Sleep apnea and cancer

Just when you thought that you have heard about every bad thing that can happen to a sleep apnea sufferers, two more studies come out that suggest that there is a connection between cancer and sleep apnea.

The New York Times Well Blog describe how one of the tests in Spain suggested that  the most severe sleep apnea patients have a 65 percent chance of developing cancer than those folks without it. The other study was in Wisconsin where they looked at 1500 government workers and determined that they have 5 times the rate of dying from cancer than those who don’t have sleep apnea.

Of course these tests aren’t a 100 percent certainty that there is a connection between sleep apnea and cancer, but it does make you wonder. I’d imagine that the use of CPAP on a regular basis would probably be helpful at lowering the odds of getting cancer from sleep apnea, but the report didn’t look at that.

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