Snoring Center – CPAP Sleep Apnea Treatment 0
Jul 30, 2010 | Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAP
Dr. Craig Schwimmer discusses the treatments for sleep apnea including CPAP. 3/25/08
Archives for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAP category
CPAP Machine – The Most Common Treatment for Sleep Apnea 0
Jul 27, 2010 | Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAP
Sleep Apnea is a disorder that commonly affects more than 12 million people in the United States. While the exact cause of remains unclear, what’s known is that the site of obstruction in most patients is the soft palate, including the area at the base of the tongue.
During the day, muscles in the region keep the passage open and clear; but since there’s no bone or cartilage in this area to hold the airway open, when a person with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) falls asleep, the muscles relax and the airway collapses.
Besides interrupting sleep and causing disorientation and “fogginess” during the waking hours, the dangers to overall health are many.
The primary risk factors for OSA are:
Excessive Weight – The accumulation of fat on the sides of the upper airway cause it to become narrow and predisposed to closure when the muscles relax.
Age – Loss of muscle mass is a common consequence of the aging process, leaving the airway narrow and soft. Men have a greater risk for OSA.
Male Hormones – Testosterone can cause structural changes in the upper airway.
Other risk factors include: A receding chin… Enlarged tonsils and adenoids… Use of drugs that affect the Central Nervous System (CNS) such as alcohol, tranquilizers, etc. … Smoking … Chronic nasal congestion… and several syndromes such as hypothyroidism, post-polio syndrome, neuromuscular disorders, Marfan’s syndrome, and Down syndrome, to name a few. Although to date there is no hard data to confirm this theory, it’s also believed that there’s a genetic factor involved.
The signs and symptoms of OSA are many and varied and many are not overtly medical. (For example, non-restorative sleep leads to such things as car accidents, bad moods, memory problems, depression and even impotence.)
Some common signs that you may have OSA are:
Loud Snoring – This is perhaps the most common sign that a person’s airway is obstructed, and the complaint that initially brings many undiagnosed OSA patients to their doctors for help. Not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, but if other signs are present, as well, it’s a distinct possibility.
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness – Some people with OSA fall asleep while reading or watching TV. Others experience powerful urges to doze off even in a stimulating environment, such as while driving or during business meetings – even while having sex!
Unrefreshing Sleep – Many OSA patients complain of waking up feeling as if they had been awake all night (usually, they have been, in fact). Then, if they try to refresh themselves with a nap, they usually feel worse after napping than they did before.
Drowsiness While Driving – Statistics show that many car accidents are caused by drivers either nodding off at the wheel or else being too sleepy to be alert.
Morning Headaches – Frequent, unexplained headaches are a common sign of OSA.
Frequent Nighttime Urination – Getting up to use the bathroom several times a night may be caused by an apneic event.
If your doctor does diagnose OSA, then you’ll be relieved to know that a CPAP sleep apnea machine will give you relief and protection as soon as you start using it.
Don’t spend one more night at risk from the frustrating, annoying side effects – and very real dangers of Sleep Apnea! A CPAP sleep apnea machine from Kelly’s Medical will put your body and your mind at ease. Kelly’s Medical, http://www.kellysmedical.com/, is fully stocked with a complete line of home health care equipment.
Sleep Apnea Health Problems Can Be Serious 0
Jul 25, 2010 | Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAP
Efforts to discover what causes sleep apnea have been intense, and although the actual cause may not have been identified, researchers have discovered that sleep apnea (sleep apnoea) health problems can be serious.
There are several major risk factors for heart disease such as obesity, alcohol abuse, and smoking, but you might be surprised to find out that sleep apnea is also a major risk factor. Combine any of these factors, and the risk doubles for serious sleep apnoea health problems. For example, if you are obese and you suffer from sleep apnea, then your risk of heart problems increases.
If your sleep apnea is treated with a device such as CPAP, you reduce or even eliminate your risks. However, if you do not seek treatment when your breathing stops during an apnea attack, the levels of carbon dioxide in your blood increase while the levels of oxygen drop off. This effect causes a variety of chemical and physical events to occur that can increase your risk for heart problems.
Sleep apnoea health problems increase the longer the apnea remains untreated. This problem will decrease the levels of gas nitric oxide in the blood, which is an important substance for heart health. The reduced levels raise the risk of heart problems.
Apnea also increases the angiotensin converting enzyme, which plays a role in congestive heart failure and high blood pressure. High levels of this enzyme exacerbate your sleep apnoea health problems. Other chemical changes involved also increase your risk for heart problems.
There is still much research needed to define just how all of these changes affect the heart and just how serious the impact is to the health of your heart. With treatments available, why take the risk? Why not use a sleep apnea device like CPAP?
Studies have made direct correlations with the following sleep apnoea health problems. If you suffer from sleep apnea, consider these risks if you choose to ignore using one of the sleep apnea device treatments.
High Blood Pressure – Several studies have correlated sleep apnoea with high blood pressure. A study conducted in 2004 for sleep apnea health problems found that the more apnea episodes you had in the first year, the more likely you were to have high blood pressure by the time year four came around.
Blood pressure will have wide fluctuations in response to the apnea episode. These fluctuations might be a result of the sympathetic nervous system sudden surge. It’s these fluctuations, which lead to the blood vessels constricting, and over time, this leads to high blood pressure and the possibility of heart damage.
Effective treatments like the CPAP sleep apnea device allow your airways to remain open, which means your blood pressure will be lowered. Only partial reduction of sleep apnoea does not have the positive effective. It must be a substantial reduction.
Of the many sleep apnea health problems, coronary artery disease and heart attack are the two most serious. Studies have confirmed that the more apnea episodes you have the higher your risk of heart attack, stroke, and coronary artery disease. This is especially true in older adults. Do you still want to ignore treatment such as CPAP?
If you have sleep apnoea, you double your risk for stroke. The worse the episodes, the greater the risk you face. Severe sleep apnoea can triple your risk of stroke. And stroke sufferers with sleep apnea have symptoms that are worse, such as poor speech response, depression, delirium, and difficulty with daily activities. Another good reason to use a sleep apnea device is to reduce your risk of developing sleep apnoea health problems.
37% of all heart failure patience had sleep apnea, and if you have existing congestive heart failure with sleep apnoea, your risk of death goes up.
Other sleep apnoea health problems that have been directly linked to sleep apnea
* Peripheral nerve damage
* Asthma
* Diabetes
* Kidney failure
* Eye disorders
* Liver damage
* Seizures
* Nerve disorders
* High-risk pregnancies
* Headaches
* Irregular menstrual periods
Now that you know just a few of the sleep apnoea health issues are you ready to seek treatment?
The quality of your sleep has an immediate effect on your daily health. Visit Kelly’s Medical Equipment & Supply at http://www.kellysmedical.com to get more information on sleep apnea and the CPAP device for treatment. Kelly’s Medical wants to help you sleep for better health and better living.
Can anymore tell me about CPAP machines/sleep apnea? 5
Jul 23, 2010 | Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAPI’m a teen and I have mild sleep apnea. Is a CPAP machine effective and is it really loud? I share I room and I don’t want it disturbing anyone. Is there anything I can do that will help me?
have any of you used a CPAP for sleep apnea? 5
Jul 21, 2010 | Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAPDid you ahver to have an overnight sleep test done at the hospital-and did your dr. of neurologist have to order it. Did Insurance give you a hassel. I am newely diagnosed but am on an oxygen converter and it does not help me sleep. I understand a CPAP does and would like to hear of your experience and if possible, the brand you use for the base unit and mask.
this would be of such help to me in my old age.
thank you for taking time to share with me.
Sleep Apnea Machine Helps You Sleep Well 0
Jul 18, 2010 | Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAPSleep apnea (or apnoea) is a surprisingly common sleep disorder characterized by a person’s breathing periodically ceasing temporarily during sleep. It can happen dozens or hundreds of times during a night, when weak muscles supporting the back of the throat allow the airway to become blocked.
More rarely what happens is the breathing signal is not sent from the brain to the diaphragm.
It is a treatable condition, with several options open to patients. The simplest and most common treatment is the use of a sleep apnea machine known as a CPAP sleep apnea machine. (CPAP is an abbreviation for Constant Positive Airway Pressure.)
Although not directly life-threatening, sleep apnea is a serious condition which has the potential to significantly affect a sufferer’s quality of life.
In normal human sleeping patterns, a person progresses through five stages of sleep, eventually going into “deep sleep.” Deep sleep is when dreaming and REM (rapid eye movement) occur and when most restorative functions happen. And you return to almost wakefulness approximately every ninety minutes. Thus, people who wake two or three times in a night are probably actually getting good quality sleep.
In cases of sleep apnea, the sufferer effectively falls unconscious in their sleep, immediately before the brain rouses the body in response to the blocked airway. One with this condition without realizing it could be going through a cycle of passing out and waking every few minutes all night long. This affects the quality of sleep in two ways.
First, oxygen deprivation is harmful to the brain at any time and makes it impossible for sleep to be restful.
Second, because the sufferer may be going through a cycle of waking and going back to sleep every few minutes, they have little opportunity for the most restful, deep sleep.
Symptoms can include snoring, a tendency to fall asleep during the day during any idle period, feeling very tired upon waking, possibly in conjunction with a morning headache, and secondary effects from the reduced quality of sleep, such as depression and anxiety, along with the associated symptoms of those conditions.
Diagnosis for sleep apnea used to be complicated, requiring a specialist’s attention, and possibly a night or two in a sleep laboratory. Fortunately, as awareness of this somewhat common condition becomes more widespread, so too have diagnosis and treatment options.
Upon consultation with a physician, you can get a sleep apnea machine that monitors your body’s vital signs during sleep by use of simple apparatus worn on the arm, allowing you to sleep in your own bed.
Because you are probably more comfortable in familiar surroundings, and the monitoring is done in the same environment you normally sleep in, the results obtained from such analysis can be more valuable to your sleep specialist or doctor.
If sleep apnea is diagnosed, there are a number of treatment options available. The most basic, if applicable, is to lose weight, as obesity is a known cause of this condition. Unfortunately, this may only lower the severity of the problem in many patients, and is not the only cause.
In any acute case, further intervention is required. One option is surgery, but again, this will not work for everyone and is an expensive and undesirable option for many people.
This leaves the most common treatment, which is the use of a sleep apnea machine known as a CPAP. A CPAP sleep apnea machine (Constant Positive Airway Pressure) is a device which has a tube worn in the mouth during sleep which provides a slight positive pressure but otherwise, allows the wearer to breathe normally.
This has the effect of keeping the airway open at all times during sleep, making for more restful, better quality sleep, and better quality of life.
There are various models of CPAP machines available. Some offer more advanced features, such as a reduction of pressure while exhaling, so you are not breathing against the flow of air so much.
Also, offered are more advanced monitoring of use, options for upgradeable firmware to keep the device current with the latest technology, and the ability to link the sleep apnea machine to your PC.
Obviously, less expensive, more basic models are available, and can be completely autonomous, requiring little further configuration by the user.
The most common treatment for this condition is the use of a sleep apnea machine or CPAP machine. Visit Kelly’s Medical Equipment & Supply at http://www.kellysmedical.com/ for more information and to see the great prices available on our wide variety of sleep apnea machines.
SleepWeaver Soft Cloth CPAP Mask for OSA Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients 0
Jul 16, 2010 | Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAP
Fitting cleaning and maintaining your new SleepWeaver soft cloth CPAP mask video. Brought to you by www.sleepweaver.com and only from Circadiance.
Sleep Apnea Devices 0
Jul 14, 2010 | Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAPFortunately for sleep apnea sufferers there are solutions. In fact, there are more sleep apnea devices available now than ever before. In this article, we’re going to explore some of these devices, how they work, and the benefits they provide.
Sleep apnea is defined as “a common sleep disorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep.” These interruptions of sleep are referred to as apneas. They generally span a period of ten seconds or more and can take place any number of times throughout the course of a night. Those who suffer from this condition often wake throughout the night as a result of their struggles to catch their breath. Often, they will have no recollection of these events.
The CPAP Machine
The most common of the sleep apnea devices is the CPAP machine. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is a form of therapy that creates a steady stream of air flow into the lungs in order to make it possible for “uninterrupted breathing and unobstructed airways during sleep.”
This is accomplished with the use of a CPAP machine and a mask worn over the face. The CPAP machine pumps a consistent flow of air into the mask, which keeps your throat open throughout the night. The result is a reduction of snoring, which is often one of the most common signs of this condition.
A CPAP sleep apnea device should be used whenever you sleep, even for naps. And while a CPAP device will generally reduce the number of apneas throughout the night, it does not cure this condition. It simply allows for a better night’s sleep, with more REM sleep. The lack of REM sleep can be one of this condition’s most destructive results.
Some people have difficulty with CPAP devices. They find them too noisy or too uncomfortable, or in some cases they wake up with a dry, stuffy nose every morning (there are sleep apnea devices equipped with a heated humidifier that can minimize this last problem).
The Oral Appliance
The next of the most common device for this condition is the oral appliance. Originally, oral appliances were designed to decrease the incidence of snoring and they did an excellent job. However, with improvements in their design they’ve also become helpful for those who suffer from mild to moderate forms of sleep apnea.
There are a variety of oral devices available. Two of the most popular include the splint and the mandibular advancement device (MAD). The splint keeps the tongue in a particular position throughout the night. By so doing, it allows the air passage to remain open and clear.
The mandibular advancement device (MAD) looks similar to the sports mouth guards that athletes wear for protection. This apparatus forces the lower jaw in a backward direction, which allows for plenty of room for air flow. This encourages you to sleep on your back. It also improves the flow of air into and out of the lungs (although this is less the case for those who suffer from severe forms of this condition).
The oral appliance and the CPAP machine are two of the most common sleep apnea devices. They are also two of the most effective devices. If you’ve been diagnosed with sleep apnea, ask your doctor about the best treatments for you in your particular situation.
David Silva is the webmaster for Sleep Apnea Insights, a website dedicated to sharing information about sleep apnea, sleep apnea devices, its treatments, and more.
Does the United Healthcare Choice Plus insurance plan cover pre-existing sleep apnea CPAP treatments? 2
Jul 12, 2010 | Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAPI have been on a CPAP for 18 months now, and acquired United Healthcare Choice Plus insurance several months ago. Will they cover my masks, CPAP and future sleep treatments?