New Tips on How To Beat Sleep Apnea

Sleep Apnea is a disorder that affects many people of different ages, being more common in men. Although it may seem that it is not a serious or life-threatening condition, it can significantly decrease your quality of life.

New Tips on How To Beat Sleep Apnea Sleep Apnea is a disorder that affects many people of different ages, being more common in men. Although it may seem that it is not a serious or life-threatening condition, it can significantly decrease your quality of life. There are three forms of Sleep Apnea: obstructive, central and mixed. The Obstructive Sleep apnea is the most common of the three, constituting about 84% of all cases. It is caused by an obstruction in the airways that occurs during sleep impairing the air flow and normal breathing. Most of the times the patient is not even aware that during the night he is breathing with difficulty, waking up very tired in the morning. The common symptoms of Sleep apnea are unpleasant snoring, daytime sleepiness and fatigue, lack of concentration and decreased work performance, irritability, moodiness and vision problems. But these are just the obvious symptoms. Scientists have found that people affected by sleep apnea are at a higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, arrhythmias, diabetes and sleep-deprived driving accidents. All these troubles are of course caused by insufficient oxygen intake that affects every cell of the body, and the most sensitive organ of all, the brain. As you can see sleep apnea is not just about snoring and a little daytime fatigue. If left untreated it can lead to serious changes in your health status. And if that wasn't enough, a group a scientists discovered that prolonged hypoxia, a medical term referring to insufficient oxygen intake, can lead to brain injury over time, since neural cells are the most sensitive to oxygen deprivation. So the problem is quite serious and important. But how do we solve it? Medicine of course has a way of scaring people with her findings about diseases but, in the meantime, it almost always finds some answers to those problems. Let's start with the simple things you can do to deal with this annoying condition. As simple as they are, they are actually very powerful if you are dedicated and stick to them. The first one is regular exercise. It increases the oxygen needs of your body. Since the need is greater during exercise, the body trains itself in being more efficient in its oxygen use. It does so by increasing the lung capacity and by extracting more oxygen from the air you breathe in. There is no need to elaborate on the benefits of a balanced diet that would include more fruits, vegetables and cereals and less fat. A healthy diet will help your body deal with sleep apnea more efficiently. Losing weight is another important benefit. What are the medical treatments available for sleep apnea? I am sure all you sleep apnea sufferers know about CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) masks. Those are devices that create positive pressure to force the air into the collapsed airways during sleep. They are very good at treating sleep apnea but their main disadvantage is they are very uncomfortable to wear during the night, and a lot of people stop using them, lowering their efficiency. Before jumping to surgery, which is another option, you may want to try the new therapy developed for Sleep apnea, nasal devices. Nasal devices, which are a relatively new treatment, are not like large CPAP mask. They consist of two small devices applied to your nostrils that use your own breathing energy to create pressure that would prevent your airways from collapsing, ensuring that you breathe normally and get a good night's rest. These new technological findings have determined the doctors to recommend nasal patches as viable alternatives to traditional CPAP masks. Ultimately, nasal devices may or may not be right for you, but they are certainly among the least invasive treatments. And they may eliminate the need for you to wear the uncomfortable mask, or have to be operated on, which can be costly, uncomfortable and ineffective. If you're interested in nasal devices, you should consult with a sleep clinic or medical professional. Author Bio: Joel Mark is an online author who is passionate about basketball, weight training & fitness. When he's not outside exercising, he studies a lot about health and nutrition, which runs the gamut from sleep apnea treatment to nutrition. http://proventtherapy.com/