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WEDNESDAY, Oct. 7, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Continuous positive airway<\/a> pressure treatment, commonly known as CPAP<\/a>, can lower heart disease<\/a> risk in people with prediabetes<\/a>, according to a new study.<\/p>\n In prediabetes<\/a>, blood sugar<\/a> levels are above normal but not high enough to be considered diabetes<\/a>. CPAP<\/a> is used to treat obstructive sleep apnea<\/a>, a disorder in which breathing<\/a> repeatedly stops and starts during sleep<\/a>. A CPAP machine uses a mask to deliver steady air pressure into a person’s airway<\/a>.<\/p>\n This new study found that, among people with prediabetes and sleep apnea<\/a>, those who used CPAP for two weeks saw their resting heart<\/a> rate fall by four to five beats per minute, compared to those who didn’t use CPAP.<\/p>\n With optimal CPAP treatment, heart<\/a> rates were not only lower at night but also during the day, according to the report published Oct. 1 in the Journal of the American Heart Association<\/i>.<\/p>\n “That’s significant,” said study author Dr. Esra Tasali, director of sleep<\/a> research at University of Chicago Medicine.<\/p>\n Even a drop of one beat per minute in resting heart rate can lower the future risk of heart disease<\/a> and death, she noted in a university news release.<\/p>\n “A four- to five-beat-per-minute drop in heart rate that we observed is comparable to what you would get from regular exercise<\/a>,” Tasali said. “Our breakthrough finding is the carryover of the lowered resting heart rate into the daytime and the cardiovascular benefit of that.”<\/p>\n About one billion people worldwide have obstructive sleep apnea<\/a>, and more than 60% of them have prediabetes or diabetes<\/a>. About 80% of people with apnea are undiagnosed, the researchers noted.<\/p>\n The findings are especially timely because people with diabetes<\/a> or heart problems are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19<\/a>, the study authors pointed out.<\/p>\n “Any way we can improve cardiovascular health is more important than ever these days,” Tasali said.<\/p>\n The findings show the need for people who have prediabetes, diabetes<\/a> or sleeping problems<\/a> to be screened for sleep apnea<\/a>, said study author Dr. Sushmita Pamidi, a sleep<\/a> physician-scientist at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.<\/p>\n — Robert Preidt<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
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