When someone accuses you of heavy snoring, don’t get mad – they could actually be warning you of a potentially life-threatening situation. And death won’t come from that laser-guided pillow hurled at your head by your sleeping partner. Nope. The Grim Reaper comes a’ calling quite simply because you weren’t breathing enough to stay alive.

Mee-yeow! Got your attention now, don’t I? Good, because this is serious stuff.

What we’re talking about here is sleep apnea, which means quite literally “sleep without breath.” It’s most often caused by the soft tissues at the rear of the throat collapsing and closing off the airway. Relaxation occurs with all tissues in the body at night, but no one’s ever croaked from an arm that fell asleep.

The most common form of this condition, Obstructive Sleep Apnea or OSA, is almost as prevalent as Type 2 diabetes, affecting nearly 13 million Americans.

Risk factors include being male, overweight, and past the age of forty. Sleep apnea can also cause high blood pressure, memory loss, weight gain, impotency, and headaches. Geez, it sounds like the fallout from a bad marriage, doesn’t it?

Sleep apnea left untreated also contributes to workplace and motor vehicle accidents. Common symptoms include loud snoring, restless sleep, and sleepiness during the daytime. The diagnostic tools used to pin down OSA include home oximetry or polysomnography, which is performed in a sleep clinic.

Lifestyle changes, such as avoiding alcohol and muscle relaxants, losing weight, and quitting smoking are a big plus. And many people benefit from sleeping at a 30-degree or greater angle, much as if you were lounging in a recliner.

In October, 2007 researchers in Brazil found patients who suffered from sleep apnea and were placed on CPAP (Constant Positive Airway Pressure) machines dramatically reduced early signs of atherosclerosis in mere months. Atherosclerosis (ath"er-o-skleh-RO'sis) comes from the Greek words athero (meaning gruel or paste) and sclerosis (hardness). It's the name the big brains have given the deposits building up in your Pizza Hut-loving arteries.

Dr. Luciano Drager of the University of the São Paulo Medical School says, "OSA is independently associated with increased risk of fatal cardiovascular events that can be reversed by treatment with CPAP."

Yes, you heard right. Dr. Drager’s research indicates CPAP machines reverse the risk of fatal heart attacks associated with OSA. So who needs those nasty ol’ statin drugs? Well, okay, some of you do, but this is very encouraging research.

Some folks also say blowing on a didgeridoo or other wind instrument helps sleep apnea sufferers strengthen throat and neck muscles. Methinks if you have enough energy to hoot on something as annoying as a didgeridoo, most people want you dead anyway. ^..^

Okay ladies, here’s the takeaway: if you suspect your tom kat (men are much more likely to suffer from OSA) is experiencing breathing troubles at night, get him into see doctor pronto. All that snoring, snorting, and gasping could be the harbinger of a condition that could leave your loved one a very dead kat if left untreated.

Just ask the poor family of famed Green Bay Packers football star, Reggie White. OSA was implicated as at least part of the reason for his untimely demise.

Thankfully this kat has never been accused of snoring, but then again when was the last time you heard any cat sawing logs? Dogs? Sure, they snore all the time. And just try and get a mutt to wear a CPAP mask. It ain’t gonna to happen.