The human body was not made to live at 18,000 feet. Altitude sickness occurs when people go to a higher altitude too quickly and do not get enough oxygen in the air they breathe. Common symptoms include having a headache and not feeling like Oxygen is so scarce at that altitude that few plants or animals can live. For visiting humans the thin air fogs the mind, makes small actions arduous and keeps cuts and infections from healing. Even the most sedentary activity of all, sleeping, is severely disturbed in this alien environment. At altitude normal people often develop periodic breathing in sleep - regularly recurring periods ofhyperpnea and apnea.

This phenomenon is probably explained by instability of the negative feedback system for controlling ventilation. Such systems can be modeled by sets of differential equations that describe behavior of key components of the system and how they interact. Mathematical models of the breathing control system have increased in complexity and the accuracy with which they simulate human physiology. Recent papers by Zbigniew Topor et al. (5,6) describe a model with two separate feedback loops, one simulating peripheral and the other central chemoreceptor reflexes, as well as accurate representations of blood components, circulatory loops and brain blood flow. This model shows unstable breathing when one chemoreceptor loop has high gain while the other has low gain, but not when both have high gain. It also behaves in counter-intuitive way by becoming more stable when brain blood flow is reduced and unresponsive to blood. gas changes. Insights from such models may bring us closer to understanding high altitude periodic breathing.

The widely used club drug ecstasy appears to increase the risk of sleep apnea, say U.S. researchers.

“People who use ecstasy need to know that this drug damages the brain and can cause immediate and dangerous problems such as sleep apnea,” study author Dr. Una McCann, of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, said in a news release.

McCann and colleagues conducted sleep tests on 71 people who’d used ecstasy (MDMA) and 62 people who’d never used the illegal drug. Ecstasy users had a more than eight-fold increased risk of sleep apnea compared to non-users. Mild sleep apnea rates were similar in both groups (21% of ecstasy users and 27% of non-users), but only ecstasy users had moderate (13%) or severe (1%) sleep apnea.

The longer a person used ecstasy, the more sleep apnea episodes they experienced, said the researchers. They also found that ecstasy use was a greater risk factor for sleep apnea than obesity.

The study is published in the Dec. 2 online issue of the journal Neurology.

Source: http://www.medicinenet.com

What is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep Apnea — a condition in which your tongue and soft palate collapse onto the back of your throat during sleep. This blocks your airway and, when your oxygen level drops low enough, it forces your brain to move out of deep sleep to partially awaken you. You awaken repeatedly with a loud gasp and return to sleep.

If you have been diagnosed with sleep apnea you can get follow advices:

1. - Tell a spouse or responsible persons the details of your diagnosis and treatment so they can inform the physician in an emergency situation

2. - Avoid narcotic (opioid) pain medications such as morphine, which can lead to life-threatening hypoxia (low oxygen), even in patients with mild sleep apnea

3. - Avoid alcoholic beverages (or use with moderation) within 3 hours of bedtime

4. - Avoid (or use with ca

ution) sleeping pills and other medication known to cause sedation

5. - If you smoke, quit. You are three times more likely to have sleep apnea if you smoke than if you never smoked or stopped smoking. - Improve your nasal breathing. f you suffer from a ‘stuffed up’ nose, then try using a nasal spray to help open up your nasal airway. Nasal sprays should not however be used regularly or for prolonged periods, as they can cause damage to the tissues of the nose.

6. - Avoid sleeping at high altitude. Altitude can make the loss of oxygen that occurs with sleep apnea worse

7. - If your sleep apnea causes you to be sleepy, avoid operating a motor vehicle or other machinery potentially dangerous to yourself or others until you are adequately treated

8. - If you are being treated with CPAP, always take your CPAP machine with you if you are being admitted to a hospital.

9. - If you are overweight, lose weight. Sleep apnea is strongly linked to obesity. For more information or to get help with weight loss, visit

10. - Sleep on your side. you’re typical of the majority of sleep apnea sufferers you sleep on your back, making it far easier for the tissues in your throat, and for your tongue, to block your airway. Even if you go to sleep on your side, you probably roll onto your back shortly after falling asleep.

The following lifestyle changes habits can control sleep apnea:

- Lose weight.

- Minimise your intake of alcohol, anti-histamines and tranquilisers.

- Get treated for allergies and colds, or sinus problems.

- Gargle with salt water to shrink your tonsils.

- Develop regular sleep habits.

- Sleep on your side rather than on your back or with your body elevated from the waist up. You can use foam wedges to raise your upper body.

The symptoms of sleep apnea. People with sleep apnea usually snore loudly and have restless sleep. Often these symptoms are not noticed by the person with sleep apnea but by the partner. The partner may also notice pauses in breathing and snoring lasting between 10 seconds and a minute. Each pause ends with a very deep gasping or snoring noise and a brief awakening as the person struggles to breathe. As a result of the problems during sleep, the person with sleep apnea is usually very sleepy in the day and may wake in the morning feeling “hungover”. As the day progresses the lack of sleep may take its toll and they struggle to stay awake. In passive situations, such as watching TV, this may not be a problem but it can affect the person’s ability to concentrate and function at work. It can be extremely dangerous if it occurs while driving. Other symptoms which can occur in untreated sleep apnea are impotence, personality changes, depression, irritability, loss of memory and concentration and increased frequency of urination at night.
Sleep apnea affects families. Snoring and apnea can be extremely irritating and disrupt the sleep of the bed partner. These problems can aggravate, or become a focus for, marital disharmony and family stress. It is made worse by the unexplained sleepiness and lack of interest in family life of the person with apnea.
Sleep apnea is associated with heart attacks and stroke. There is strong evidence that people with moderate to severe sleep apnea die prematurely. If you have sleep apnea you are more likely to have cardiovascular disease than someone without sleep apnea. Towards the end of each apnea cycle blood pressure may rise substantially and the heart beat becomes irregular. This may lead to daytime high blood pressure (hypertension). If you are overweight you may also be at risk of diabetes and have high cholesterol. Taken together these risk factors result in an increased chance of the person having a heart attack or a stroke. Treating sleep apnea eliminates one of these risks.
Sleep apnea causes motor vehicle accidents. Research has shown that people with sleep apnea are at least 4 times as likely to have a motor vehicle accident. Their performance on driving simulators is noticeably worse as the disrupted night-time sleep leads to a reduced ability to concentrate and increased chance of falling asleep at the wheel. When sleep apnea occurs in people who have occupations involving operating machinery or transport this can be a lethal combination.
What causes sleep apnea? There are two types of apnea obstructive apnea and central apnea. Obstructive apnea is the result of obstruction of the airway leading from the nose or mouth to the lungs. The obstruction is usually the result of a narrowed airway which becomes partly or completely blocked when the muscles around the airway relax during sleep. Central apnea is uncommon and results when the signals from the brain to regulate breathing are disrupted in some way.
Who gets sleep apnea? Sleep apnea can occur at any age. In childhood apnea is commonly the result of enlarged tonsils or adenoids or of some cranio-facial abnormality. In adulthood apnea becomes more common in middle age and is more common in men than in women, although after menopause women may be at increased risk. Sleep apnea is often associated with being overweight, particularly with excess fatty tissue around the neck. In people who are not overweight, it is likely that they have been born with a narrow airway or facial structure which leads to a narrow airway. Almost everyone who has obstructive sleep apnea snores as snoring is also the result of narrow or floppy upper airways.
How is sleep apnea diagnosed? Signs and symptoms such as snoring, obesity, observed apnea and sleepiness in the day may suggest that a person has sleep apnea but the best way to be really sure is with an overnight sleep study. In the sleep study the patient is wired up and attached to computers which measure their sleep, their breathing and oxygen levels. Everyone experiences a small amount of disruption to breathing during sleep but someone with sleep apnea may have as many as one hundred of these events per hour.
How is sleep apnea treated? The treatment of choice for sleep apnea is called nasal continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP. This consists of a pump that blows air through a mask worn over the nose. CPAP only needs to be used at night and the treatment is almost always effective in controlling the symptoms and the long term consequences of sleep apnea. The noise of the machine is generally much less obtrusive than the snoring that preceded it. Surgical treatments have been tried but they may not be effective in everyone and may have side effects that are undesirable. Devices that fit in the mouth and hold the jaw forward may create a larger airway and reduce the severity of the sleep apnea but these also may not work for everyone. There is no effective drug for treating sleep apnea although a number have been tried. A number of other remedies have been marketed but none has been shown to be effective.
Sleep apnea and obesity. In many people sleep apnea results from being overweight. If this is the case, losing weight may help or even cure the apnea but before stopping CPAP treatment you should consult your sleep physician. In any case, losing weight may assist with cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure and with diabetes management.
Things to avoid if you have sleep apnea. There are some things that make apnea worse and even if you are on CPAP treatment, should be avoided. Alcohol relaxes muscles and may worsen apnea as may sleeping tablets which depress the drive to breathe. It is advisable to try and maintain a regular sleeping pattern. Other things that disrupt sleep such as caffeine and eating late at night should also be avoided.

Sleep apnea affects numerous people. It is a condition where a person stops breathing while sleeping. It can affect anybody of any age, race, or gender. There are three types of sleep apnea: obstructive, central and mixed. The cause of each type is specific and determining which type you have is necessary to see what type of treatment you should get.

Only your doctor or sleep specialist can tell you which treatment option is best for you.

1. Obstructive Sleep Apnea (or O.S.A. for short) is about as bad as it gets. People may joke about it, but O.S.A. iscertainly no laughing matter because it can kill you. And according to the Mayo Clinic, up to 1 in 4 Americans suffer from this deadly health concern. Now this is a really worrying statistic to say the least.

- Positional therapy: Apneas be predisposed to be worse when sleeping on the back as gravity makes it more likely for the tongue to fall back over the airway and/or for the airway muscles and other tissue) to collapse and block the airway.

- Weight loss: Sleep apnea can be weight-related. Additional fat around the neck may make the airway narrower, making obstructions more likely to occur. For some overweight people, especially those with mild cases, losing weight can be an effective treatment.

- Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) CPAP is the most effective method for treating obstructive sleep apnea. It can sometimes be hard to use, but any complaints about the comfort of the machine or mask can usually be addressed easily. Talk to your doctor or home care company representative about any discomfort you may have.

- Surgery: The intention of surgery is to create a more open airway so obstructions are less likely to occur. There are several different surgical procedures with different effectiveness rates, and surgery can also sometimes worsen the apnea.

2. Central sleep apnea is less frequent. It is caused by a neurological disorder rather than something physical as in obstructive sleep apnea. The brain is to blame here as it does not tell your body to breath or when it tells your body to breath the message gets interrupted and never reaches where it is supposed to. This type of sleep apnea has the same effects as obstructive in that it reduced blood oxygen levels.

- Treatment with the drugs acerazlamide and theophyllinr to stimulate the need to breathe.

- In a few cases, CPAP (continuous airway pressure} may be of value.

- Other possible drug therapy: protriptolyne, klonopin.

- Administration of low doses of oxygen.

3. Mixed sleep apnea is a combination of the two other types of sleep apnea, Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Central Sleep Apnea. There is both obstruction of the air passages and dysfunction of the brain. A person with mixed sleep apnea will often snore, but finds that treatments which only help obstructions in the airways do not completely stop apnea episodes.

Treatment usually includes a combination of the treatments used for obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is as frequent in adults as diabetes. It can also affect children. It can be scary if left undiagnosed. The lack of blood oxygen can cause extremely harmful effects. If you suspect you have sleep apnea you should see your doctor.

Documentary source: http://www.sleepapnea.org

Sleep and weight loss have a power connection. They are invert relation: sleep loss, weight gain and sleep more, weight loss. Sleep loss appears to do two worst things that affect our weight: boost the appetite that makes you take in more calories and reduce the metabolism which helps to burn calories.

Study:
Researchers at Laval University in Quebec looked at 276 people for six years who were part of a larger Canadian study.

Sleep duration was determined from a questionnaire and the participants were classified into three groups: short sleepers slept five to six hours a night, the average got seven to eight hours, and the long sleepers put in nine to 10 hours of sleep every night.

Some of the findings:
Over six years, short sleepers were 35% more likely to gain 11 pounds than average-duration sleepers.
Over the same time period, long sleepers were 25% more likely to gain 11 pounds than average-duration sleepers.
Short sleepers gained 58% more around their waists and 124% more body fat than the average sleeper.

Sleep Apnea and Weight
Weight loss to treat sleep apnea can create an interesting dilemma. While losing weight reduces the symptoms of sleep apnea, losing weight when you have sleep apnea can prove to be a difficult undertaking. The reason for this is simple: when you can’t get enough sleep, you are too tired to exercise for weight loss.

Sleep, Hormones and Weight Gain
Leptin and Grehlin are hormones that help the body control appetite and weight gain and loss. Leptin suppresses appetite, while Grehlin increases appetite and may prevent a person from losing weight.
If you do not get enough sleep, as is the case with people who have sleep apnea, the levels of the hormones lepitin produced by your body go down so you don’t feel satisfied when you eat and levels of Grehlin increases, causing greater appetite

Conclusion: If you are experiencing problems sleeping and think your sleeping disorders might be causing you to gain weight, you should consider visiting a doctor, who can discuss ways to help restore your normal sleeping pattern. So: getting your sleep problems diagnosed and treated may be the first step in accomplishing your weight loss goals.