Sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder that affects almost 40 million adults in the United States.
Many people use CPAP machines to help them breathe at night, but these machines can be uncomfortable.
As a result, many people stop using them, even though sleep apnea can lead to serious health problems.
Sleep apnea doesn’t just cause breathing issues—it also puts a lot of stress on the brain and body, which can lead to high blood pressure.
A new study from the University of Missouri has helped scientists better understand how this happens. This discovery could lead to better treatments for people who have both sleep apnea and high blood pressure.
The research was led by David Kline, a professor at Mizzou’s College of Veterinary Medicine. His team at the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center studied how sleep apnea affects the brain.
They found that when oxygen levels drop during sleep, a part of the brain called the forebrain sends emergency signals to the brainstem. The brainstem controls vital functions like breathing and heart rate.
The team discovered that two brain chemicals—oxytocin and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)—are responsible for making the brainstem work too hard. This overactivity, if it continues night after night, causes blood pressure to rise and stay high.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, can lead to strokes, heart disease, and other serious health problems. People with sleep apnea often also suffer from poor sleep, memory problems, and a higher risk of car accidents because of daytime drowsiness.
What makes this study important is that it’s the first to show how oxytocin and CRH affect the brain’s pathways during sleep apnea. This means scientists could now look into creating new medications that specifically block these chemicals or the proteins they interact with, helping to lower blood pressure in people with sleep apnea.
David Kline explained, “Our goal is to help doctors create new drugs that target these specific brain chemicals. This could make it easier to treat high blood pressure in people with sleep apnea.”
Kline has been researching how the brain controls breathing and blood pressure for almost 20 years. He has brought in over $10 million in research funding and published more than 40 scientific papers. His work has helped build the University of Missouri’s reputation as a leader in research.
This recent study was led in the lab by Procopio Gama de Barcellos Filho, a postdoctoral researcher. He said Kline is a supportive mentor who values everyone’s ideas, and that working in his lab has been a great experience.
This breakthrough offers new hope for people dealing with both sleep apnea and high blood pressure. With further research, it could lead to better, more targeted treatments that help people sleep better and protect their heart health.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about why checking blood pressure while lying down is very important and lowering top blood pressure number to less than 120 mm Hg effectively prevents heart disease.
For more about blood pressure, please read studies that turmeric and vitamin D may boost blood pressure control in type 2 diabetes and scientists find link between blood pressure drugs and bowel diseases.
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