A recent study conducted by Brazilian researchers reported that consuming fewer calories could improve sleep apnea and lower blood pressure in obese adults.
Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing stops and starts during sleep. Additionally, the disorder is associated with high blood pressure, heart problems, and stroke.
The Brazilian study involved 21 obese adults, between 20 and 55 years old, with sleep apnea. Some of the 21 adults reduced their caloric intake by 800 calories over a 16-week period, while the remaining made no changes to their diet.
At the study’s end, investigators found that those who reduced calories had lower blood pressure, had lost more weight, had fewer breathing issues during sleep, and had higher amounts of oxygen in their blood.
Findings of the study were announced at the American Heart Association high blood pressure meeting in San Francisco last week. Data and research presented at medical seminars is deemed inconclusive unit it is published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Dr. Marcia Klein, study co-author and adjunct professor at the University of Rio de Janero State University in Brazil, said the study’s findings reveal that moderate energy restriction in obese adults can improve sleep apnea, as well as blood pressure and heart rate.
Even a slight energy restriction, said Klein, can improve an obese adult’s entire cardiovascular system.
Klein also said that losing weight through dieting and exercise should remain the number one combative against sleep apnea. As a result, systolic blood pressure is often lowered by weight reduction.
Systolic blood pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading that reflects the force of blood in the arteries when the heart beats. The bottom number in a reading, diastolic blood pressure, measures pressures in the arteries between heart beats. A good blood pressure reading is considered to be below 120/80 mm Hg.
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