Ian J. Neeland, MD, FACC, FAHA, is co-director of the Center for Integrated and Novel Approaches in Vascular-Metabolic Disease for University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute and director of the UH Center for Cardiovascular Prevention, in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. Here, he explains how sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors can treat metabolic physiologic effects of sleep apnea.
Transcript
It has been several years since the first studies showed GLP1-receptor agonists and sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors can reduce cardiovascular events. What have we learned about the mechanisms of action of these drugs that makes them useful for multiple purposes?
There are many physiologic effects of SGLT2 inhibitors, both in the heart as well as the kidney. SGLT2 inhibition can improve glycemic control, high blood pressure–it can alter obesity or hypotoxicity, potentially inflammation, hypoxia, and fibrosis.
As we're learning more about these different effects of these medications, sleep deficiency, which is a metabolic problem often—not just related to an atomic dysfunction the way your anatomy is, [such as] thick neck or fat deposition of the neck that crowds out the airway—but also there's metabolic or non-anatomic physiologic traits of sleep apnea that SGLT2 inhibition actually might influence–these non-anatomic metabolic traits.
SGLT2 inhibition, in a sense, actually can attack both the anatomic problem–like the fat deposition, decrease the adiposity in the neck and in the gut—as well as potentially improve the metabolism in the patient to actually treat sleep deficiency from both ends.
What We’re Reading: Abortion Privacy Rules; Alzheimer Drug Hurdles; Nursing Home Staffing Overhaul
April 23rd 2024New health privacy rules aim to protect patients and providers in an evolving abortion landscape; some physicians express concerns about efficacy, risks, and entrenched beliefs in treating Alzheimer disease; CMS addresses longstanding staffing deficits in nursing homes.
Read More
Empowering Community Health Through Wellness and Faith
April 23rd 2024To help celebrate and recognize National Minority Health Month, we are bringing you a special month-long podcast series with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan. In the third episode, Camille Clarke-Smith, EdD, MS, CHES, CPT, discusses approaching community health holistically through spiritual and community engagement.
Listen
Overcoming Employment Barriers for Lasting Social Impact: Freedom House 2.0 and Pathways to Work
April 16th 2024To help celebrate and recognize National Minority Health Month, we are bringing you a special month-long podcast series with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan. Welcome to our second episode, in which we learn all about Freedom House 2.0 and the Pathways to Work program.
Listen