Many people have sleep apnea, but they may not know it. Sleep apnea affects more than three men in ten and almost one woman in Five, so it is more common than one might think .
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It is essential to recognize some of the common symptoms, understand to know what you should do if you have sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is a common disorder where breathing is interrupted or becomes very superficial. These interruptions can last from ten seconds to minutes and can occur more than 30 times per hour.
Sleep apnea syndrome can classify into the following three types:
- Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (due to muscular throat disorder)
- Compound sleep Apnea syndrome (disease) The symptoms include hemorrhoids, sleep apnea
- Central sleep apnea syndrome (due to impaired transmission by the brain)
Obstructive Sleep Apnea syndrome (OSA)
It’s a common disease and carries certain risks for their possible secondary complications (traffic accidents, cardiovascular disease).
It is easy to diagnose and generally responds positively to treatment. The management of the patient with OSAS should be multidisciplinary, with doctors of different specialties.
A patient has OSAS when there are repeated episodes of apnea/hypotenuse during sleep (complete interruption or at least 50% of the airflow for a minimum of 10 seconds) and symptoms derived from sleep fragmentation.
Its causes a collapse in the airways or an obstruction of them during sleep. Then, the breath comes back with a snore or snort. People with apnea tend to snore very loudly. However, not all people who snore have apnea.
The people who are most at risk of apnea are men, people who are overweight, family history, or small airways. Children with tonsils and swollen adenoids can also suffer from apnea.
The diagnosis depends on your medical and family history, a physical exam, and the results of a sleep exam.
When sleep is interrupted during the night, you may be sleepy during the day. People who suffering from this disease are at higher risk of traffic accidents, work accidents, and other medical problems. If you have effected by this, you must receive treatment. These may include changes in lifestyle, oral devices, surgery, and breathing apparatus.
Sleep apnea syndrome (SAHS)
This type of syndrome is a disease that involves the obstruction of the upper respiratory tract for at least 10 seconds. It prevents proper oxygenation of the blood, which produces a situation of cardiovascular stress that affects the entire organism.
One of its consequences for those who suffer from it is the lack of night rest that causes daytime sleepiness and fatigue, which can interfere with the proper development of daily activities.
Besides, several studies link like this disease with an increased risk of developing other diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, stroke, and ischemic heart disease. In people with middle age, as well as complicate the control and treatment of them.
Central Sleep Apnea Syndrome
Its diagnosis with a complete and directed clinical evaluation and complementary studies (more or less complicated) that mainly consist of demonstrating the existence of an increase in respiratory stops (apneas) during sleep.
What is Central Apnea Syndrome?
An Apnea Syndrome during sleep, markedly different from usual, is Central Apnea Syndrome. In this syndrome, instead of apnea due to airway obstruction, the cause of the apnea mechanism is a failure in the central control of breathing system.
This entity is related to periodic breathing (called Cheyne Stokes).
The problem seems to be due to the instability of the breathing control system. The signals that reach the breathing control center are delayed in time, which results in uncertainty in the control system (feed-back) with cycles of increased ventilation and subsequently of decrease (hypopneas) or even of stops (apneas). This oscillation is continuous, during “No REM” sleep. Curiously, it disappears in REM sleep, where peripheral breathing control stimuli intervene less.
Some neurological (vascular) lesions can also give rise to this type of breathing, but in daily practice, they are much less frequent.
Sexual Dysfunction By Sleep Apnea
It can be the source of sexual dysfunction in men and affects adults, obesity people, and smokers in higher proportion, according to a study by the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR).
It’s a disorder that involves repeated breathing stops for a variable time (between 10 and 90 seconds) while sleeping. Among the adult population, there are 2% of women and 4% of men who suffer from these disease.
The main characteristic of apnea is the interruption of breathing during sleep, the brain is informed of the cessation of breathing and sends orders for the respiratory system to inhale air vigorously, which increases collapse in the pharynx, explains SEPAR in a press release.
“the drowsiness who people suffer during the day distorts their daily activities, to the point that it can deteriorate their social and labor relations.” On the other hand, the transient decreases in oxygen concentration have “an obvious impact on brain activity, which manifests itself in memory loss and reasoning difficulties.”
Treatment
Changes in lifestyle
For milder cases of obstructive, the doctor may recommend lifestyle changes:
- Lose weight if you are overweight.
- Exercise regularly.
- Drink alcohol in moderation, if you do, and do not drink several hours before bedtime.
- Give up smoking.
- Use a nasal decongestant or allergy medications.
- Do not sleep on your back.
- Avoid taking sedative medications, such as anxiolytics or sleeping pills.
If these measures do not improve sleep or its moderate to severe, the doctor may recommend other treatments. Specific devices can help open the blocked airways. In other cases, it will be necessary to operate.
