Feed: My Life and Sleep Apnea - AggScore: 45.6
Summary: My Life and Sleep Apnea
I have had Sleep Apnea for years. I have tried both cpap and bipap and neither one has worked. I am still trying to find out how to beat this.
Sleep apnea and cancer
Just when you thought that
you have heard about every bad thing that can happen to a sleep
apnea sufferers, two more studies come out that suggest that
there is a connection between cancer and sleep apnea.
The New York Times Well Blog describe how one of the tests in
Spain suggested that
the most severe sleep apnea patients have a 65 percent chance of
developing cancer than those folks without it. The other study
was in Wisconsin where they looked at 1500 government workers and
determined that they have 5 times the rate of dying from cancer
than those who don’t have sleep apnea.
Of course these tests aren’t
a 100 percent certainty that there is a connection between sleep
apnea and cancer, but it does make you wonder. I’d imagine that
the use of CPAP on a regular basis would probably be helpful at
lowering the odds of getting cancer from sleep apnea, but the
report didn’t look at that.
Feel free to comment and
please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published:
Sleep walking and sleep apnea
I remember as a child having
episodes of sleepwalking. It really didn’t seem to bother me much
until I woke during a walk in the middle of night in another room
in the house. It was very disorienting to slowly realize that you
don’t know where you are. My parent didn’t seem concerned
assuming that I would just outgrow it and I did. I wondered
whether my other sleep problem, which is sleep apnea, might have
something to do with that.
According to Science Daily “Nearly 1 in 10 patients with obstructive sleep
apnea also experience "parasomnia" symptoms such as sleepwalking,
hallucinations and acting out their dreams” which seems strange
to me considering how little sleep folks with apnea get but there
is a study from Loyola University Chicago Stritch
School of Medicine to back it up.
Sleepwalking
occurs during the “deep sleep” stage of sleep. What causes it is
unknown but it might be because of mental disorders, medications,
fatigue and alcohol. The majority of cases happen to children.
Folks would do sleepwalk have their eyes open and they may do a
number of routine activities around the house, although they
wouldn’t remember them later.
A recent study
has suggested that nearly 30 percent of folks in a study have had
some kind of sleep walking occurrence as an adult or child
according to webmd.com. These numbers have dramatically
increased over the past 30 years.
Feel free to
comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: May 20, 2012 - 6:00 am
Sleep apnea and the NFL
Sleep apnea has become a
major health risk for an ever growing segment of the population.
Why now? There are a couple reasons such as sleep disorders and
sleep apnea in particular has gotten a lot of press over the
years as health in general is being closely watched. Lack of
sleep can lead to more problems than just being tired. Another
health issue that is connected to sleep apnea is being
overweight. The excess pounds are a major contributing fact to
sleep apnea where fat in the face and neck areas can cause
blockage in the back of the throat. One group of folks that seem
to be affected by this is NFL players.
According to a story on ABC GMA “A new
medical study finds that up to one-third of NFL players have
sleep apnea, a disorder that creates serious health risks and
increases the chance that players will not get a good night's
sleep before they hit the gridiron.”
That is mind
boggling but certainly believable considering excess weight is a
big part of sleep apnea. Being over 300 pounds isn’t out of the
norm for a lot of players especially line men. And having a large
thick neck along with being heavy also ups the odds of getting
sleep apnea.
It seems
certain that the league is taking sleep apnea very seriously
considering all the health risks that are involved for the
players.
Feel free to
comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: May 13, 2012 - 6:00 am
What is Titration?
The most common treatment
for sleep apnea is using a CPAP machine where air is pushed
through a tube into your throat to keep your airway open. While
it sounds rather simple there are quite a few issues that are
involved with this process with the biggest being the comfort of
wearing a mask at night and having air forced into your throat.
Not everyone can get used to the mask but many do. What does get
a little tricky is how much air pressure is taken through the
mask. This is called titration.
If you think that you have
sleep apnea your first step should be to your general
practitioner who will send you on to a sleep specialist, who are
typically ENTs or pulmonologists (respiratory doctors). If the
sleep specialist thinks that you may have sleep apnea then they
will set up a sleep study which will determine whether you have
sleep apnea or not.
In my case the first sleep
study was just to determine if I had sleep apnea whereas some
folks have a split study where the second half of the night the
sleep technicians put a CPAP mask on you. The technicians will monitor
your sleeping or lack of it from another room. They can also
adjust the amount of air that is going through your CPAP mask.
Hopefully at the end of the study the sleep techs will have
enough information to send to your doctor to recommend a
titration setting on the CPAP machine.
If you do decide to try the
CPAP machine the titration rate will be adjusted for you by a
sleep tech. usually a nurse or someone who specializes in CPAP
setting will come out to your house with the CPAP and set it up
for you.
Feel free to comment and
please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: May 06, 2012 - 6:00 am
How fast is sleep apnea’s damage?
Some illnesses bring on
health problems right away whereas others might go undetected for
quite a while. I used to wonder where you would put sleep apnea,
does it have an immediate impact on you or does it take a
while. If you
consider that there are a lot of folks that have sleep apnea and
don’t even know it you would think that severe health risks would
arise after some time. In a recent article in Science Daily they go over a study that showed
how quickly sleep apnea can affect the body.
The study looked at the
effect that sleep apnea had on a group of middle aged men who had
obstructive sleep apnea and their conclusion was that even a mild
form of sleep apnea can cause problems in the cerebral vessels
which may lead to a stroke. What is really frightening is
that the cerebral vessels may be altered after 30 days!
That has to be awfully scary
for anyone who has had sleep apnea it should also be “wakeup
call” for those who think that they might have sleep apnea but
they haven’t been tested. If the present is any
indication the number of people with sleep apnea will continue to
rise causing an incredible health risk in the future.
Feel free to comment and
please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Apr 29, 2012 - 6:00 am
Provent nasal patch and sleep apnea
Last year on a post I wrote
about a new device that helps those with mild to moderate sleep
apnea the Provent Nasal Patch. It seems that the device has been
getting more popular and more press since it was approved in 2008
by the FDA.
The idea behind the Nasal
patch is quite simple. A plug is put in each nostril and there is
adhesive to hold them in place. The device is referred to as an
EPAP or expiratory positive airway pressure which in essence
causes pressure through exhalation this forcing the upper airway
to become open. The patches are also disposable. There are been
studies that show the device to be highly effective for more
information on subsequent studies go to the National Institute of Health’s page on the device
and study.
As you can imagine not
everyone is suited for this type of device although it might not
be as cumbersome as a CPAP mask and probably not as
effective. I don’t
know if the insurance companies are covering yet it would
probably be best just to check with your health care
provider.
The company that makes it
refers to it as Proventtherapy, check out their website for
further information.
Feel Free to comment and
please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Apr 22, 2012 - 6:00 am
My father had sleep apnea also
Your family’s health history
especially your parents can be a great indicator of potential
health problems down the road. In my own case my father had heart
disease and died from a heart attack, it wasn’t really surprising
to find out that heart problems ran in his family. This
information has been golden for me because I have made sure that
my cholesterol and blood pressure has been in the normal range
for quite a few years. But there are some illnesses
like sleep apnea where you wouldn’t think that heredity would
play a part in it, but it does. Unfortunately my father had sleep
apnea and so do I.
Of course there is more than
one factor that leads to sleep apnea; probably the main one is
being overweight. When you put on the extra pounds some of them
end up on your face and neck which in turn contributes to the
blockage of the airway in the back of the throat. I’m not sure
that being overweight is caused by heredity but some folks seem
to think so.
The possible connection with
regards to sleep apnea between my father and me is the shape of
our faces. That seems strange but the shape of one’s face can
cause sleep apnea. If the face is round and big this somehow can
cause a blockage in the back of the throat. There seems to be
some validity in that because his face was round like mine. What
was also strange was that he wasn’t overweight at all.
Feel free to comment and
please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Apr 15, 2012 - 6:00 am
Sleep apnea and mandibular advancement splint
Last week I was discussing
sleep apnea and surgeries and how they are usually reserved for
those who have tried the CPAP and it doesn’t really help them. I
received a comment from Thomas Bishara, DMD about the mandibular
advancement splint (a device that I can’t remember if I had heard
about before or not)
Here is the comment…
I treat Obstructive Sleep
Apnea (OSA) and primary snoring patients. The mandibular
advancement splint is a popular non-surgical approach to
snoring/OSA treatment.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends oral appliance therapy as the first line therapy for mild and moderate OSA. Patients with severe OSA should try CPAP first. If patient is found to be CPAP intolerant, they should be fitted for a MAS.
We also use combination CPAP/MAS to reduce the CPAP pressure and make using CPAP more comfortable. Many patients have tried the surgical route with mixed results, Thanks for your post
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends oral appliance therapy as the first line therapy for mild and moderate OSA. Patients with severe OSA should try CPAP first. If patient is found to be CPAP intolerant, they should be fitted for a MAS.
We also use combination CPAP/MAS to reduce the CPAP pressure and make using CPAP more comfortable. Many patients have tried the surgical route with mixed results, Thanks for your post
The mandibular
advancement splint sounds interesting of course like the Dr. said
it is only for mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea. Any time
you can find a non-surgical device to help with sleep apnea you
should consider it. I looked at Wikipedia and I found a picture of the device.
Although it doesn’t appear to be very comfortable looking it
still may be worth a try.
Feel free to
comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Apr 08, 2012 - 6:00 am
How effective are sleep apnea surgeries
Any kind of surgery can be
risky and that certainly holds true for sleep apnea surgeries. If
you have talked to anyone that has been trying to get rid of
sleep apnea then you’ll know that surgery isn’t high on the list
of possible cures.
The reason is that not everyone believes most types of sleep
apnea surgeries work, which is why everyone tries very hard to
make the CPAP work.
The question remains how effective are sleep apnea
surgeries?
Obstructive sleep apnea is
caused by a blockage of the airway in the back of throat. Typical
causes for this blockage is being overweight, having enlarged
tongue or even the shape of your face might be a factor. (There
is also central sleep apnea but that isn’t caused by
obstruction of the airway.)
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) is the most common type of
sleep apnea surgery. The effectiveness rate is somewhere between
40 and 60 percent. According to webmd.com
“There is no clear research on how well UPPP works for
sleep apnea” so you can see why a lot of folks don’t have
confidence in it.
Another surgery that a doctor of mine suggested was
maxillomandibular advancement where the jaw is
moved forward helping unblock the airway in the back of the
throat. I didn’t go
ahead with it because the average of it working didn’t outweigh
the cost which was a long and painful recovery.
There
are other surgeries like Laser-assisted
uvulopalatoplasty
but it is used on
less severe cases of sleep apnea. As always get at least another
doctor’s opinion before agreeing on any sleep apnea
surgery.
Feel
free to comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Apr 01, 2012 - 6:00 am
Strange cures for sleep apnea
Conventional wisdom always
tells us to follow the tried and true cures for illnesses whether
it is for a cold or something much worse. And that makes sense
because your doctor is usually instructing you to do that.
However you probably have also heard of home remedies or tricks
that can also make you better. The main remedy for sleep apnea
of course is the CPAP machine, a rather cumbersome device that
blows air down your mouth while you try to sleep. The constant
air forces the airway to remain open in the back of the throat.
While this method has proven to be effective for a lot of folks
it is very difficult to get used to. There are other cures, strange
cures, for sleep apnea.
You probably wouldn’t think
that making faces would help with sleep apnea but some people
believe that it does. In the past I have written about
face and throat exercises and how they strengthen the
throat muscle which in turn prevents them from collapsing while
you sleep. I have
read that some folks have found this beneficial but not
everyone.
Another is playing the
didgeridoo, a wind instrument from the
aborigines from Australia. Once again this will supposedly
strengthen the muscles of the back throat.
Something that isn’t really
strange but I know will help is losing weight in the battle will
sleep apnea. Less weight means less fat around the fat which
another cause of blocking the airway. Losing weight when you are
tired isn’t easy but it is definitely worth a try.
Feel free to comment and
please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Mar 25, 2012 - 6:00 am
Sleep apnea and pneumonia
As most folks with sleep
apnea have found out, this disorder can cause more problems than
just a lack of sleep. In previous posts I have written about the
major danger of sleep apnea and that is the blockage of air in
the back of the throat which means that oxygen is cut off forcing
you to wake up quickly. Sleep apnea also can be a cause of
diabetes as well. Plus all the problems associated with sleep
deprivation such as memory loss and not being able to
concentrate.
Something that I didn’t realize though was that there is a
connection between sleep apnea and pneumonia.
According to the National Library of Medicine pneumonia is “a
breathing (respiratory) condition in which there is an infection of
the lung. It is also a common illness that affects millions of
people each year in the United States. Germs called bacteria,
viruses, and fungi may cause pneumonia”Connection between pneumonia and sleep apnea
According to a study there seem to be a connection between community acquired pneumonia and sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome. That certainly makes sense because pneumonia is caused by an infection of the lung and sleep apnea also has an adverse effect on the lungs. Bronchitis is also another disorder that is similar to pneumonia and has also been connected with sleep apnea.
Feel free to comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Mar 11, 2012 - 6:00 am
Idiopathic hypersomnia and sleep apnea
Surprisingly enough not all sleep disorders are derived
from sleeping too little. Sleep apnea, caused by blockage
in the back of the throat, results in getting very little sleep
if any and insomnia, which is the common of sleep disorders,
prevents you from getting any rest. 30 to 40 percent of all adults
have some sort of insomnia during the year. But there are those that have
just the opposite problem, they sleep too much. If you have
problems sleeping you probably don’t think that would be much of
a problem but it is. Idiopathic hypersomnia is where you are
sleeping excessively without a cause.
One
sleep disorder that also causes you to fall asleep at any time or
anywhere is narcolepsy. However with idiopathic hypersomnia
it can be just as difficult to fight off daytime
sleepiness as it is with narcolepsy. Another distinction is that
with hypersomnia night time sleep isn’t interrupted unlike
narcolepsy. According to the National Library of Medicine someone
with this type of disorder can sleep between 14 and 18 hours a
night. Even a nap during the day doesn’t necessarily help.
Since the name of the disorder has the word “idiopathic” in
it you can probably guess that what causes this sleep problem are
unknown. Treatments vary from changing your sleep routines to
medications, check with your doctor to see what options you may
have.
Feel
free to comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Mar 04, 2012 - 6:00 am
Sleep apnea can be a problem for children
In my own sleep apnea story
I really didn’t develop the sleep disorder till I was in my
thirties. I’m not
quite sure why but I assume it had to do with the fact that I
gained a lot of weight and due to a back problem I had to sleep
on back instead of my stomach or side. Did I have sleep apnea
before that? I might have but no one ever talk about it when I
was younger. In
today’s world sleep apnea is well known to be found in folks of
all ages, from babies to kids to adults. It seems that sleep
apnea can be more of a problem then you think for
children.
What are the causes of sleep
apnea in children?
Like adults obesity is a
leading cause of sleep apnea. The more weight that you carry
around especially around your neck causes blockage in the airway
of your throat. Since childhood obesity is such a major problem
today this also leads to an increase in diabetes for children. Other causes of sleep apnea for
children are an enlarged tongue and tonsils.
It is also found that kids
who have sleep apnea are also more likely to have other sleep
disorders such as bedwetting, night terrors and snoring. This may also contribute to
learning problems and behavioral issues.
Surprisingly enough infants can also have sleep apnea as well,
with the blockage of the airway as a cause.
Feel free to comment and
please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Feb 26, 2012 - 6:00 am
Hearing loss and sleep apnea
It seems at times that sleep
apnea can be connected to just about any kind of health problem
that you can imagine and that is certainly understandable
considering how it affects the body. Not getting enough or any rest
makes you susceptible to injuries because of your lack of
concentration. It is well known about all the things that can
happen to your body when you don’t get enough oxygen (caused by
obstruction in the back of the throat) such as heart disease,
diabetes and blood pressure problems. What I just found out that
there might be a connection between hearing loss and sleep
apnea.
There was a study done in
Taiwan that suggests that there could be a link between OSA and
hearing loss according to Rueters.com. Sudden hearing loss was found
in people who had sleep apnea as well, although the percentage
wasn’t that high. A
Doctor is quoted in the article that the problem of sudden
hearing loss may be due to plaque in the blood vessels which can
occur with sleep apnea. The vessels of the brain that control
hearing may also be affected by plaque as well causing hearing
loss. While nothing can be substantiated or definitely proven it
opens up another area to study with regards to sleep
apnea.
Feel free to comment and
please subscribe to my RSS Feed
Thanks
Date Published: Feb 19, 2012 - 6:00 am
Visitor Rating: 5 (1) (Rate)
 |
|
Story Clicks: 0
Feed Views: 46
Lenses (Add|?)
Comments (Log in to add)
Feed Details
Date Added: 12/03/2009
Date Approved: 12/03/2009
By: Anonymous
Date Approved: 12/03/2009
By: Anonymous
Search FeedAgg.com
3600 mp8479 serv 1.6856 seconds to generate.