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Dr. Mansfield explains if sleep apnea is a dangerous condition.
Dr. Mansfield:
Well, each night when you go to sleep and you turn the lights off is when sleep apnea begins to rear its ugly head. As you fall asleep and your windpipe blocks when you have sleep apnea that isn’t being treated, the net effect of that is that you breathhold. It’s like being in a pool underwater. The longer you are holding your breath, so to speak, the lower your oxygen drops. The lower your oxygen drops, the more you strain your heart, and at some point you could have a heart attack or a stroke as an acute event in the middle of a night simply by a long breathhold during sleep apnea.
And then second of all, those long-term blockages with long-term low oxygen have long-term stresses on the body, and that’s what then creates the other complications like diabetes and high blood pressure.
About Dr. Mansfield, M.D.:
At the Senta Clinic, Dr. Perry Mansfield specializes in diseases related to head and neck oncology. Nationally recognized leader in skull base disorders, Dr. Mansfield created and developed one of the premiere centers for skull base surgery in the Southwestern United States. His role as a head and neck oncologist focuses on tumors of the anterior and middle skull base, such as squamous cell carcinomas and other disorders of salivary glands and sinuses.