Sunday, June 28, 2009

Snoring and Sleep Apnea May have Killed Football Player


Sleep apnea is a very serious condition that is not always treated as such, sometimes with disastrous results. A sign of sleep apnea is snoring, since to snore is a reaction to the constriction of nasal airways and constrictions in the throat. Sadly, this sign, which should lead others to notice a problem, is often ignored. The conclusion, or more often the complaint, that my partner snores is often the only statement made before it is forgotten. Unfortunately, sleep apnea can kill; as it did December 29, 2004, just seven days after his forty third birthday, when national football hero Reggie White sadly passed away. Final results showed that, at least in part, his death was caused by the sleep disorder called sleep apnea.

Sleep can be very dangerous for people with sleep apnea. It’s caused by a relaxing of the muscles in the air passageways, which can make for episodes of breathing interruptions. Breathing is often restarted by a loud rumbling snore. These non-breathing events can last for anywhere from ten to thirty seconds. The scary part is that someone can stop breathing as many as one hundred times in an average night.

Recent studies on athletes are coming up with some startling results. In professional football’s push for “bigger is better” players more football players are obese now than ever before.  There are concerns that with nearly four hundred players weighing over three hundred pounds they are setting a dangerous precedent. Based on the large necks of these men they are destined to have problems. The windpipe will start to get closed off as the larger tongue drops back during sleep. The uvula will block the airway and as the swollen tissues block the throat the athlete will have further difficulties with snoring and potentially develop serious life threatening sleep disorders.  Surprisingly, studies have shown that fourteen percent of all professional football players suffer from sleep apnea. While up to thirty four percent of offensive and defensive linemen, Reggie White was one of these, are likely to be sufferers. When looking for signs and symptoms, loud snoring and daytime sleeping are the prime signals. Though it can be predicted pretty accurately by using a body mass index and checking neck size.

It’s a difficult thing to be told that what you do for a living, and make incredibly good money at, may kill you. But for many of these athletes that is exactly what the studies are showing.  Despite their claims that after their careers are over they’ll lose the excessive weight too many have found that impossible after years of working hard to put it on. Are the coaches pushing these athletes to get bigger and stay bigger, the answer is absolutely. The average weight of a player has increased by ten percent since 1985. This higher weight not only risks more complicated injuries, it risks life threatening sleep disorders. The first sign of which is snoring. Let’s hope that next time the signs are recognized.


POPULAR CURE SNORING ARTICLES



Kindly Help us spread awareness about snoring and its hazards by placing our link Cure Snoring Now on your site or informing people about this site



Wishing you Good Health all your Life



0 Comments:

blogger templates | Make Money Online