Snoring At Night Can Multiply Your Risk Of Dying From Cancer

Snoring, snorting and interrupted breathing at night is more than merely a nuisance to others trying to sleep through the racket. Research shows that sleep disordered breathing (SDB), can not only put you at greater risk of heart problems but may also quintuple your chances of dying from cancer.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have found that mild SDB increases your risk of death from cancer by about 10 percent. But severe SDB increases the chances of death from cancer by a factor of about five.

“Recent in vitro and animal studies have shown that repeated episodes of hypoxia (an inadequate supply of oxygen) are associated with accelerated cancer progression,” says F. Javier Nieto, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. “Our results are the first to suggest that SDB is also associated with an increased risk of cancer mortality in humans.”