Dental surgeons said Saturday they have discovered why snoring can kill sometimes: It can actually cause damage to the arteries.
Snoring is usually harmless, if annoying, unless a person has a particular disorder known as sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is marked by irregular breathing and snorting. Sufferers often stop breathing completely for up to several seconds. It usually affects overweight, middle-aged men and has been linked with stroke and heart disease.
A team at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Dentistry set out to see what the physical mechanism is.
Writing in the Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, they said X-rays showed it is more complicated than seems immediately obvious.
“When persons with sleep apnea fall asleep, their tongue falls back into their throat, blocking their airway. As they struggle for breath, their blood pressure soars,” Dr. Arthur Friedlander, an oral surgeon who worked on the study, said in a statement.
“We believe that this rise in blood pressure damages the inner walls of the carotid arteries lining the sides of the neck,” he added.
“Cholesterol and calcium stick to the injury sites and amass into calcified plaques, which block blood flow to the brain. The result is often a massive stroke.”
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