Children and Sleep Apnea

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: Snoring
Dated: 29 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

Sleep apnia does not always affect adults. It can be a problem for children as well but it can be difficult to diagnose. Here are some of the symptoms of sleep apnea to look out for in children:

Children younger than 5 years old might have sleep apnea if you notice them snoring, sweating, waking up more than normal, breathing through the mouth, and general restlessness. It is difficult to tell whether they have it just by looking at them and of course you can’t ask them what the problem is. If you suspect that something is wrong, you should always consult your doctor first with a small child.

Children older than 5 years might have symptoms that include snoring, not growing at the normal rate, bed wetting, and a short attention span. It is difficult to correctly diagnose sleep alpnea from these symptoms alone but you can ask the child whether they are sleeping well and if they have any problems. Of course, even if they do have sleep apnea, they might think that it is normal and not know that the troubles they are having are not normal.

Snoring is the common symptom in almost all children of any age. Sleep apnea makes it difficult to sleep and deprives both children and adults of precious sleep time. It is usually harder to tell in children than in adults that they are sleep deprived because children naturally have so much energy. Children also have more difficulty expressing themselves and telling you that something is wrong. They might also be emvarrassed to talk about it as well.

If your child shows some of the symptoms of sleep apnia or if you are just suspicious that something may not be right, it is always advisable to go to your doctor. Getting sleep apnia help from your doctor and taking preventative measures is the best course of action. Your doctor can do his own evaluation and is better able to tell you exactly what you should be looking for in your child to determine whether your child has sleep apnea.

The Medline Website Is The Best Medical Information Portal

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: General Health
Dated: 25 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

Medline

As you may already know, there is an exhaustive wealth of information on the internet regarding your health. Perhaps you went online to look up some information about how to care for rheumatoid arthritis, or to look at pictures of skin diseases to see if you may have one. Maybe you’ve already been diagnosed and are looking for local resources to help you deal with the symptoms. Maybe you’re looking for doctors who specialize in blood disorders or genetic diseases in your area. For all of your burning questions regarding health topics, there is Medline.

Medline offers many unique functions to enhance your understanding and enrich your life. For instance, if you are about to undergo a colonoscopy or hip replacement surgery, a biopsy, a laparoscopy, LASIK eye surgery or another procedure, then you can watch an interactive tutorial that will show you what will be done and alleviate some of the mystery and anxiety. Another resource you may find very useful is the “Health Check Tools” page, which gives you educational quizzes about breast cancer, arthritis or alcoholism, as well as an “alcohol calorie intake counter,” a mental health screening quiz, a cancer risk questionnaire, a diabetic “rate your plate” assessment, a target heart rate calculator, an interactive menu planner and a risk assessment tool for coronary heart disease.

Medline is set up to accommodate all different types of people. Speak Spanish? No problem, as there is a version en Espanol, as well as forty other languages! Is your eye sight failing? Don’t worry, there is a version, located on the lower right-hand corner of the “Health Topics” page, which offers an easier to view page.

In the “News” section of Medline, you can read about all the latest research, opinions by health experts and studies from Health Day and Reuters news sources. You can read about: relationship violence that’s on the rise with college students, a steroidal nasal spray that alleviates sleep apnea in children, fertility problems in men past 40, using a freeze-dried formula to prevent the spread of HIV from mother to child, how omega-3 guards against stroke, or about a recent study that shows how Ritalin reacts in the brain. There are a variety of topics that will satiate your unquenchable need for information. You can browse the main page for various topics or just look up your particular issue and click on the “Research tab” for a narrower focus.

Visit Medline at www.Nlm.Nih.gov for all the medical information you need. You may be feeling depressed or anxious when you are first diagnosed with a disease or disorder, but seeking information can give you that sense of control over your life again. You can find assisted living devices, medications and treatments to make life more manageable. You can get tips on healthy living to be sure you’re doing all you can in terms of damage control. You can find local organizations and programs that can help you cope as well. If you’d rather not spend the rest of your life just trying to find trustworthy health information, then just visit Medline to tap into a wealth of knowledge.

What Causes Snoring Apnea

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: Snoring
Dated: 24 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

Do you snore? Have you ever wondered what is causing this snoring?  Well snoring is a noise produced when an individual breathes during sleep which in turn causes vibration of the soft palate and uvula. The word “apnea” means the absence of breathing.

Snorers have incomplete obstruction of the upper airway. Some snorers have complete episodes of upper airway obstruction where the airway is completely blocked for a period of time, usually 10 seconds or longer. This silence is usually followed by snorts and gasps as the individual fights to take a breath.  In case you are suffering from sleep apnea snoring, one of the main reasons for it can be a blocked breathing airway that in turn can be caused by allergies, poor positioning of the tongue or jaw and even by throat weakness.

Sleep Apnea Snoring Is Potentially Life-Threatening

Snoring apnea often causes you to gasp for air while you are sleeping which causes a concern on several levels the first one being that it is a potentially life-threatening condition that requires immediate medical attention. The risks of undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea include heart attacks, strokes, impotence, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure and heart disease

Snoring apnea episodes can occur thirty times in a night at the very least and as many as three hundred times at the other end. Each attack of snoring apnea can last longer then ten seconds and cause reduced oxygen levels in your blood and that in turn makes the heart work faster and harder.

In addition, when Snoring apnea persists over a few days there are other symptoms that will be cropping up including daytime sleepiness that can result in accidents, lost productivity feeling jittery as well as having poor concentration and even experiencing headaches. It also affects your personal relationship as your partner many not be getting a good nights sleep either and they also may be becoming irritable.  

The  type of people that snoring apnea is likely to affect are males  as well as overweight persons and even people over forty years old will experience the problem. Apnea can also affect children as well. Even large tonsils or excessive throat tissue can cause snoring apnea and so too can an especially large size neck.

When you beginning to notice symptoms of snoring apnea, it is recommended to get the condition diagnosed at the early as possible go and visit your local doctor who can advise on the most appropriate treatment for you. Treatment can consist of self-help or getting continuous positive airway pressure applied or surgery and it is usually applied in case of very serious cases such as having a deformity in the nasal septum. The severity of the symptoms may be mild, moderate or severe. 

Apnea – A chronic sleep problem

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: Snoring
Dated: 23 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

The article discusses the condition of apnea patient, William Chapman. It goes on to examine how a chronic apnea sufferer could get relief from modern treatment methods. 

A sleep lab patient, Pasadena resident William H. Chapman, was tested after his wife wrote his doctor to express concern about his restless sleep. Chapman, 61, has been a heavy snorer for decades. 

“The descriptions of my snoring went from something like a growling bear to a machine that was going to knock down the house,” he said. When he and his son went camping in southern Utah last year, his son asked him to sleep in the truck. 

He felt bone-tired during the day, what he describes as “30 years struggling against this weariness that you feel perpetually. No alertness. No get-up-and-go.” 

Finally, Chapman spent a night at Torrance Memorial, plugged into the polysomnograph. The test results were startling: He was holding his breath as many as 57 times an hour, each time for 10 to 40 seconds. He would wake repeatedly as he held his breath, meaning that he unknowingly was sleeping only four or five hours a night. 

A federal report concluded that while 60 million Americans suffer from apnea, narcolepsy and other chronic sleep problems, the majority are undiagnosed and untreated. Despite its pervasiveness and impact upon the society, sleep-related problems are not recognized as a public health issue. 

The most common and severe form, called obstructive sleep apnea, features extremely loud snoring interrupted by pauses and gasps. Breathing stops for 10 seconds or longer, sometimes dozens or even hundreds of times each night. 

Most frequently, the airway becomes blocked during sleep due to excessive relaxation of throat muscles. In children, sleep apnea is often the result of enlarged tonsils and adenoids.

People with sleep apnea may show signs of anxiety, depression, irritability, forgetfulness and fatigue during the day. Recent studies have found that sleep apnea sufferers have two to five times as many automobile accidents as people in the general population. 

Treatment includes weight reduction (most people with severe sleep apnea are overweight); avoiding alcohol within two hours of bedtime and sleeping drugs; surgery to remove excess tissue at the back of the throat or enlarged tonsils and adenoids; use of a special mask that improves flow of air through nasal passages. 

Undergoing surgery or sleeping with a mask clamped to your face may seem like extreme measures just to silence snoring. But if you have sleep apnea, those treatments could save your life.

Wake up happy! Discover the proven sleep apnea treatments that guarantee a healthy and restful sleep! To grab your free report go to Best Sleep Apnea Treatments

A Sleep Disorder Clinic May Be Your Answer To A Great Night’s Sleep

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: Snoring
Dated: 23 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

As more and more people find it hard to sleep at night for various reasons, many types of sleep disorder treatments have been invented through the years. Many of these sleep disorder treatments are quite effective and there are also some of them that simply just don’t work at all.

You may suffer from Narcolepsy, sleep apnea, insomnia, or any other sleep disorder. The only way to know for sure is to visit a sleep disorder clinic in your area. Once there, you will be examined by sleep specialists who know how to diagnose and treat sleep disorders so that you can finally get a good night’s rest.

The best way to find an effective treatment of insomnia is to consult an expert. Find an expert on sleep disorders. Ask for an appointed with the expert to discuss your sleep disorder. When meeting with the expert, make sure that you ask questions regarding your situation and explore your options with the help of the expert. Note that there are man types of treatment of insomnia so you need to pick out the one that is suitable for you.

When you visit a sleep disorder clinic, you will be seen by a sleep specialist. The specialist will want to know what you eat, drink, how you spend your waking time and will ask other questions about your lifestyle. These questions are designed to determine if your lifestyle is the reason of your lack of sleep. Then, if your sleep specialist deems it necessary, they may tell you to take a little nap while they watch.

Fighting off insomnia can be quite complicated for many people. A lot of people are simply too stressed out and too edgy that they need more potent sleep disorder treatment like drug treatment to help them relax and get some sleep. In cases like this, the sufferer should consult his or her doctor first before taking any medications. Taking over the counter drugs is not really a good idea. Although taking sleeping pills can be quite helpful at times, taking the pill is not really advisable in the long run. Like any other forms of drugs, sleeping pills can have some side effects on the body. Furthermore, there is also that danger of become dependent on the drug.

Find additional information on sleep disorders visit Insomnia During Pregnancy

Slightly Sadistic Anti Snoring Products

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: Snoring
Dated: 23 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

Have you ever had a look at some of the anti snore devices that are available on the market and wondered how those strange products came to be invented?  They were by no means deliberately intended as anti snore devices.Some people have been helped by strange products such as nasal strips whichare sold for decongestion.  But there are some which you know without a shadow of a doubt that they were created by a non- snorer who was required to live years in the same room as a snorer. 

The Snore Ball 

Many snorers are capable of stopping their snoring once they have rolled over on their sides.  But once on their side and they continue to snore, then they probably have sleep apnea and require a doctor’s help.  So, these are somewhat unkind anti snore devices created to forbid even the soundest sleeper from rolling over onto their backs.  Perhaps the inventers were trying to impose just a bit of their unhappiness onto the snorers of the world. 

One such anti snoring product is known as the Snore Ball.  It came out in the early twentieth century.This ball is strapped to the small of your back and is very hard.  When you roll over onto your back, you immediately regret that you did and have no choice but roll over onto your side.  Some stick to your pajamas while others come with their own straps. 

The Sandler Pillow 

Along a similar vein, the Sandler Pillow also makes it next to impossible for a sleeper to snore on his or her back.  The pillow is named after inventor Peter Sandler (no known relation to popular comedian Adam Dandler).  It is a tiny, long pillow too thin for the whole head. 

Shock Therapy 

The most drastic and downright dangerous of anti snore devices has to be the Snore Stopper.  This is an anti snoring bracelet, which can be worn around the wrist.  When you start to snore, it gives you a jolt of electricity, which wakes you up.  The manufacturers claim that the sensation you feel from the Snore Stopper is no more painful than a “small pinch.”  You can’t help but wonder how many chronic snorers receive this as a wedding anniversary present.  (“Oh, honey, you REALLY shouldn’t have.”) 

What’s even better is that there is also a Snore Stopper that is specifically for the tongue.  It shocks the tongue whenever it presses against the back of the mouth. Bon appetit.

Stop Snoring Cures

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: Snoring
Dated: 23 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

Snoring is a very common problem, especially in adult men.  Snoring is the blockage of airflow when you are sleeping, and the loud sound of snoring is nothing more than the palate and the throat rubbing against one another in an effort to gain air.  Snoring is a relatively harmless problem, but it is a problem none the less.

There are a few simple steps that can be taken in order to cure snoring without having to head to the doctor’s office.  In some cases these steps may not be successful as your snoring problem could be the result of a more serious problem such as enlarged adenoids or tonsils, in which case you should consult a doctor.  Check out some of these preventative measures that are explained below.

1.    Sleeping on your back:  Sleeping on your back can be a big cause of snoring.  In this case you will want to make an effort to move your sleep position to sleeping on your side.  Although it is hard to control exactly how you sleep, there is a trick that will greatly help you to sleep on your side.  If you will take a tennis ball and put it in a sock and then put it in the back of your pants (around the small of your back) you will roll over on your back only to quickly roll back onto your side.

2.    Keeping a close watch on the substances that you intake: Things like smoking and drinking in excess can definitely lead to snoring.  It is recommended that you do not drink at least four hours before going to sleep as alcohol relaxes the throat muscles and constricts the air flow.  Also, antihistamines and sleeping pills will have the same affect as alcohol thus making it hard for airflow.

3.    Watch your weight: If you are overweight or are in the beginning stages of gaining some extra pounds, make an effort to shed those pounds.  When you gain weight or are already obese, fat will store up around your neck and will cause the throat to become constricted.  This constriction will greatly reduce the amount of air that you take in, thus causing you to snore.  If you are overweight make an effort to lose weight by exercising on a daily basis and by eating a healthy and balanced diet.  By taking this step you will greatly increase the chances to cure snoring.

4.    Try over the counter remedies: There are many medicine and herbal remedies that can be used to help in snoring.  There are different medicines, creams, and even devices like nasal strips that will cure snoring in a major way.  Before purchasing any of these herbal or synthetic remedies be smart and read up about them.  Check online and print consumer articles that help in determining which remedy is right for you.  Know that all humans are designed differently so you may have to try a few out before finding one that works for you.

Although snoring is a common problem, it is a problem that should not be taken with a grain of salt.  Often times snoring can be a product of sleep apnea.  Sleep apnea is when you stop breathing for short periods of time when you are sleeping (usually around 10 to 12 seconds).  If these suggestions seem not to work for you, it is a good idea to consult with your doctor to make sure that you do not suffer from sleep apnea.  Take these preventative steps and sleep better by using these cures for snoring.

Helping yourself to get relief from sleep apnea

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: General
Dated: 22 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

These self-help strategies are usually worth a try before turning to costly, inconvenient, or uncomfortable medical procedures.

Stay off your back. Many people snore or experience apnea only when they sleep on their back, a position that allows the tongue and uvula to flop back into the airway. (Night time observation can reveal whether you have such “positional” apnea.) In one recent study, more than half the people with that kind of apnea cured it by learning to sleep on their side, using any of the following techniques: wearing an alarm that beeped whenever they lay on their back; sewing a tennis ball into the back of a pajama top; laying thick pillows length-wise down the bed to keep themselves from rolling over; or even just concentrating on staying off their back.

Lose weight. Most people with apnea are overweight. Even modest weight loss can improve their breathing by thinning the tissues surrounding the airway.

Avoid sleeping pills altogether, and skip alcohol and tranquilizers for at least four hours before bedtime. Those drugs can make the soft tissues in the throat sag even more, and can also weaken the lungs’ ability to inhale.

Stop smoking. While smoking itself does not cause sleep apnea, it may contribute to the airway blockage by swelling the tissues of the throat. Smoking may also magnify the oxygen deprivation produced by the apnea.

Check for improvement by having your sleep monitored periodically – every week or two if possible – and retaking the sleep questionnaire every month. Whatever method you try, keep your physician posted on your results so he or she can help decide whether you need additional treatment.

If you find that self-help is not very helpful, you may need professional treatment. Sleep specialists use a test called polysomnography to confirm the diagnosis of sleep apnea, gauge its severity, and adjust the treatment to the individual patient. The test usually requires patients to sleep in a laboratory for a night or two while technicians observe their breathing and monitor airflow, blood-oxygen levels, heart function, and brain waves.

Once polysomnography confirms the diagnosis, patients are fitted with a nose mask attached to an electric pump, which forces air down the airway. The treatment, known as CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), nearly always quiets snoring and prevents apnea. But people need to continue using the machine indefinitely. And some people can’t adjust to the mask or the noise of the pump.

Wake up happy! Discover the proven sleep apnea treatments that guarantee a healthy and restful sleep! To grab your free report go to Best Sleep Apnea Treatments

Focus on sleep – treatment for apnea

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: General
Dated: 22 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

Researchers are not sure why apnea occurs. Attempts to correct the disorder through surgical widening of the nasal passages have largely failed, indicating the problem is less of an anatomical than neurological nature.

Alan Solko, 64, of Queens, used to snore so loudly that his wife couldn’t bear sleeping with him and visitors could hear him “all the way down the hall,” he said recently. “I felt nothing. I just snored. I slept very well. But I kept my wife up all night,” he said.

One of the most common, most dangerous and most easily treated sleep disorders is apnea. Million of Americans stop breathing for up to two minutes at a time in their sleep and suffer related respiratory and heart problems, according to the American Sleep Disorders Association.

After seven years of ever-louder nocturnal snoring, Solko sought help at the Stony Brook University Hospital sleep laboratory. “I didn’t know until I slept in the test at the hospital that I was stopping breathing three hundred times or more a night. That scared the hell out of me. It meant I could die in my sleep,” Solko said.

Solko was given a CPAP device (controlled positive airways pressure) to use while sleeping, “and it’s like a miracle,” he said. “You have a mask that you put over your face when you sleep, and this machine just pumps ordinary air through your nostrils.”

CPAP has revolutionized treatment for apnea, experts say. But many insurance carriers and Medicare do not fully cover the price of CPAP. That financial burden can deter some patients from seeking treatment.

There are changes in the respiratory control of breathing. And one kind of change is a reduction of respiratory drive. And during REM [rapid eye movement] sleep there is a tremendous amount of change that seems to impact respiratory drive.

In REM sleep, the heart and breathing rates may vary dramatically, then fall sharply during deep sleep. Some scientists believe apnea is a condition in which the brain mechanisms responsible for controlling changes in breathing rates somehow go awry.

Nearly all apnea sufferers are men, which forces scientists to seek some male factor in the brain that affects breathing. So far, no such tie has been found, but many in the field believe it may be linked to the same factors that put men at greater risks for heart attacks.

The mortal danger of sleep apnea is particularly dramatic among infants. Up to 50 percent of all prematurely born babies suffer apnea, requiring constant monitoring and respiratory support.

 

Wake up happy! Discover the proven sleep apnea treatments that guarantee a healthy and restful sleep! To grab your free report go to Best Sleep Apnea Treatments

Computer monitors apnea during sleep

Posted by Apnea
Categorized Under: Snoring
Dated: 22 Oct 2008
Comments: 0

An ancient myth told of the plight of Undine, a nymph condemned to a life of sleeplessness out of fear she would stop breathing while asleep and die. Modern science calls it sleep apnea.

The ailment — an interruption of breathing during sleep — also is known as ”Undine’s Curse,” and it afflicts a large number of middle-aged, overweight men, many who unknowingly suffer the condition.

Sleep apnea goes all the way back to Greek mythology. We’re finally getting the upper hand on it by diagnosing those who didn’t even know they were affected.

The condition also has been diagnosed in infants who can be aroused from lapses in breathing by being shaken, an action that doctors say awakens the baby and forces the brain to message the lungs to begin functioning again. Sleep apnea in the case of infants is the cause of sudden infant death syndrome, for which there is no known cure.

The condition now is being diagnosed with the help of a computer and electrodes that monitor patients at home while they sleep. The computer, in use at several medical centres around the country, is among the most accurate of devices capable of monitoring the sometimes life-threatening disorder, Johns explained.

The system uses a mesh halter to which electrodes are fixed and stuck on the chests of patients to measure a series of vital functions, including the length of time between breaths.

The halter and electrodes are placed on the patient at the clinic and worn home. At night, while the patient sleeps, the electrodes are plugged into a small box that records the patient’s sleep patterns.

The system measures heart rate, lung function, oxygen saturation in the blood and paradoxing which is the opposite movement of chest and abdomen.

He said the monitoring box is brought back to the clinic the next morning, at which time the data collected during the night is fed into and analyzed by a computer.

If the patient is apneic, the computer might show decreased respiration during sleep, a decrease in heart rate and a desaturation of oxygen in the blood stream.

The operation is similar to a tonsilectomy and involves removal of tissue at the back of the throat, which enlarges air passages to enable unobstructed breathing. Other surgical methods also successfully treat sleep apnea caused by nasal deformity or nasal polyps.

The computerized diagnostic method also helps determine if the patient suffers from other types of sleeping and breathing disorders, primarily central nervous system dysfunction in which the brain is not telling the lungs and diaphragm to move.

Wake up happy! Discover the proven sleep apnea treatments that guarantee a healthy and restful sleep! To grab your free report go to Best Sleep Apnea Treatments