Heart Failure is defined as a condition in which the heart can't pump enough blood throughout the body. Heart failure does not mean that your heart has stopped or is about to stop working. It means that your heart is not able to pump blood the way it should.
The weakening of the heart's pumping ability causes
• Blood and fluid to back up into the lungs
• The buildup of fluid in the feet, ankles and legs - called edema
• Tiredness and shortness of breath
The leading causes of heart failure are coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Heart failure is a serious condition. About 5 million people in the U.S. have heart failure. It contributes to 300,000 deaths each year.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a condition which occurs during sleeping hours.Sleep apnea is a common disorder that can be serious. In sleep apnea, your breathing stops or gets very shallow. Each pause in breathing typically lasts 10 to 20 seconds or more. These pauses can occur 20 to 30 times or more an hour.
The most common type is obstructive sleep apnea. That means you are unable to get enough air through your mouth and nose into your lungs. Central sleep apnea (CSA) is caused by irregularities in the brain’s normal signals to breathe. Most people with sleep apnea will have a combination of both types. When a person has sleep apnea, the amount of oxygen in their blood drops. Normal breaths resume with a snort or choking sound. People with sleep apnea often snore loudly. However, not everyone who snores has sleep apnea.
Untreated, sleep apnea can be life threatening. Excessive daytime sleepiness can cause people to fall asleep at inappropriate times, such as while driving. Sleep apnea also appears to put individuals at risk for stroke and transient ischemic attacks (TIAs, also known as “mini-strokes”), and is associated with coronary heart disease, heart failure, irregular heartbeat, heart attack, and high blood pressure.
A person, who has both heart failure and obstructive sleep apnea, doubles their risk for dying. A person, who has both heart failure and central sleep apnea, also doubles their risk for dying. Example, in one study people who had heart failure alone lived for 90 months; however, those with heart failure and CSA lived for only 45 months.
Now add another vicious collaborator: low diastolic blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your arteries. Each time your heart beats, it pumps out blood into the arteries. Your blood pressure is highest when your heart beats, pumping the blood. This is called systolic pressure. When your heart is at rest, between beats, your blood pressure falls. This is the diastolic pressure. Your blood pressure reading uses these two numbers. Both are important. Usually they're written one above or before the other, such as 120/80.
A low diastolic blood pressure would be 60 or below..
Initially, one might guess that the risk for dying now triples. However, this is not true. The risk for dying ‘more’ than triples, because the symptoms act exponentially to decrease one’s life line.
What all of this suggests is that practitioners and consumers need to be aware of the results, and if they have heart failure, request a sleep apnea test. A person’s life may depend on treatment being started immediately, if diagnosed with sleep apnea.
Journal of the American College of Cardiology, April, 2007
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/556470?sssdmh=dm1.271892&src=nldne
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/sleepapnea.html
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/lowbloodpressure.html
National Institutes for Health
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/heartfailure.html
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/sleepapnea.html
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