Is there a cure for sleep apnea?
by Sarah Aniston
Filed under Sleep Apnea Books
I’ve been having sleep apnea for a few years now. My roomates keep complaining about it. Is there any way to fix it?
also I’m aware that its a weight issue im working on that right now. I was just wonder if there was like some kind of breathing exercise or something to help it for the time being.
“Cure” probably isn’t the right word. Here are several things you can try for sleep apna:
1. Monitor your weight. If your weight is significantly above the normal range for your height, this could be a factor. Taking off extra weight often helps alleviate sleep apnea.
2. Don’t drink alcohol. Excess alcohol use (especially before bedtime) can also exacerbate sleep apnea symptoms.
3. Sleep on your side, rather than your back.
4. See your doctor and discuss whether CPAP is appropriate for you. CPAP is a mask that delivers continuous air while you are sleeping. This is cumbersome, though, and should be a last resort.
Good luck!
For mild obstructive sleep apnea, treatment often consists of avoiding sleep on one’s back. Other people have a significant problem when the nose is congested, so decongestant therapy may be helpful for them. A more drastic treatment if the patient is overweight, is weight reduction. It is also recommended to avoid central nervous system depressants, such as alcoholic beverages, or hypnotic or sedative drugs. Most serious sleep apnea cases can be relieved by a treatment called nasal continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP. CPAP uses a small mask held onto the nose by straps, and has pouches that insert into the nostrils. The mask is connected to a motor that regulates the amount and pressure of air sent into the nose, exerting pressure to keep the nasal passages open. The pressure is determined by polysomnography. CPAP works by holding open the nose and the back of the throat. Unfortunately, many CPAP users never continue therapy beyond the first night, let alone for the first week, because they find sleeping with a mask on the face uncomfortable. Other forms of surgery might provide relief for the 10 percent of patients with serious sleep apnea for whom CPAP does not work. In the nearly unpronounceable but helpful uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP), the back part of the soft palate and tissue at the back of the throat are removed, opening up more airspace.
I add a link with internal links with details of this subject
http://www.medicinenet.com/
sleep_apnea/article.htm
Hope this helps
matador 89
There are tree types of sleep apnea, being the most common obstructive sleep apnea.There is no cure for sleep apnea but there are several treatments you can try like “nasal pillows”.Sleep apnea is characterized by repetitive pauses in breathing during sleep so I don´t understand how your roomates complained. Are you sure you have sleep apnea?
sleep on ur stomache or ur side, it helps with me.
Sometimes it can be frightening and sometimes, it can be annoying. The fact of the matter is this: if you have OSA, you are already waking up many, many times a night because your body is telling you that it needs some air. You just don’t realize that it is happening. However, when you wake up the next day, you are not rested, you fall asleep when you are not intending to, it is all very frustrating.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea happens when the airway closes with an obstruction and the person can no longer take a breath in. They will make the effort to breathe yet they will not be able to get any air in. The heart rate slows, the oxygen level in the body drops and the body fights to breathe. It is something like drowning or suffocation. Because the oxygen level in the body drops, there are serious consequences to not dealing with ones Obstructive Sleep Apnea. The following are things that can possible happen with someone who ignores their OSA:
1. Never Rested, irritable, stress increases
2. Right sided heart failure (cor pulmonale)
3. Pulmonary Hypertension
4. Death
This is your brain! This is your brain without sleep!
Your body and brain need sleep to function normally. The body needs a good amount of deep sleep called REM sleep. This is the sleep when we dream. People with sleep apnea are waking up so often during the night without even knowing it, to gasp for a breath of air, that they never really get to fall into that deep sleep so necessary for the body to rest. Without the correct amount of rest for the brain, it becomes tired.
A person with sleep apnea might fall asleep during the day just because they are tired. Memory losses have been tied to sleep apnea.
Accidents at the job and on the road happen when a person is unable to sleep a sound sleep. Narcalepsy is where a person can be awake one moment and then zippity do dah they are asleep. This can be misdiagnosed in someone who has sleep apnea.
Mood changes can also happen when the mind is unable to rest. A person might be the nicest guy in the world….suddenly explode and hate everyone.
Depression and anxiety are also effects of sleep apnea.
This happens though out the time when the person is sleeping. The strain on the heart is very serious and several things can occur.
1. High Blood Pressure
The heart is working hard and pumping hard and not getting a lot of work done, the blood pressure goes up.
2. Right sided heart failure (cor pulmonale)
What happens when the heart tries and to get oxygen from the lungs, it becomes enlarged on the right side and begins not to be able to pump the way it should. Right sided heart failure. This can result in Pulmonary Hypertension, which is very, very difficult to treat.
3. Heart Attack
The heart is saying, “I need oxygen, I need oxygen, I need oxygen, I am dying, I need oxygen…heart attack….”
4. Stroke
Same as the above. The brain needs oxygen to work. When it doesn’t get it for extended periods of time, the brain can die.
5. Cardiac Arrest
The body is not made to go with out breathing for too long at all. The oxygen in the body is quickly consumed. The carbon dioxide level continues to climb with no where to go but the blood. The pH of the blood in the body falls. If it gets low enough, the body dies. The heart dies. The brain dies. Everything stops…Cardiac Arrest.
Treatments for Obstructive Sleep Apnea are as follows:
The most common form of treatment is CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). This device will help keep the airways open. If you have ever watched anyone sleep who has obstructive sleep apnea, it might seem strange for a while, then, it gets familiar, and then it turns into, “well, that is just how he sleeps.” It is dangerous not to get Obstructive Sleep Apnea treated. A lot of people refuse to wear CPAP because, “it looks funny”, “it feels uncomfortable”, “it blows in my eyes”. Whatever the reason, it is better to go ahead and wear the CPAP then to make excuses not to wear it.
When you go and see your Pulmonologist, he/she will recommend a sleep study. At the sleep study, they will hook you up to all kinds of different devices to see how you are sleeping. If indeed you do have OSA, the most common form of treatment is CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure).
This device will help keep the airways open.
If you have ever watched anyone sleep who has obstructive sleep apnea, it might seem strange for a while, then, it gets familiar, and then it turns into, “well, that is just how he sleeps.” It is dangerous not to get Obstructive Sleep Apnea treated. A lot of people refuse to wear CPAP because, “it looks funny”, “it feels uncomfortable”, “it blows in my eyes”. Whatever the reason, it is better to go ahead and wear the CPAP then to make excuses not to wear it.
There is surgery to remove the excess tissue of the throat. I have only seen this done twice. Once was a friend of mine. She said her throat was sore for months. It is a more drastic, invasive measure, but it is also used to correct this problem.
I say which ever way you use to help you keep breathing at night is good. Just don’t ignore the problem. It will not go away and will eventually lead to you being hooked up to more invasive devices than the CPAP machine.
It is better to breathe than to not breathe
You cannot know if you have sleep apnea unless you have the overnight screening test performed by your doctor. If you are over weight & snore it doesn’t mean you have sleep apnea. You have to meet the other criteria for it.
No doctor will give you that diagnosis without testing you first.
My dad is using the CPAP machine and he is a lot better and wakes up feeling a lot better so i would go and talk to the doc and get in and see a doc who might put you on the machine you would have to go to the sleeping clinic and have a sleep over to see if the machine is apporate for you good luck