7 Ways to Stop Snoring

Dr. Frank Shallenberger, MD

April 4, 2022

 

Here’s some amazing statistics about that good old American pastime called snoring:

Almost half of all American adults snore occasionally. And 25% snore on a regular basis. Okay, so a lot of people snore, but other than the racket that it causes, is snoring a problem? A new study says yes. It just might cut your life short.

In the study, the researchers looked at 887 men and women aged 50-79 years. Some of them were snorers. And some of the snorers had a mild form of sleep apnea. The rest did not snore. Then they measured the length of the telomeres in their white cells (leukocyte telomere length or LTL). The results are worrisome.

Snorers had shorter LTL’s than non-snorers. And this was true even when they had no signs of sleep apnea. We have known for a while that people with sleep apnea had shorter telomeres, but this is the first study to show that snoring all by itself, with no signs of apnea, caused telomere shortening.

And here’s something that’s especially alarming. The amount of time a person spent snoring predicted how short their telomeres were. Those who snored the most had the shortest telomeres. The authors concluded, “Our findings suggest that snoring may influence telomere attrition [shortening] independent of sleep apnea.”

Most of you probably know by now that telomeres are areas on our chromosomes that protect the chromosomes from damage. Once the telomeres become critically short, our chromosomes start to unravel and things start to fall apart.

Many researchers are convinced that telomere length more than any other factor determines how long we will live and how healthy we will be. So if that’s true, then it looks like snoring is a more serious problem than we ever thought. Here’s my advice.

If you are in that 25% of the population described as regular snorers, get a sleep study done. If you have apnea, get it treated. If you don’t, great. But don’t stop there. Do something to correct the snoring. Here are some ideas:

(1) Lying on your back makes the base of your tongue and soft palate collapse to the back wall of your throat and can cause snoring. One way to train your body to sleep on the side is a full-length pillow that supports your entire body. Attaching a couple of tennis balls to the back of your pajamas can also stop you from sleeping on your back. Another trick is to sleep in a semi-sitting position.

(2) If you’re overweight, losing even 10 pounds can make a big difference.

(3) Alcohol, sedatives, and sleeping pills are a major cause of snoring. So if you take anything like this, work with a doctor to find some non-drug alternatives and stop alcohol intake for a while to see if it’s a problem.

(4) Another major cause is stuffy nasal passages. There are all kinds of natural remedies for this, but one simple remedy is Breathe Right® strips. You can find these at any pharmacy and online.

(5) Change your pillow. Dust mites and other allergens can accumulate in pillows and cause stuffiness. Also, a different style of pillow might put your head and neck into a position that stops the snoring.

(6) Buy an online oral appliance for snoring. Some of these are very effective and work well with the Breathe Right strips.

(7) See a dentist who specializes in custom oral appliances for snoring. If the oral appliance you purchase online doesn’t work, a custom appliance is likely to solve the problem. Many dentists now offer these appliances. You can search online for one near you.

Finally, to protect your telomeres from the ravages of snoring, take Advanced Mitochondrial Formula. It has nutrients that will keep your telomeres long and healthy.

Whatever you do, don’t take snoring for granted. It might lead to all kinds of problems in the years ahead.

Sources:

Shin, C., C.H. Yun, et al. “Association Between Snoring and Leukocyte Telomere Length.” Sleep. 2015 December 22.

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