing’ (SDB) can deprive the body of enough oxygen for hours at a time. This is a risk to health as, according to the scientists, having low blood oxygen levels can trigger the development of cancerous tumours, by promoting the growth of the vessels that feed them.
The US researchers used data from a 22-year-long sleep study involving 1,522 subjects and found that those with severe SDB were 4.8 times more likely to develop cancer than those who had no such problems. Those with moderate SDB were at double the risk, while those with only a slight problem had a 10 per cent increased chance, according to the group, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The results were presented on Sunday at the annual conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Francisco. They will be published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
The researchers found that the more severe a person’s breathing problems at night, the greater the likelihood of dying from cancer.
Another alarmist health scare? Fraid not
“This is really big news,” Dr. Joseph Golish, a professor of sleep medicine with the MetroHealth System in Cleveland who was not involved in the research, told The New York Times Well blog. “It’s the first time this has been shown, and it looks like a very solid association,” he said. The blog noted that researchers ruled out the possibility that the usual risk factors for cancer, like age, smoking, alcohol use, physical activity and weight, could have played a role. “The association between cancer and disordered breathing at night remained even after they adjusted these and other variables,” said the blog.
Sleep apnea’s impact on health
Sleep apnea, the most common type of sleep disordered breathing problem, is already known to be associated with other health problems including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes, reported The Telegraph. The new research marks the first time that sleep apnea has been linked to cancer in humans.
Great, another thing to worry about at night!
“Snoring is disturbing for any number of reasons, not least of which is that it makes you very hard to sleep next to,” said Jezebel, which said the new findings “obviously suggests the value, which was already pretty well-established, of getting treated for sleep apnea and other sleep breathing problems. But in the meantime, this will give us all something to worry about as we try to fall asleep while attempting to will our bodies to maintain an open airway at all times during the night.”
Searching for the silver lining
Dr Javier Nieto, who led the study, said “the diagnosis and treatment of SDB in patients with cancer might be indicated to prolong survival,” reported The Telegraph. Other scientists quoted in the The New York Times Well blog speculated that treatments for sleep apnea like continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, which keeps the airways open at night, might reduce the association.
