As many as one in four U.S. adults between 30 and 70 suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, a chronic disorder that causes small pauses in your breathing during sleep. For the ten percent of Americans with sleep apnea who do seek treatment that means using clunky mouthpieces or breathing machines every night when you sleep (so air can flow unobstructed in and out of the throat). The yohimbine stops the tongue from relaxing during sleep, preventing it from falling back and blocking the airway in the throat, study author Chi-Sang Poon told The Huffington Post. As a dietary supplement, yohimbine has long been used to treat erectile dysfunction, as an aphrodisiac and as a performance enhancer for body builders. This study is the first time that researchers are aware of that the chemical has been used to help to treat sleep apnea, Poon said.

Source: Huffington Post March 23, 2017 17:37 UTC