Snoring and Obesity
There doesn’t seem to be a single health condition
nowadays that is either not caused or worsened by obesity. Whilst
snoring is not a health condition, it is a symptom of many health
problems and there is no doubt that one of the main causes of
snoring is obesity.
When an individual is overweight additional strain is put on all of
the body parts and systems. The additional bulk of some parts of the
body, caused by a build up of fatty tissue, can even interfere with
normal functioning.
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The noise of snoring is generated when air
struggles to force its way through a blocked or obstructed
airway. Excess fatty, flabby tissue within the nasal
cavities offers such an obstruction. The condition is even
worse when the obese person lies on their back to sleep as
the front of the neck is a prime site for the accumulation
of excess fat and fluid and the weight of this squashes the
airways.
If excess weight is a problem there will be numerous health
benefits to tackling it, not only a reduction in the snoring
but also increased levels of health and vitality.
The first thing to do before starting a weight reduction
program is to get a full health check. There is a
possibility that you may have an undiagnosed metabolic
problem that is contributing to the weight and medication
can be prescribed to help. |
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Also, obesity is linked to type II diabetes
and high cholesterol levels so these should either be identified
and treated or ruled out.
The only way to lose weight is by changing the
energy equation. This equation balances the calorific needs of
the body each day with the sum of the calories consumed less the
calories burned. An equation has to balance. Any alteration made
on one side of an equation has to have a corresponding change on
the other side. This means that if we reduce the total number of
calories available to the body either the number of calories
consumed has to be reduced or the number of calories burned off
must be increased.
If only it were that simple!
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Obesity can quickly become a way of life with
food becoming a means whereby emotional needs are met rather
than it simply fulfilling a physiological requirement to
supply energy. Whilst just about everyone understands what
they need to do to lose excess weight, not every one is then
able to translate that into action.
There are a number of drugs available – not to cure the
snoring that obesity causes – but to assist with the obesity
problem.
Some drugs suppress the appetite but these tend to have
unpleasant side effects and are not widely prescribed. Some
drugs act to absorb fat from the food ingested rather than
allowing the body to absorb the fat (and the associated
calories)
Increasingly, people are turning to surgery to help them
overcome the condition of obesity. |
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When one considers the numerous health risks
associated with obesity, the problem of snoring rather pales
into insignificance. However, one of the beneficial side effects
of losing weight is a decrease in the snoring problem.
A mention should also be made here of sleep apnea which is
linked to incidences of obesity and is a condition whereby
breathing actually stops during sleep. When the survival reflex
eventually kicks in to restart the breathing a long, deep VERY
noisy breath is taken. By doing whatever it takes to achieve a
healthy height/weight ratio the risk of developing sleep apnea
is reduced.
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