Danielle George - All Headline News Staff Reporter

Danielle M. George-All Headline News Staff Reporter

Los Angeles, CA (AHN)-Researchers have discovered that many people with asthma suffer from nighttime breathing disorders like sleep apnea and treating the condition could help control their asthma.

It is now believed that both medical conditions are connected and related to the body's inflammatory response. Dr. William Bria, medical co-director of the University of Michigan's asthma airways program examined the connection between sleep-related breathing disorders by giving questionnaires to patients with asthma who were not responding to their regular medication.

After surveying 115 people the preliminary results found 49 percent of women and 33 percent of men were at risk for sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing stops for periods of time during sleep. "This tells us that a lot more people with asthma need to have sleep studies," Bria said.

Sleep apnea is typically treated with a continuous positive airway pressure device, essentially a nasal breathing mask. Bria said the University of Michigan center was also conducting a study to see if patients with persistent asthma benefited from treatment with the device, and said early results were promising.

Final results from the questionnaire, presented in San Diego at a meeting of the American Thoracic Society, are expected later this year.