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Sleep Apnea afflicts millions of people
People with sleep apnea literally stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, often for a minute or longer and as many as hundreds of times during a single night. Sleep apnea can be caused by either complete obstruction of the airway (obstructive apnea) or partial obstruction (obstructive hypopnea, either can cause the sleeper to awaken many times during the night.
There are three types of sleep apnea:
- obstructive
- central
- mixed
Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common form of the condition suffered by the majority of people. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs in approximately 2 percent of women and 4 percent of men over the age of 35.
The exact cause of obstructive sleep apnea remains unclear.
What is known is that the site of obstruction in most patients is the soft palate, extending to the region at the base of the tongue where there are no rigid structures, such as cartilage or bone to hold the airway open.
During the day, muscles in the palate region keep the passage open. But as a person with obstructive sleep apnea falls asleep, these muscles relax to a point in which the airway collapses and becomes obstructed. When the airway is restricted, breathing slows and stops causing the sleeper to awaken in order to open the airway.
Even though the period of time the sleeper is awakened is brief, too many arousals disrupt continuous sleep and prevent the person from reaching deeper stages of sleep. This can be evidenced by a lack of REM or rapid eye movement periods during sleep. The mind and body require REM sleep in order to fully rest and repair the body.
Unfortunately in sleep apnea the person wakes up to fall asleep when normal breathing is restored and keeps repeating this cycle throughout the night. Usually the sleep apnea sufferer experiences a high frequency of waking episodes of somewhere between 10 and 60 a night and sometimes as high as 100 times a night.
Factors that may contribute to Sleep Apnea
Unfortunately one of the primary risk factor of obstructive sleep apnea is excessive weight gain. Also, weight can be a serious contributing factor in sleep apnea as the accumulation of fat on the sides of the upper airway cause it to narrow and predispose the this area to closure when the muscles relax. Age may also be another factor because the loss of muscle mass commonly associated with aging also decreases in the airway and may be replaced with fat leaving the airway narrow and soft.
Unfortunately men are at greater risk for developing obstructive sleep apnea because male hormones can cause structural changes in the upper airway.
Other factors that predispose individuals towards developing sleep apnea include:
- Anatomic abnormalities, such as a receding chin
- Enlarged tonsils and adenoids, the main causes of OSA in children
- Family history of OSA, although no genetic inheritance pattern has been proven
- Use of alcohol and sedative drugs, which relax the musculature in the surrounding upper airway
- Smoking, which can cause inflammation, swelling, and narrowing of the upper airway
- Hypothyroidism, acromegaly, amyloidosis, vocal cord paralysis, post-polio syndrome, neuromuscular disorders, Marfan's syndrome, and Down syndrome
- Nasal congestion
Most Common Symptoms: (Call your doctor if you have several of these)
- Loud Snoring
- Waking up tired and having trouble concentrating or staying awake during the day
- Waking up with headaches, or dry mouth
- Waking up during the night with a choking sensation
- Perspiring excessively during the night
- a dry mouth upon awakening
- depression
- heartburn
- reduced libido
- insomnia
- frequent trips to the bathroom during the night
- restless sleep, tossing and turning
- rapid weight gain
- chest pulls in during sleep in young children
Untreated, sleep apnea can cause or worsen:
- high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease (up to 50% of sa patients have high blood pressure)
- memory problems
- weight gain
- impotency and sexual dysfunction
- migraine headaches
- job impairment and motor vehicle crashes
- hyperactivity in children
- Risk for heart attack and stroke
- sudden infant death syndrome.
- depression and anxiety
- Increase in the number of red blood cells (polycythemia)
- enlarged left ventricle of the heart (cor pulmonale)
- left ventricular failure.
- life-threatening heart arrhythmias, including heartbeat slowing (bradycardia), and racing (tachycardia)
- Pickwickian syndrome
- right heart failure
- pulmonary hypertension
- chronic daytime low blood oxygen (hypoxemia) and increased blood CO (hypercapnia).
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