Sleep Apnea has been linked with many potential health issues but it looks like there’s yet another one to add to the list.

Sleep Apnea is characterised usually by snoring followed by brief periods / pauses in breathing before the sufferer then resumes normal breathing.

A new study has found that people who suffer from this conditions are over two and a half times more likely to suffer from a stroke. The study looked at nearly 400 subjects who were over 70 years of age and followed them and there sleep patterns for over six years. During that time 20 had suffered a stroke a much higher incidence than found in the general population.

This study highlights the possible dangers associated with this chronic condition and it is suggested that if you believe you have have sleep apnea you visit a health professional to get a proper diagnosis. It’s never a good idea to self diagnose and treat the condition yourself with over the counter medication and Snoring Cures as you may just mask the symptoms.

It is estimated that over 5% of the population could be suffering from Sleep Apnea and the vast majority of them are unaware of it. Sleeping with a partner is your best chance of finding out if you have this condition because it’s usually they who notice it first. I always knew there had to be at least one advantage to being married and I think I’ve just discovered it

So the risks include heart problems, high blood pressure, obesity and now stroke along with a slew of other medical problems it’s no joke and should be taken seriously.

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Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Stroke Risk For People With Sleep Apnea

As adults we’re all well aware of the dangers snoring can bring. From just disturbed sleep to Sleep Apnea we know that if snoring is persistent we should consult a health professional for advice.

But what of our children? Recent research has shown we should take our children snoring seriously and take steps to try and resolve the issue. It has been shown that children who snore are likely to be more irritable and have concentration problems In some cases if the child has sleep apnea it’s possible they may develop hyperactivity and attention deficit also known as ADHD.

We don’t often associate children snoring with a medical problem and in most cases it isn’t. Many children go through bouts of snoring if they have a head cold and are bunged up. What we need to look out for is persistant snoring over a prolonged period of time.

So if your child snores take him / her to see your physician after all prevention is better than a cure and don’t attempt to self medicate as you may just be disguising an underlying serious problem.

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If Your Child Snores See A Physician

Sleep Apnea is understood to be strongly correlated with obesity- the more extra weight a person is carrying, the more likely it is that they will suffer from the narrowing of the breathing pathways like the nose and throat. this then makes a person more prone to the closure of these pathways during sleep which constitutes the interruptions to breathing which makes up the harmful aspects of Sleep Apnea.

This can lead to something of a vicious cycle for the sufferer. The way this happens is that poor quality sleep can lead to hormonal and physical changes which can trigger weight gain, including increased appetite. furthermore, the fatigue of sleep deprivation can make it hard for a person to take regular exercise.  this, along with the other health implications of obesity, can serve to make Sleep Apnea even worse.

This vicious cycle can be very hard to break, unless one deals with the root cause of the problem- the initial weight gain. One rather extreme solution to this problem which is gaining in popularity is the gastric band, a surgically implanted device which is designed to clamp down on the stomach, and reduce its capacity. This then helps to regulate the patient’s appetite, making them feel fuller, quicker. This helps them keep control of their consumption levels.

More and more people are using this procedure, and this has even found favour in that haven of the outsize gentleman, America’s National Football League.  Recently, the death of former Gridiron star Reggie White  was attributed in part to respiratory complications arising from Sleep Apnea, and several high-profile figures, including coaches and current players, have undergone the procedure. They have also commonly mentioned a concern about Sleep Apnea as a factor in their decision.

This is, of course, a rather extreme solution to the problem of obesity, and it is of course much better not to put one’s self in this situation in the first place. It is something, however, which if reccomended by a physician, can be part of the solution to a major problem. If you’re serious about dealing with Sleep Apnea, this is one possible resort open to you.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Gastric Bands And Sleep Apnea

Here’s some strange news- a recent scientific study has suggested that the elderly may actually benefit if they develop Sleep Apnea.

This is the claim of Peretz Lavie, a world-renowned expert on sleep and sleep disorders. He’s got a list of qualifications and publications on the subject as long as your arm, and he’s also president of the Israel Institute of Technology to boot.

Dr Lavie, and his wife, Dr. Lena Lavie, have followed a group of around 600 senior citizens for a period of almost five years, and examined their incidence of sleep problems including hypoxia and Sleep Apnea, and studied the effect on mortality rates.

Their conclusion is that for the subjects studied, those who had Sleep Apnea actually had lower than average mortality rates! The explanation he provides for this is that the periodic lack of oxygen that Sleep Apnea creates, helps to stimulate the growth of extra arteries in the heart through a process known as Angiogenesis. This in turn can improve a person’s blood supply, and increase their ability to survive or avoid a heart attack.

So what does this mean? On the face of it, it seems a little confusing, however this is the way that science works- we don’t know the answer to something, so we study it, trying to ask intelligent questions as we do so, and we re-examine our initial hypotheses based on our findings. If what we thought turns out to be wrong, and is corroborated by others (which in this case it has, by an independent study conducted in Germany), then you accept what you find as the truth.

Then again, you also have to be careful not to take things too far.  I don’t think anyone will be going out of their way to suggest radical new treatments to induce Sleep Apnea in the elderly any time soon! It’s worth mentioning, too, that these findings didn’t apply to the young, or the middle-aged.

The best evidence we have suggests that if you aren’t old yet, Sleep Apnea represents a significant risk to your long-term health, and is associated with, amongst other things, increased mortality rates. That hasn’t changed, and the need to do something about Sleep Apnea if you develop it is as strong as ever.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

An unusual claim- Sleep Apnea benefits the old?

Here’s another treatment for Sleep Apnea which looks like it could bring sufferers some much-needed relief, and be an improvement on the CPAP (Continuous Postive Airway Pressure) machine that is still the standard treatment for this condition. There’s just one catch- would you fancy getting a series of electric shocks to the throat throughout the night?

This treatment’s been developed at Baltimore’s John Hopkins University, and is designed to be a more convenient and comfortable way to treat the main problem of Sleep Apnea, which as you are most likely aware, occurs when the sufferer’s soft throat tissues are too loose to remain consistently open and maintain a clear airflow during sleep, leading to snoring, reduction in the quality of sleep sustained, and a wide variety of other unpleasant and undesirable side-effects.

The way a CPAP machine combats this is through maintaining steady air pressure inside the throat, thus holding the throat open and preventing the problems of sleep apnea from occurring. This works well enough, however the apparatus itself is claustrophobic and a little uncomfortable. Let’s be honest, no-one wants to go to sleep with what is basically an oxygen mask strapped to their face.

That’s what this new device is looking to circumvent- it works by making the throat keep itself open, rather than forcing air through. A series of electrodes are placed on the throat, and a sequence of electric shocks are given. These stimulate the nerves of the throat, which makes the muscles around the airways keep the breathing passages open.

So far the researchers claim that this process is yielding good results, and a reduction in discomfort and snoring symptoms. This is all well and good, but I can imagine that for some people, they might have a bit of a problem with shocking their throat into simulated wakefulness whilst they sleep.

Then again, if you’re a sleep apnea sufferer already prepared to submit yourself to a CPAP machine, maybe this will look like a welcome relief.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

John Hopkins Uni Working On A New Sleep Apnea Treatment

More and more evidence is emerging that sleep deprivation and sleep apnea is having a massive effect on the way that people live their lives. America’s National Sleep Foundation recently carried out a study on American couples, and found that almost a quarter of their respondents had such a problem with sleep deprivation that it was affecting their sex life, as well as sometimes keeping them from both work and family functions.

First off, that’s an interesting way to rank those three priorities! More seriously, though, this is yet another worrying sign that poor sleep is having a massive effect on the way we all live.

This was fairly robust science, too- this discovery wasn’t the focus of the study (it was actually about variations in sleeping habits across ethnic boundaries), but that actually makes it a little more plausible- there was no agenda to this finding, it was simply something that scientists looking into the way we sleep found to be true for everyone.

The kind of sleep disorders people were likely to suffer from tended to vary across racial lines, with 1 in 10 whites experiencing more straightforward insomnia, and a startlingly high 1 in 7 Blacks having higher incidences of Sleep Apnea. For Hispanic respondents, the main cause of sleep problems was worry about financial, health or relationship issues, and for this group it was almost 3 in 7.

Now, there’s probably a lot that could be said about these results, especially from a sociological or economic point of view, but the main thing to take here is that no matter what one’s ethnic origin, people are experiencing disruptions to the normal, healthy pattern of sleep.

We’re coming to know more and more about the way that lack of sleep can have on our lives. What this study seems to be saying is that we’re all missing out on a lot of fun!

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Don’t Let Sleep Apnea and Insomnia Take Away Your Love Life!

Let me tell you a story about sleep deprivation and truckers; A few years ago, I worked for a Telecoms provider in South Wales, and one of my workmates had recently given up working as a trucker. He’d regularly driven from Italy to Wales, sometimes 18-hour journeys or more. He looked like the classic high-risk case for sleep disorders.

He clearly didn’t enjoy his job, and did say he really liked the freedom of being a driver. When I asked him why he’d given up, he told a story about driving home from Italy, desperately exhausted, trying to stay awake and unsure if he could make it all the way to Swansea. As he crossed England, he told himself he’d just make it to Wales, cross the Severn Bridge (a toll bridge that links the two countries) and then decide if he needed to pull over in a lay-by and stop.

‘Keep going until you get to the Severn Bridge, stay awake till the Severn Bridge’ he kept repeating to himself.

And then he found himself at home, in Swansea. He checked in his pocket and found a ticket and a receipt from the toll both which showed he must have actually had a conversation with the person who gave it to him. He had no memory of the conversation, the ticket, or the bridge itself, which was the one thing he’d been thinking about.

Safe to say, from that day on, I understood that sleep deprivation and truck drivers was a major issue. The profession is at high risk, when you consider that truck drivers are likely to be physically inactive for long periods of time, and to work unusual hours, with the attendant risks of insomnia and obesity. Drowsiness on the roads is also one of the most common causes of traffic accidents.

This is why it’s such a good sign that the American Sleep Apnea Association is putting on a conference in Baltimore, specifically devoted to Sleep Apnea and trucking, and that by all accounts there is keen interest in the industry.

If you’re in a profession that requires you drive for long periods, don’t you think it’s time you got hold of some facts?

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Sleep Apnea And The Long-Distance Lorry Driver

We know Sleep Apnea is associated with obesity. It’s also true that it can cause all sorts of complications.  We can all be happy that there have been many breakthroughs in this area.

A good example of the progress that has been made is in Bariatric surgery, known as weight loss surgery. This is becoming a more and more common procedure, and involves either the implanting of a gastric band in the patient or the more extreme measure of removing portions of the stomach or small intestines- a gastric bypass.

The aim of this procedure, or rather group of procedures, is to reduce the functional stomach space of the patient, thus reducing their capacity to consume.  It’s an extreme-sounding procedure, but it’s proven remarkably successful in recent years and is growing in popularity.

One issue that surgeons carrying out this process have become more aware of recently is that bariatric patients are at a high risk of Sleep Apnea.  When gastric surgery was in its infancy, this was less clearly understood, and as a result a number of patients were historically exposed to high risk of further complications, and in some cases deaths.

Now, however, the fact that gastric surgery can cause breathing disorders during sleep has been more widely understood. It’s now commonly tested for, and easily and effectively treated, using widely understood procedures such as the CPAP machine, corrective surgery on the airways, sprays, and many other remedies.

Reason for optimism, I would think! Sleep Apnea and obesity are so intertwined that it’s good to know that they can be treated together.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Sleep Apnea And Obesity

Children who already suffer from breathing problems may have their condition worsened by weight-gain around their middle. A recent study conducted by researchers in the US has suggested that weight gain of this type can lead to an increased incidence of Sleep Apnea in the young.

At the moment, around two percent of children are assumed to have full Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and the most common treatment is the removal of the adenoids or the tonsils. These findings suggest that we may have to widen our considerations. At the moment, however, the link between obesity and Sleep Apnea hasn’t quite been as clearly established for children as it is been for adults.

The study, which followed a number of children who suffered from Sleep Apnea through several years of their development, noted that increases in the severity of Sleep Apnea did seem to have a correlation with increases in weight gain.

This isn’t conclusive, however, as the study how this waist size increase may not have fully considered how this could have been caused by a child’s growth. Clearly, further research is still needed, and it it’s obviously no bad thing to increase awareness of issues around childhood obesity. What is still open to debate, however, is whether or not it is helpful to focus on a child’s weight or BMI, when treating the condition.

There is currently a further study under-way in the US which will seek to answer some of these questions, and provide further insight into the effectiveness of current procedures.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Weight Gain And Sleep Apnea In Children

Currently, approximately 20% of American adults are estimated to suffer from sleep Apnea. For the over-65s, this rises to over 40%! This is a shocking number, and what’s more, many people still do not know that they are sufferers from this condition. This, of course, is you are asleep when this happens. Unless you’re told you suffer from it, or it gets so bad that your obstructive events actually wake you up, you’re not in a position to observe it.

It’s a serious issue, as well- it’s  been linked to heart failure and early death, respiratory failure, and impotence, as well as a raft of other secondary conditions and health complications.

Of course, one can be sceptical about such things-a lot of the information out there is provided by people or companies with a vested interest in selling you treatments for this condition. In this situation, it’s natural to assume that someone might overstate the dangers in the hope that you’ll buy a particular product.

It’s also true that the research is still in its infancy- there’s more to be discovered about this, before the conclusions become more solid. What is true is that issues such as irritability, depression and fatigue, and decreased mental faculties can be fairly reliably attributed to Sleep Apnea.

Treatment is possible, and can make a lot of difference on these issues. It’s also important to address lifestyle- the main cause of Sleep Apnea is still obesity, and that’s something that we can do a lot about. The first step to sorting out a problem is looking at the root causes, and then taking positive steps to address them.

Posted by: Sleep And Snoring Aids

Sleep Apnea- Ignorance Still Abounds.