OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA (OSA) is the most serious form of sleep disordered breathing, affecting 15 to 20 million Americans. It is characterized by intermittent episodes of complete cessation of breathing due to a total airway collapse, despite a persistent effort to breathe. OSA is a potentially life-threatening medical disorder and progressively worsens with advancing age and weight gain.
When OSA occurs, the tongue is sucked against the back of the throat and blocks the upper airway causing airflow to stop. When breathing stops, a listener hears the snoring broken by a pause until the sleeper gasps for air and awakens. During sleep, this abnormal disrupted breathing phenomenon occurs numerous times (5-80 times per an hour depending on the severity), which disrupts ventilation and reduces the amount of oxygen supply to the blood, to the lung, to the heart, and to the brain, inducing sleep fragment, disrupting normal sleep cycles, and creating various heart related disease and general health problems.
According to a report by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the most adverse effects of OSA are in the cardiovascular system: systemic hypertension, coronary heart disease, cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac arrhythmias, and increased cardiovascular morbidity/mortility.
Left untreated OSA can cause: excessive day time sleepiness, morning headaches, personality changes, irritability, anxiety or depression, poor job performance, clouded memory, intellectual deterioration, decreased sex drive, dry mouth upon awakening, chronic fatigue, GERD, heart attack, stroke, sudden death during sleep, and present risk to the general public safety by causing an 8-fold increase in vehicle accidents.
RISK FACTORS OF OSA:
Nasal obstruction (turbinate hypertrophy, deviated septum, polyp), hypertrophy in the tonsils, large tongue, flabby soft palate and uvula, over weight, large neck size (17.5 inches or larger in men, 16 inches or larger in women), heavy alcohol consumption, heavy smoking, habitual sleeping pills, small/narrow jaw, multiple missing teeth, etc.
If you are more than 50 pounds over weight, have a thick neck, have COPD, hypertension, diabetic, loud snoring, gasping or chocking at night, you are strongly suggested to have a sleep study for the possibility of obstructive sleep apnea. All these combined together are considered as the highest risk factor.
If you have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea you should do the following until you are adequately treated:
Avoid heavy alcoholic beverages within 3 hours of bedtime
Avoid or use with caution sleeping pills and other medications known to cause sedation
If you smoke, quit. You are three times more likely to have OSA if you smoke than if you never smoked or stopped smoking
If your sleep apnea causes you to be sleepy, avoid operating machinery that is potentially dangerous to yourself and others.
Avoid narcotic (opioid) pain medications such as morphine, which can lead to life-threatening hypoxia (low oxygen) even in patients with only mild OSA