Former Chinese gymnast and Olympic champion Yang Wei has revealed that he has a potentially deadly respiratory condition that means he will have to use a ventilator to help him sleep at night for the rest of his life.
In a post on his Douyin social media account, the 43-year-old gold medalist said doctors have diagnosed him with sleep apnea, a condition caused by narrowed airways which leads to heavy snoring and constant bouts of not breathing.
Yang said medical experts told him that on some occasions his breathing stopped for up to six minutes during sleep, a potential threat to his life which would require him to use a ventilator.
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The athlete said he thought he was healthier than average for a person of his age because he works out several times a week at his home gym and has passed physical tests.
Yang began to train as a gymnast when he was five years old and a glittering career saw him win multiple gold medals in individual and team competitions, including two at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
He retired the following year and married his longtime girlfriend and former gymnast, Yang Yun. He now works as an influencer and reality show star.
The news has once again put the common yet hidden condition of sleep apnea under the spotlight.
Previously, Hong Kong businessman and politician Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, known more widely on the mainland as Chinese diving champion Guo Jingjing’s husband, and Taiwanese actress Joe Chen Chiau-en, both revealed they suffered from the sleep disorder.
Chen, 44, said tests showed her breathing stops 25 times, each as long as 50 seconds over an hour-long period of deep sleep. She was forced to have the muscles in the back of her throat removed last year to alleviate the problem.
The actress said she had not known she had sleep apnea until her husband, whom she married last year, told her she had serious snoring problems.
The secretary-general of the World Sleep Society and Peking University People’s Hospital professor, Han Fang, told the Global Times that one in five people who snore has sleep apnea, and that their risk of sudden death is three times higher than that of healthy people.
A doctor at the Sleep Medicine Division of the Hangzhou Seventh People’s Hospital, Liu Wenjuan, told Hangzhou News Flash that people who snore heavily, have a poor memory, experience daytime sleepiness and suffer from obesity are more likely to have the condition.
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