Snoring and High Blood Pressure – How You Can Avoid Them
Snoring is not a disease, but it is in fact an unhealthy habit. Not only is snoring disturbing, but it may also lead to more serious health conditions, and high blood pressure (hypertension) is one of them.
How can snoring have anything to do with high blood pressure?
Well, snoring, particularly heavy snoring, occurs when there is a hindrance in the breathing airway. When you are lying on your back, a disturbing sound that is caused by the tongue that is forced to the back of your throat may occur. When snoring, there are certain chemicals in your brain that are not stimulated while normally they should trigger your breathing. If there is no stimulus like that, you may stop breathing.
If you stop breathing because of snoring, what happens is that you will reduce the oxygen levels, and you will have a rush of adrenaline as well as hormones. The hormones are the ones that cause high blood pressure or hypertension, and it may even lead to heart attack. A study even revealed that women who habitually snore will have the risk of getting heart attack twice higher than those who do not.
According to a research carried out by the Semmelweis University in Budapest, those who snore loudly are 40% more prone to having high blood pressure. As an addition, they are 67% more prone to getting stroke.
Therefore, when you measure your blood pressure and it shows it is over 120/80 constantly, it means that you have hypertension and you should be cautious. High blood pressure is a silent killer, as there may be no symptoms until it is too late.
Besides hypertension, snoring can actually lead to other conditions such as depression, which may happen when you do not have a good night’s sleep because of your own snoring. This also happens because the lack of oxygen in the brain will make your body not function as usual.
To be able to stay away from snoring and its effects, you can do the following to quit snoring naturally:
1. Lose some weight – because there will be more fat in the back of the throat
2. Stop smoking & drinking – they can cause your muscles to be more relaxed than normal
3. Sleep sideways or add more pillows to prevent the tongue from falling back
Although light snoring may not be as dangerous as heavy snoring, stopping it is still a wise decision. Both you and your sleeping partner will get a good night’s sleep, and your days will be more productive as there will be no disturbance while sleeping.
Knowing the risks of snoring, you should not ignore it from now on. If you or your dearly loved ones snore, you can do the above tips on how to stop snoring naturally.