US News: Boosting your activity levels could reduce your risk of sleep apnea, according to a new study.
Compared to the most active people in the study, those who spent more than four hours a day sitting watching TV had a 78% higher risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and those with sedentary jobs had a 49% higher risk.
And that added risk was not due to their weight.
“We saw a clear relationship between levels of physical activity, sedentary behavior and OSA risk. People who followed the current World Health Organization physical activity guidelines of getting at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, and who spent less than four hours per day sitting watching TV, had substantially lower OSA risk,” said study leader Tianyi Huang, an assistant professor and associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in Boston.
