Sunday, November 13, 2011

Mediterranean diet and sleep apnea

Everyone knows that there is a connection between sleep apnea and what you eat, or rather how much you have been eating. A good percentage of sleep apnea sufferers are overweight which makes the problem of sleep apnea that much worse. All of the weight that you gain from over-eating doesn’t end up around your waistline; weight gain is all over your body. Not only will your face look bigger which is bad for sleep apnea you will also increase the size of the tissue in the back of your throat which causes the blockage of air which in turn causes sleep apnea. However not all sleep apnea is connected to weight gain, the shape of your face and the size of your tongue also plays a part. While a proper diet may be completely cure you of obstructive sleep apnea you should definitely consider it. One diet that has been in the news is called the Mediterranean diet which is supposed to help with sleep apnea.
In the past this type of diet has been known to help with other ailments such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. The diet consists of fruit, vegetables, fish and low fat proteins. A study from the University of Crete in Greece found that those on this diet, combined with exercise and using a CPAP lowered the number of apneas that they had at night.
While this sounds pretty good I would imagine that any sensible diet along with exercise and the use of the CPAP would also lessen the number of apneas.
Feel free to comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks

No comments:

Post a Comment