Research Identifies A Potential Link Between Sleep Quality & Gut Health

The gut is connected to pretty much every system in the body. Feeling moody? Constantly constipated? Coming down with a cold? The gut could be contributing to all of it.

For this study, researchers started with two groups of mice: one group breathed normally, while the other was given what mimicked human OSA. 

After six weeks, researchers introduced a third group of mice and gave them each fecal transplants. Half of the mice received a fecal transplant from the normal breathing group, while the others received a fecal transplant from the apnea group. The sleep patterns of this third group were then monitored for three days.

Lead researcher David Gozal, M.D., says that this study shows that manipulating the gut microbiome could eventually help prevent and manage sleep apnea issues. 

"For example, if we combine continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) with customized probiotics that change the patient's gut microbiome," he says, "we might be able to eliminate some of the tiredness and fatigue, and reduce the likelihood of the comorbidities associated with OSA that affect cognition, memory, cardiovascular disease or metabolic dysfunction."