Understanding More About the Influence of Gut Microbiome, Other Factors on Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Anne Marie Morse, DO, FAASM

WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

"When you have the microbiome not in balance, we can see that it not only can have a relationship with OSA, it can increase your likelihood for having obesity or to be an inflammatory state, driving those factors for metabolic syndrome, leading to worse outcomes."

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition that causes individuals to repeatedly stop and start breathing while sleeping, is the most common sleep-related breathing disorder. Signs and symptoms of the condition include excessive daytime sleepiness, loud snoring, abrupt awakenings, morning headache mood changes, and many others.

Anyone can develop OSA; however, certain factors can put an individual at increased risk, including excess weight, older age, narrowed airway, high blood pressure, chronic nasal congestion, smoking, diabetes, and asthma. Patients with more severe forms of OSA are at a greater risk for coronary artery disease, heart attacks, heart failure, and strokes. Understanding all the factors that play a role in the development of OSA is critical for clinicians and the general public, says Anne Marie Morse, DO.

Morse, a pediatric neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at Geisinger Medical Center, presented a talk at the 2023 SLEEP Annual Meeting, held June 3-7, in Indianapolis, Indiana, on the role of these factors in adolescents with OSA. Following her talk, she sat down with NeurologyLive® to discuss her presentation, and the reasons behind it. She spoke specifically about why researching the precursors to OSA will help better phenotype patients, and why gut microbiome plays such a significant role. Furthermore, she discussed the growing research field of gut microbiome, how it may influence other sleep disorders besides OSA, and why nutrition has become a major topic of discussion between patients and clinicians.

Click here for more coverage of SLEEP 2023.