Posted Dec 16, 2009
A weight loss diet helps reduce obstructive sleep apnea in obese men, Swedish researchers say.
The randomized controlled trial found those who improved the most by losing weight were those with the most severe forms of the disease. Obstructive sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder characterized by episodes of paused breathing.
The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm researchers studied 63 obese men aged 30-65 years with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea being treated with continuous positive airway pressure — a mask designed to help breathing during sleep. Thirty received a liquid diet for seven weeks to promote weight loss, followed by two weeks of gradual introduction of normal food. The remaining men acted as a control group by adhering to their usual diet over the nine weeks.
At week nine, the diet group had lost an average of 41.2 pounds and lowered the mean number of paused breathing episodes to 12 from 37 at the study’s start. The controls lost an average of 2.4 pounds and lowered the mean number of episodes to 35.
Five in the diet group were sleep apnea free by the end of the study, half had only mild sleep apnea, but all patients in the control group except one still had moderate to severe sleep apnea.
The findings are published in the British Medical Journal.
Date:Dec 12, 2009 URL: www.upi.com