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
For some reason, the more I read about sleep apnea and its symptoms, the more I’m convinced that I have at least a mild form of the disorder. Without a sleep study, though, I wouldn’t be able to get a CPAP Machine even if I wanted to pay for the whole thing myself (which I don’t). If the problem really does affect around 25% of the population here, I’d say it’s time to subsidize some sleep centers so we can keep our workforce healthy. Anyone with me?