It’s not surprising that the week of Thanksgiving was chosen as GERD awareness week, especially with our tendency to indulge in a little too much of everything! GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) is a common disease that affects millions of Americans.
The treat crazed celebration has past and now we are all resetting until the next self indulgent holiday. During this time we can focus on an important month ahead. November is American Diabetes Month.
Are you or a loved one a CPAP user? They can change your life, but up to 50% of people stop using them within one year. Why? Because most find the maintenance of their equipment daunting. At first it might seem overwhelming but understand with time it will become as routine as brushing your teeth.
Is it time to upgrade your CPAP?
Is your CPAP machine noisy? Is it keeping you and/or your partner awake at night? If your CPAP is three years old or older, there’s a good chance that it is. There are new CPAP machines that are quieter, lighter and auto-titrating. Meaning they automatically adjust to the optimal pressure settings.
The holiday season has arrived! Not only should you be excited, but there is so much to look forward to. Time with family and friends, shopping and traveling are all many things that we take part in during the holiday season. However, for patients with mild-to-moderate obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), going untreated while traveling can put them in line for serious health consequences, not to mention limiting the enjoyment of their trip. And, let’s face it, sleep apnea doesn’t take a holiday but here are a few quick tips to make traveling with sleep apnea a little less cumbersome.
CPAP therapy is a treatment that is used to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Obstructive sleep apnea is a medical condition that causes you to repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night. With OSA, you stop breathing because your throat muscles relax, your airway becomes obstructed (by your tongue or tonsils), and you stop breathing. Each time this happens - which is many times throughout the night - you rouse to begin breathing again. Each time this cycle happens (stop breathing/waking) is referred to as an “apnea event” or apnea.
Obstructive sleep apnea can be mild to severe, depending on how often this cycle occurs:
When you stop breathing and rouse this much throughout the night (anywhere from 40 to hundreds of times throughout the night), the natural result is severe sleep deprivation. As a result, your life may be shorter, unhappier, and less performant than if you treated your sleep apnea.
This is where CPAP therapy comes in. In CPAP therapy, you use a CPAP machine to gently push air into your airway to keep it from collapsing and, in effect, to also keep you breathing and sleeping.
CPAP is often scary for people who are concerned they have obstructive sleep apnea or have already been diagnosed with it. After all, it doesn’t exactly look comfortable. People who already use it sometimes struggle with ensuring that their CPAP is effective. Let’s look at the main ideas behind:
Obstructive sleep apnea is a medical condition and sleeping disorder where you repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night, anywhere from 5 times per hour up to 30+ times per hour. Each time you stop breathing you wake up to begin breathing again, though in the morning you will not remember this.
Your throat becomes blocked because your breathing muscles in the back of your throat relax, causing the back of your throat to collapse fully or partially, blocking your airways. Each blockage/arousal cycle is called an apnea or apnea event.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a medical condition and sleeping disorder where you repeatedly stop breathing throughout the night, anywhere from 5 to 30+ times per hour. Each time you stop breathing you rouse yourself to begin breathing again, though in the morning you will not remember rousing.
Your throat becomes blocked because your breathing muscles in the back of your throat relax, causing the back of your throat to collapse fully or partially, blocking your airways. Each blockage/arousal cycle is called an apnea or apnea event.Obstructive Sleep Apnea Risks
Obstructive Sleep Apnea is a serious medical condition with ride ranging emotional, physical, and cognitive side effects and risks. OSA can increase the risk of:
Fortunately, OSA treatment options can significantly or completely reduce these risks.
A CPAP device/machine stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. A CPAP machine is a small, rectangular box with a motorized fan inside and an adjacent humidifier. It is the primary tool used in CPAP therapy and is considered the gold standard for treating obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
Connected to the CPAP device is a flexible tube that leads to a breathing mask. The hose is lightweight and kept warm in order to reduce condensation. Among other things, too much condensation can lead to sanitation problems like, mold growth.
Finally, the primary component in CPAP machines is a small fan. The small fan inside delivers gentle, positive pressure through a connected hose to the breathing mask. This results in a reduction of lapses of breathing at night because the positive air pressure keeps your airway open. The pressure can be a little strange at first, but it’s rare that people report any long-term problems associated with it.
Recent advances in CPAP technology have dramatically improved the performance, usability, and comfort of CPAP machines, and they are far and above the most popular treatment to OSA.