Secret to long life: Sleep apnea?

Intermittent hypoxia – the lack of adequate oxygen – initiates a cascade of events involving oxidative stress and inflammatory processes leading to atherosclerosis. But surprisingly, the new research found that in contrast to young and middle-age patients, who showed significantly higher mortality than their counterparts in the general population, elderly patients with mild or moderate apnea showed significantly lower mortality than in the general population.

The researchers suggest that the hearts of elderly sleep apnea patients get blood from a larger number of arteries – called collaterals – that develop by angiogenesis due to the lack of oxygen supply, than the hearts of patients without sleep apnea. This additional blood supply protects them if they suffer a heart attack, the Lavies write.