Snoring makes heart and brain stronger

It might be frustrating for the partner, but it seems snoring is actually good for health. That’s the controversial suggestion to have emerged from a recent study on sleep apnoea.

For years, the condition, which causes interruptions in breathing during sleep, has been linked to high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks. But the Israeli study of 600 people over the age of 65 has claimed that the risk of early death in people with moderate sleep apnoea was less than half that of people with no history of snoring, the Daily Mail reported.

The study also found that the risk of early death for those with a severe form of the condition was the same as a healthy control group, when it was expected to be higher.

“One theory is that the constant breaks in oxygen and blood supply to organs, caused by the pauses in the breathing, strengthen the heart and brain — if a heart attack or a stroke occurs, the body is better able to deal with it,” said the report.

However, Jim Horne, head of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, said: “It is better to get heavy snoring treated rather than assume it will prolong life.”

An unrelated study has found that a technique can determine whether a child has obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) or habitual snoring by screening their urine.

Researchers at the University of Chicago used asophisticated electrophoresis technique to screen hundreds of proteins in the urine. They found a number of proteins were differently expressed in children with OSA compared to kids with habitual snoring.