Fat on tongue tied to cure for sleep apnoea

Weight loss is an effective treatment for sleep apnoea, but this may be due to the fat dropping off the tongue.

Middle aged, overweight men don't have exclusivity over sleep apnoea.

Weight loss is an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea, but scientists now believe this may be due to the fat dropping off an unexpected body part — the tongue.

Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to measure how weight loss impacts the upper airway in obese patients.

The team at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that reducing tongue fat was a primary factor in decreasing the severity of OSA. The findings are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Richard Schwab, chief of sleep medicine, said: “Most clinicians, and even experts in the sleep ­apnoea world, have not typically focused on fat in the tongue for treating sleep apnoea.

“Now that we know tongue fat is a risk factor and that sleep ­apnoea improves when tongue fat is reduced, we have established a unique therapeutic target that we’ve never had before.”

The condition involves breathing repeatedly stopping and starting, causing patients to wake up randomly throughout their sleep cycles. It is usually marked by loud snoring and can increase the risk for high blood pressure and stroke.

The new study included 67 participants with mild to severe OSA who were obese with a body mass index greater than 30.

The patients lost almost 10 per cent of their body weight through diet or weight-loss surgery, on average, over six months. Overall their sleep apnoea scores improved by 31 per cent after the weight-loss intervention, as measured by a sleep study.

PA