Snoring is also known as obstructive sleep apnea hypoventilation syndrome. The harm of snoring to human body has been gradually recognized, high blood pressure and is also a very common disease. In our clinical work, we found that many snorers have high blood pressure, and their blood pressure remains high after taking various antihypertensive drugs for treatment.
Is snoring related to hypertension? Yes, the relationship between snoring and hypertension is very close!
The close relationship between snoring and hypertension is also gradually recognized. According to literature survey, more than 50% of snoring patients have hypertension, and 30% of primary hypertension patients have chronic obstructive sleep apnea syndrome in combination. These patients have also have the following characteristics.
(1) The majority of men over 40 years of age, most of them have bad habits such as smoking and drinking alcohol;
(2) They take a variety of antihypertensive drugs, but the effect is not good;
(3) Most of the patients had obesity, short neck and other physical signs, and some had small jaw deformity;
(4) Low basal oxygen saturation, nocturnal hypoxemia and long duration;
(5) Blood pressure is significantly higher in the morning, and the low pressure is more pronounced;
(6) Most of the symptoms are accompanied by morning sleepiness, fatigue and headache.
Causes of high blood pressure disease caused by snoring
The main manifestation of snoring patients is apnea during sleep, and the gas cannot enter the lungs after the pause occurs, resulting in lack of oxygen and carbon dioxide retention in the body, endocrine dysfunction and hemodynamic changes. As we all know, people cannot leave oxygen for a moment, and all organs of human body need to get good rest during sleep, but the total time of broken breath-holding in many patients’ sleep can be up to several hours, so all organs cannot get sufficient oxygen supply.
(1) Recurrent hypoxemia and hypercapnia activate chemoreceptors and sympathetic nerves, which increase the release of catecholamines, and under the action of long-term catecholamines, vascular smooth muscle remodeling and hypertrophy occur;
(2) Repeated hypoxia and carbon dioxide retention can cause pulmonary hypertension and right heart insufficiency;
(3) Hypoxia in the central nervous system can cause sympathetic excitation, release of adrenaline and other blood pressure-raising substances, and peripheral vasoconstriction, which can increase blood pressure;
(4) Low oxygen stimulates the central nervous system, causing the patient to wake up and then return to normal, and so on repeatedly, causing low sleep quality and no rest for the body, which may lead to the increase of blood pressure.
How to release the close relationship between snoring and hypertension
In view of the close relationship between snoring and hypertension, we should fully analyze the relationship between snoring and hypertension in the treatment of snoring and hypertension, consider the whole situation and treat them comprehensively. In the pharmacological treatment of hypertension, for patients who are over 40 years old, have a history of snoring, bad habits such as smoking and drinking, and have physical features such as obesity, thick and short neck, congenital small jaw deformity, polysomnography should be performed to diagnose whether there is a combination of sleep apnea syndrome and treat accordingly.
First try to remove obstructive factors in the upper airway, and perform nasal and pharyngeal surgery if necessary.
Overweight people should control diet and increase physical activity.
Given that supine sleep can aggravate snoring, it is better for patients to sleep on their sides.
Transnasal positive pressure ventilator treatment can significantly improve the mid-sleep pause and increase the blood oxygen saturation.