Interrupted breathing during affects brain neurons necessary to regulate heart rate

Interrupted breathing during sleep affects brain neurons necessary to regulate heart rate

Source: Wiley

Date: May 16, 2014

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140516092124.htm

Summary: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common sleep breathing disorder. It affects about 24% of adult males and 9% of adult females. OSA causes repetitive interruptions of breathing during sleep, and the lack of oxygen during these episodes brings the person to a lighter state of sleep or brief period of wakefulness in order restore normal breathing. Cycles of interrupted breathing and rousing to wakefulness can occur very frequently, up to once per minute. Recent research shows that OSA causes neurons in the brainstem that control heart rate to reduce in activity. The reductions of these neurons has multiple affects on the person. The reduction of activity contributes to increased heart rate and blood pressure in people with OSA. Also, it contributes to an increased risk in patients with OSA to experience adverse cardiovascular events or an irregular heartbeat. A group of researchers performed an experiment on rats in which they mimicked OSA for four weeks and measured changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and synaptic activity in parasympathetic neurons which control heart rate. This experiment provides a foundation which in the future can be built upon in order to find ways to restore normal activity to the neurons which control heart rate, which will help reduce the risk of elevated heart rate and blood pressure that occur with obstructive sleep apnea.

Connection: This article connects to four of the systems we have done. The interruption in breathing connects to the respiratory system. OSA causes interruptions of breathing, and therefore a lack of oxygen in the body. Oxygen comes into the body through the alveoli in the lungs, through the process of diffusion. The article also connects to the nervous system, specifically to our study of the brain. The functional unit if the nervous system is a neuron. In OSA, the neurons of the brain stem which control the heart reduce their activity. This can cause changes that specifically affect the heart. The heart is part of the muscular and circulatory systems. It is made up of cardiac muscle, which is branching, striated, and also involuntary. This means that you cannot consciously control the heart. The heart is also the main organ of the circulatory, or cardiovascular, system. The heart pumps blood throughout the body. There are two main loops of blood flow, the pulmonary loop and systematic loop. The pulmonary loop carries oxygen-poor blood to the lungs, where they are oxygenated, and then the oxygenated blood back to the heart. The systematic loop brings the oxygenated blood to cells throughout the body, and oxygen poor blood back to the heart. Blood travels away form the heart through arteries, back to the heart through veins, and to cells through capillaries.