Sleep specialist Indira Gurubhagavatula, MD, MPH, is our guest and chair of the Count on Sleep Tool Development and Surveillance Workgroup for The Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Indicator Report, which provides an in-depth analysis of the symptoms, risk factors, prevalence, and burden of obstructive sleep apnea and serves as a resource for both the public and the health care communities on the importance of diagnosis and long-term treatment. Gurubhagavatula and Sleep Review editor Sree Roy discuss the hidden risks of obstructive sleep apnea—the mortality and morbidity that makes obstructive sleep apnea (OSA, for short) particularly insidious. We discuss obstructive sleep apnea’s links to vehicle crashes, treatment-resistant hypertension, impaired brain function, erectile dysfunction and female sexual dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, and early death. We also discuss treatments for obstructive sleep apnea and how healthcare providers can screen patients to intervene early for patients at risk of obstructive sleep apnea. Specifically, this episode about the hidden risks of obstructive sleep apnea provides answers to:

• What is obstructive sleep apnea, also known as OSA for short?
• What do you think is the most troubling risk of not treating obstructive sleep apnea?
• How has treatment-resistant hypertension been linked to OSA?
• How can the impaired brain function linked to OSA manifest in patients?
• What evidence is out there that erectile dysfunction and female sexual dysfunction can be tied to OSA?
• How has obstructive sleep apnea been linked to diabetes?
• The worst link in my view is that obstructive sleep apnea has been linked to an earlier death. Why is that?
• Treatment of sleep apnea typically involves a device, such as a CPAP machine or an oral appliance, though surgery can be an option for some patients. Is there any evidence that treating OSA can alleviate some of sleep apnea morbidities or mortality?
• With all of this evidence in mind, what should healthcare providers do to help identify patients who are likely to have obstructive sleep apnea?
• What should any patients listening to this podcast do if they think they have symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea?