Throat Exercises for Sleep apnea

Tongue and throat exercises may help people with mild to moderated obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and relief, a new report says.

A three-month program helped reduce OSA severity by 40 percent in the test subjects and improved symptoms such as low oxygen saturation levels blood, sleepiness, snoring and poor sleep quality, according to the findings in the second issue for May of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Of the 10 moderate OSA sufferers who did the exercises, eight were reclassified afterward as having only a mild condition and two were upgraded to having no OSA. For the study, 16 people diagnosed with mild to moderate OSA performed a daily and weekly regimen of tongue and pharyngeal exercises, while 15 other sufferers performed a placebo treatment of deep breathing and nasal rinsing with saline solution.

The Control group experienced no change in their condition, and neither group experienced a change in weight or body size, two factors in the cause of OSA.

Researchers were unsure exactly how the exercises caused the change and if all of them were equally effective, but suggested further research would explore these questions.