Weight loss pill is ''perfect to stop snoring''
03/02/2010
A once-a-day pill known as Qnexa, which is comprised of a mixture of a stimulant drug phentermine and an anti-epilepsy drug topiramate, is being championed by a number of experts as the "holy grail" of snoring therapy.
Following a six-month trial involving 45 patients between 30 and 65, it was found by researchers that the number of times patients'' sleep was affected by snoring-related problems fell from around 46 times an hour to just 14, signalling a drop of nearly 70 per cent.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, professor Jim Horne, a specialist in sleep medicine at Loughborough University in UK, said that when people lie down in bed, muscles relax and the fat around their neck compresses the airway more.
He continued: "It''s possible this drug helps by triggering weight loss or it might be that it somehow makes the throat muscles a bit more taut."
"We won''t know whether it is any use to habitual snorers who are not overweight until more research has been carried out."
By most accounts, around half of people snore at least occasionally and many treatments are emerging in regards to surgery to lessen the chances of sleep apnoea and other snoring-related conditions.
Posted by Elizabeth Mewes
