Patient/caregiver were instructed regarding complications of poorly managed obstructive sleep apnea as follows:
Risk for poor blood sugar control:
- Poorly managed sleep apnea can result in interrupted sleep pattern with multiple awakenings during the night. Lack of sleep and proper rest can lead to a stressful situation.
- Human body tries to cope up with this new stressful condition by increasing secretion of steroid hormones.
- Steroid hormones contribute to increased resistance to action of insulin, thus resulting in poor mobilization of glucose from the blood into the cells and increased blood glucose levels.
- So, poor sleep pattern in individuals with sleep apnea can result in poor blood sugar control, thus increasing an individual’s chance of turning diabetic.
- Also, poorly managed sleep apnea in diabetic individuals can lead to worsening of blood sugar control, thus necessitating frequent medication changes and/or dosage adjustments.
Compromised cardiac function:
- In individuals with poorly controlled sleep apnea, sudden drop in blood oxygen levels due to interrupted breathing pattern can lead to drop in oxygen supply to vital organs, such as, heart and brain, thus affecting their function.
- In order to prevent this outcome, as a protective response, the heart tends to overwork by increasing the heart rate and tries to maintain the blood & oxygen supply to the vital organs.
- This can result in increased blood pressure numbers and multiple episodes of interrupted breathing pattern during the night over a period of time could result in persistently elevated blood pressure numbers, leading to hypertension. Elevated blood pressure numbers add more load on the cardiac function, as the heart now has to pump blood against these elevated BP numbers.
- This overworking response of the heart can add more strain to the heart function, which is already suffering due to poor oxygen supply.
- This deterioration in heart function can result in dangerous cardiac arrhythmias, chest pain, and episodes of myocardial infarction (heart attack).
- Individuals with history of poorly functioning heart can be at increased risk for further worsening of cardiac function and presentation with these complications.
