A new study shows that your choice of friends may increase your risk of becoming obese. Developing obesity also would make you much more likely to have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
The study evaluated a social network of 12,067 people who were assessed repeatedly from 1971 to 2003. It found that certain relationships greatly raised a person’s chances of becoming obese.
This link was strongest among two people who considered each other to be friends. If one of these mutual friends became obese, then the other friend’s risk of obesity increased by 171 percent. Friends of the same sex were more influential than friends of the opposite sex.
To a lesser degree, a person’s risk of obesity also rose if a spouse or sibling became obese. This influence was strongest among sisters. There was no effect on the risk of obesity if an immediate neighbor became obese.
The study was published on July 26, 2007, in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The authors suggest that obesity may spread as one person changes another’s idea of what is normal. Gaining weight may be more acceptable to a person who has seen a friend or relative become obese.
The results led the authors of the study to conclude that “obesity appears to spread through social ties.” After all, the authors write, “People are connected, and so their health is connected.”
Obesity and OSA
The connection between obesity and OSA is strong. Episodes of this common sleep disorder occur when tissue in the back of the throat collapses and blocks the airway as you sleep. As a result you may stop breathing up to hundreds of times per night.
Gaining weight increases your risk for OSA. The reasons why are complicated; in part, it may be because weight gain makes your neck thicker in addition to making your waist size larger. This increase in neck thickness occurs both on the outside and on the inside in the area around the throat. The amount of fat in the back of the throat increases, narrowing the airway.
As a result, your airway is more likely to be blocked during sleep. This occurs when the muscles of the throat relax and allow the walls of the throat to collapse in on each other.
Men are twice as likely as women to have OSA. The classic sleep apnea patient is a middle-aged, overweight man with a large neck size who wakes the neighbors when he snores.
The authors also suggest that the influence of a friend may be able to affect your health in a positive way. “Both bad and good behaviors might spread over a range of social ties,” they write. Thus the positive influence of a friend may help you maintain a healthy weight and avoid OSA.
In the same way, you can be the one who has a positive effect on the health of a friend or relative. Your influence can be extremely important for someone who may be at risk for OSA. This risk is high for someone who is overweight or obese. Warning signs for OSA include loud and frequent snoring, choking or snorting sounds and pauses in breathing during sleep, and severe daytime sleepiness.
Five Ways to Fight OSA
Encourage others to follow these five steps to reduce the negative health effects of OSA:
- Maintain a healthy weight. Dietary weight loss can lower a person’s risk and reduce the severity of OSA.
- Get a full seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Sleep seems to play a role in helping the body manage its weight. People who sleep for fewer hours each night tend to have a higher body mass index (BMI) than people who sleep longer. Studies also have linked sleep to some of the hormones that help control body weight and appetite.
- Avoid drinking alcohol at night. Alcohol disrupts sleep and can make episodes of OSA more frequent and severe.
- Schedule a consultation with a sleep specialist. A person who is at risk for OSA should schedule a consultation with a sleep specialist at an accredited sleep disorders center. A doctor can detect OSA and determine the best treatment option.
- Use CPAP consistently. OSA can be treated with positive results. The most common treatment for OSA is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). It provides a steady stream of pressurized air through a mask that is worn during sleep. This airflow keeps the airway open, preventing pauses in breathing and restoring normal oxygen levels. For the best results CPAP should be used all night, every night.
