No doubt the irritating nightly noise caused by snoring is a nuisance to you and your bed partner. In addition, we also know that interrupted sleep is extremely detrimental to your health.

Beyond that sound annoyance lays a much deeper predicament that we cannot afford to look away from any longer. Snoring typically starts out with a minor, harmless, heavy or labored breathing caused by a narrowed airway. At first this narrowing is small and snoring is minor; but when the narrowing becomes more pronounced, snoring becomes much more frequent and louder. In addition, as the disease advances, your airway can become completely blocked which results in a condition called “obstructive sleep apnea.”

Snoring Should be Considered a Warning

Snoring is ultimately an outward sign of a potentially serious health problem caused by less than optimum amounts of oxygen being inhaled into the body during sleep.

We all know the importance of having enough oxygen for the body’s normal biological function.

What happens to the body when there is less than needed oxygen?

Here’s what is happening in your body during snoring:

-The brain floods the sympathetic channel of the autonomic nervous system with stimuli that alerts the body to an emergency, just like the fight or flight mode.

-The adrenals are stimulated to produce hormones to aid the sympathetic cause; the brain summons other organs to work harder in response to the urgent situation.

-The heart rate increases as well as heart pressure, and blood flow shifts toward the muscles to prepare for the confrontation.

-This emergency mode places the whole body including all the vital organs in a precarious state — expanding and exhausting much of the reserved energy during the night and increasing the wear and tear on the vital organs.

What Happens When the Body Lacks Enough Oxygen?

During vigorous exercise the need for oxygen is increased several times over as the result of a higher demand for energy production. In spite of the body’s best efforts to increase breathing and heart rate, it does not get enough oxygen to maintain its biological function and produce the required energy needed for exercise. Even though you breathe faster and harder, and your heart is pumping faster and harder, you still do not get enough air. So the body goes into a temporary oxygen deficit.

Instead of producing the energy in the normal aerobic channel which requires oxygen, the body shifts into the emergency phase to anaerobic mode which does not require oxygen and is a much less efficient way to produce energy. The muscles then build up lactic acid — the by-product of anaerobic energy production. The soreness in the muscles is created as a result of accumulated lactic acid. Ultimately, the lactic acid is metabolized by the aerobic pathway when the body is not in oxygen deficiency. The body recharges itself after a period of rest and returns back to normalcy.

Just like this example the body reacts in a similar fashion when facing reduced oxygen due to snoring or obstructive sleep apnea: it shifts into emergency mode. First the brain sends a message to the heart to pump faster and harder in order to carry more oxygen from the lungs. The increased heart activity forces more blood to all the vital organs throughout the body. The organs are forced to respond to the increased blood flow.

Organ Exhaustion

To illustrate further the grave implication of this occurrence, let me use the kidneys to demonstrate their challenge in the midst of the additional workload they need to bear. In a normal restful sleep, the kidneys would reduce their function to a minimum and allow the organs to replenish its energy and to rebuild and repair as necessary. But in this case, the additional blood flow into the kidneys means they need to work harder to respond to the increased demand. The kidneys become exhausted from working all night without the chance to repair and rebuild the damage.

The kidney’s essential function is to filter the blood, remove the harmful metabolites and excrete it out of the body through the urinary tract. Keep in mind that every biological activity in the body needs energy. When the daytime workload appears the kidneys had no opportunity to rest and recharge. This state applies to all the vital organs of the body. In fact, the whole body is affected. Instead of restful rejuvenates and prepares you for the next day, all the vital organs stay working overtime; perhaps working harder at night than during the day. As a result, your body is deprived from much needed rest. It doesn’t get recharged and you wake up feeling tired and lethargic. When this scenario continues night after night, the body begins to break down much faster.

It is also absolutely essential to have restful sleep so that you can recharge your brain. However, when the body is actively engaged in dealing with restless sleep, the brain is working without rest to address this issue. The brain is the most important organ of the body and its fundamental purpose is to control and coordinate all the bodily functions. In other words, your brain must direct every action and every activity, no matter how big or small, whether it’s autonomic or voluntary, and coordinate it with other parts of the body to produce an action. There is simply no activity that doesn’t involve the brain. If the body is working instead of sleeping, the brain is also working and using more energy. This is another reason for what we often call that “drained feeling” we have in the morning after a restless night.

Disturbed Metabolism

Snoring also causes metabolic disturbance. Recent re-searchers discovered that sleep disturbance can lead to numerous diseases including diabetes. The exact relationship is unclear but is believed that an oxygen deficit in the blood causes the body to produce a chemical called catecholamine to suppress insulin sensitivity causing difficulty to breakdown glucose for energy.

A more recent study showed an even grimmer health picture for snorers. Eve van Cauter at el. from the University of Chicago in December of 2004 found that poor sleep disrupts two hormones associated with appetite: Leptin and ghrelin. These two hormones are regulated by our sleep and insulin. They work as a check and balance system to control our appetite. Leptin in the blood sends a message to the appetite center that there is no food needed. But the presents of ghrelin sends an opposite message to the brain that it is time to eat. Sleep deficit causes the body to produce more ghrelin and decrease leptin and as a result, your appetite increases without hunger. You end up eating more when you are not sleeping well which can result in weight gain.

Is there any doubt that you should not overlook the fact that your snoring is getting worse? It is a medical condition that can be treated naturally. I have developed a system that I can teach you to stop snoring within days. It worked on me and my wife, and it can work on you too.

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• The Intelligent Snoring Remedy

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