Currently, seventy million Americans have sleep disorders and sleep apnea affects at least 12 million to 18 million of them. Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes uncontrollable pauses in breathing, or shallow breaths during sleep. Snoring is a common symptom, although you may have sleep apnea even if you do not snore. Untreated, sleep apnea can be potentially life-threatening, can lead to serious medical consequences and a decreased quality of life. Pauses in your breathing cause less oxygen to make its way to the brain, overworks the cardiovascular system and other organs in your body. People with sleep apnea are triggered to wake up suddenly out of sleep and gasp for air in a Flight or Fight response. These sleep apnea episodes will wake you up from a deep sleep into light sleep stage, never allowing you to get the restful sleep you need. The multiple episodes of low blood oxygen (hypoxia or hypoxemia) can lead to sudden death from an irregular heartbeat. Sleep apnea can cause symptoms, including loud snoring, choking noises, poor sleep, and feelings of fatigue during the day. Long-term complications of sleep apnea can include an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity, depression, memory problems, viruses and sexual dysfunction. Sleep Apnea can cause accidents, learning or memory problems and a poor performance in school or at work.
Fortunately, sleep apnea can be treated with a custom oral appliance, which supports the jaw in a forward position to help maintain an open upper airway. Lifestyle changes which include losing weight, reducing inflammation, improving your diet and starting a regular exercise routine will also help prevent Sleep Apnea.
1. Oral Appliance Therapy
Sleep Appliances are worn much like an orthodontic appliance or sports mouth protector. Worn during sleep to prevent the collapse of the tongue and soft tissues in the back of the throat, oral appliances promote adequate air intake and help to provide normal sleep in people who snore and have Sleep Apnea. Oral appliances are considered first-line therapy for patients who have been diagnosed Obstructive Sleep Apnea according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. They are also a great alternative for patients that cannot tolerate their prescribed CPAP. The oral appliance holds the lower jaw forward keeping the airway open. It prevents the tongue and muscles in the upper airway from collapsing and obstructing the airway.
Our oral appliances at Raphaelson Dental Sleep Center are very sleek in design- consisting of smooth, durable and comfortable material. It is also one of the strongest appliances currently available, making it an ideal treatment option for all patients, especially those who clench or grind their teeth at night.
2. Maintain a Healthy Weight
When you are overweight the fat deposits around your upper airway can obstruct normal breathing. If you’re a man with a neck circumference over 17 inches (43 centimeters) or women over 15 inches (38 centimeters, you have a significantly higher risk for sleep apnea.
Obesity increases a person’s risk for Sleep Apnea and poor sleep causes obesity affecting a person’s Leptin and Ghrelin (it is a vicious cycle). Sleep Apnea is most common among adults over 45 who are overweight, especially men, but can also affect women, people of normal weight and even children.
If you’re overweight or obese start with a goal of losing ten percent of your body fat. Here are some tips that can help you:
Eat a high fiber diet: This means adding more fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, sprouted beans or legumes, and ancient whole grains to your diet. Try to add at least 25–30 grams daily.
Eat foods that have healthy fats and high protein: Try cooking with coconut oil. It has natural fat-burning characteristics, and it benefits your gut too. Others healthy foods to add: olive oil, avocado, animal fats from lean meat, nuts and seeds. High protein foods are satisfying for hunger and help will help you build lean muscle too. Start off your morning with cage-free eggs, add some chicken to your lunch and maybe a fish to your dinner.
Get regular exercise: Exercise is not only essential to losing weight and live a healthy lifestyle but is also promotes a good sleep. It helps regulate hormones, burns calories and can break up nasal congestion. Go for a thirty-minute walk a couple of days a week. Park your car a little further from your destination. Take group classes at your local gym.
Natural oils: Grapefruit, cinnamon, and ginger oil can help control your appetite, hormones and digestive symptoms.
4. Avoid Excessive Alcohol and Smoking
Alcohol relaxes the throat muscles, including the uvula and palate, which are important for controlling breathing. Smoking and alcohol can cause inflammation and fluid retention in the airway. And just in case you needed another reason to quit, people who smoke are three times more likely to have obstructive sleep apnea. So try to stop smoking and skip your night cap. If you plan drink do it at least three hours before going to bed.
Over the counter sleep aids, sedatives, and some prescriptions can have the same effects. Keep in mind, you are still waking up at night with these over the counter and prescription sleep aids although you may not be conscious of it. They only way to get a better sleep is to treat the root problem. Also, a lot of these medications can cause you to be more groggy during the day.
5. Treat Acid Reflux, Congestion and Coughs
Acid reflux/heartburn, congestion, and chronic coughs can interfere with normal breathing. Nasal congestion leads to difficulty breathing through the nose and can worsen symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. Acid reflux causes irritation and swelling around certain throat muscles. Coughs might also irritate your upper airways and increase snoring. Reducing exposure to allergies and raising your head while sleeping can help reduce reflux and congestion. A humidifier will help drain your sinuses and more air to move through your airways. You can also rub essential oils such as eucalyptus oil which is also found in Vicks Vaporub on your chest before sleeping to help naturally open your airways and soothe a stuffy nose or a sore throat.
OSA is a condition in which breathing stops for 10 seconds or more during sleep, sometimes hundreds of times a night. This sleep disorder affects approximately 18 million people in the United States and is linked to type 2 diabetes. There are a number of factors are believed to be involved in the link between sleep apnea and diabetes, including the following:
Stress response. Repeated arousals from deep sleep and interruptions in the delivery of oxygen to the body’s tissues caused by sleep apnea lead to the stress, or “fight or flight,” response. The fight or flight response causes increased heart rate and increased blood pressure. When it occurs repeatedly over time, it is a risk factor in the development of chronic high blood pressure, insulin resistance (one of the hallmarks of Type 2 diabetes), and cardiovascular disease.
Increased cortisol levels. Sleep deprivation increases blood levels of cortisol, which increases both blood glucose levels and insulin secretion.
Inflammatory response. Sleep apnea is associated with both local inflammation of the upper airways and systemic inflammation, or inflammation of the endothelium (the lining of the blood vessels) and other organ systems.
Lack of oxygen. During apneas the level oxygen deprivation may also cause the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines—proteins involved in the body’s immune response—that are associated with glucose intolerance and insulin resistance.
There have been many years of clinical research supporting a connection between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and Type 2 diabetes. Now, a more recent study suggests a link between the severity of a person’s OSA and the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
During a study at University of Toronto, researchers observed 8,678 adults with suspected OSA who underwent a sleep study between 1994 and 2010. The severity of each person’s sleep apnea was determined by measuring their apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), which indicates the number of times a person stops breathing or breathes irregularly each hour. Based on these results, they were placed into one of four OSA categories — none, mild, moderate, or severe. After, they were medically observed through May 2011 to examine whether or not they went on to develop Type 2 diabetes.
Over the course of the follow-up 1,017 (11.7%) of the participants developed Type 2 diabetes. After adjusting study, to include other risk factors known to increase a person’s chances of developing diabetes (age, sex, body-mass index, neck circumference, smoking, and income status), people with severe OSA were found to have a 30% higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes than people without OSA. Also, those with mild or moderate OSA were found to have a 23% increased risk of developing Type 2 compared to those without OSA. Other risk factors for diabetes included experiencing breathing difficulties during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, low oxygen levels in the blood, sleep deprivation, and activation of the sympathetic nervous system as indicated by increased heart rate.
“After adjusting for other potential causes, we were able to demonstrate a significant association between OSA severity and the risk of developing diabetes,” Tetyana Kendzerska, MD, PhD. “The OSA-related predictors of increased diabetes risk that we found in our study may allow for early preventative interventions in these patients.”
Note: (There were some limitations of the study that included a lack of data on family history of diabetes and race.)
See the study: http://www.atsjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1164/rccm.201312-2209OC#.U5HsXS_DmKs
