There is nothing good about sleep apnea. It deprives the brain of oxygen consistently through the night. It stresses the body out and creates all the negative consequences of stress on the body. It also keeps the body from settling into the deep sleep that our body needs to heal and recover from the day’s abuses. Sleep apnea is strongly associated with heart disease. It cannot be ignored.
Typically, the diagnosis is via a sleep study. Once sleep apnea is identified, a CPAP machine is usually used to aid the patient in attaining deep sleep. Unfortunately for many, the CPAP machine can be cumbersome, load or claustrophobia-generating. Luckily, there are other answers.
First, if the primary apnea is obstructive in nature, you may be surprised that learning to circular breath can provide great relief. There is an Australian musical instrument called a didgeridoo. Learning to play this instrument can help with sleep apnea and snoring and has a handful of clinical studies to support this.
Far more scary is central sleep apnea. This occurs because the brain’s respiratory center is affected by prediabetes, creating the apnea. Sleep apnea will make prediabetes worse and prediabetes will make sleep apnea worse. It produces a snowball effect. It NEEDS to be managed.
Obviously, pulling away from a diabetic lifestyle will help with the sleep apnea. This particular study supports this in finding that a very low calorie diet provided improvements in sleep apnea scores. Half the patients in this study, one year later, were off of their CPAP machines. THAT is powerful medicine.
kmillecam says
Is snoring necessarily indicative of sleep apnea? How does one go about getting a sleep study done? Fascinating stuff! I have wondered if I or my husband has this, mostly because when we got married neither of us snored much, but now we both do. Mine has stayed the same for the last few years, but my husband’s has gotten a little worse (louder!)
James Bogash says
The two do not have to be linked, although obstructive sleep apnea is more closely related to snoring. If you need, I can order the sleep study. Requires an overnight stay.