Snorers appear more likely to develop chronic bronchitis

Frequent snoring appears to be associated with the development of chronic bronchitis, according to a report in the January 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Chronic bronchitis involves inflammation of the lower airways accompanied by a persistent cough and the production of mucus or phlegm, according to background information and the article. Snoring appears more common among individuals with bronchitis.

Inkyung Baik, Ph.D., of the Korea University Ansan Hospital, Ansan, Republic of Korea, and colleagues studied 4,270 individuals (52 percent men and 48 percent women) starting in 2001 to 2003. At the beginning of the study, participants provided information on demographics, health conditions, family disease history and lifestyle, as well as details about how often they snored.

Every two years through 2006, participants were re-interviewed and were classified as developing chronic bronchitis if they reported having a cough and sputum (phlegm produced during cough) on most days for at least three months per year for at least two years but did not have an asthma diagnosis.

During four years of follow-up, 314 individuals developed chronic bronchitis. After adjusting for age, smoking and other bronchitis risk factors, individuals who snored regularly were more likely to develop bronchitis than those who did not. Compared with those who never snored, individuals who snored six five times per week or less were 25 percent more likely and those who snored six to seven times per week were 68 percent more likely to develop bronchitis. The association was strongest in individuals who had never smoked, who worked in the home or who were overweight.

“The mechanisms underlying the association between snoring and chronic bronchitis are largely unknown,” the authors write. “It has been suggested that structural or functional changes in the airway due to inflammation may cause snoring and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Conversely, repeated snoring vibrations may act as mechanical stresses, leading to increased inflammatory response in the upper airway.”

“Further investigations are needed to confirm the association between snoring and chronic bronchitis and to explore the mechanisms underlying the association,” they conclude.

Source: JAMA and Archives Journals

Related stories:

Life expectancy rises for the educated; the less-educated reap no benefit
It's no secret that over the last few decades, life expectancy in the United States has been rising. However, recent data shows that not everyone has benefited from this encouraging trend. New findings from Harvard Medical School and Harvard University demonstrate that individuals with more than 12 years of education have significantly longer life expectancy than those who never went beyond high school.
FDA issues Spiriva and Foradil advisory
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a public health advisory concerning the correct use of Spiriva and Foradil capsules.
New technique reveals insights into lung disease
Doctors at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester are collaborating in the use of a magnetic resonance technique to image and quantify the air spaces inside the lungs — and the results of their research may lead to a link between childhood disease and later degenerative lung disease.
Personalized therapy for asthma and COPD could soon be here
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have defined a new type of immune response that is activated in patients with severe asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Their discovery could dramatically improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with chronic inflammatory lung disease.
Asthma and smoker's lung: dry airways play a key role
Dry airways may not only play a central role in the development of the inherited lung disease cystic fibrosis, but also in much more common acquired chronic lung diseases such as asthma and smoker’s lung, the cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This is the conclusion reached by scientists at Heidelberg University Hospital under the direction of Assistant Professor Dr. Marcus Mall from the Department of Pediatrics at Heidelberg University Hospital and Professor Dr. Richard Boucher of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In animal studies, they found that insufficient hydration of the airway surfaces leads to pathologies typical of chronic obstructive lung diseases in humans.
Genetic factors in smoking also increase risk of chronic bronchitis
Smoking is a known risk factor for respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis, but genes also play a significant role in its development, according to researchers in Sweden, who studied more than 40,000 Swedish twins to determine the extent to which behavior, environment and genes each play a role ion the development of chronic bronchitis.
Giving mice a cold virus offers hope of new asthma treatments
Scientists have been able to recreate rhinovirus infection, which is behind most common colds, in a small animal for the first time.
Secondhand smoke damages lungs, MRIs show
It’s not a smoking gun, but it’s smoking-related, and it’s there in bright medical images: evidence of microscopic structural damage deep in the lungs, caused by secondhand cigarette smoke. For the first time, researchers have identified lung injury to nonsmokers that was long suspected, but not previously detectable with medical imaging tools.

News discussion:

Medicine & Health news