Sleep apnea is particularly dangerous for the heart health of young adults People ages 20 to 40 with sleep apnea had higher risks for heart problems than older folks with the sleep disorder Young adults with sleep apnea were three times more likely to have a heart event than young adults without sleep problems THURSDAY, July 11, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Sleep apnea is particularly dangerous for the heart health of young adults, even more so than in older folks, a new study warns. The link between sleep apnea and risk factors for heart disease is stronger in people between 20 and 40 years of age than in those 40 and older, researchers reported recently in the Journal of the American Heart Association . For example, young adults with sleep apnea had a 45% increased risk of high blood pressure, compared with a 10% increased risk in older people, results show.
Likewise, sleep apnea increased the risk of diabetes by 33% in young adults compared with 12% in middle-aged and older folks, and the risk of metabolic syndrome by 25% versus 7%, researchers found. Young adults with sleep apnea were also three times more likely to have a cardiovascular event – such as a heart attack, heart failure, heart disease, chest pain or stroke – than young adults not suffering from the sleep disorder , results show. “The public tends to think of sleep apnea as simply ‘bad sleep’ that causes fatigue, but the implications are far more serious,” lead researcher Bhaskar Thakur , an assistant .
