Sleep Apnea Treatment Guide
Obstructive Sleep Apnea is most common kind of sleep apnea which involves obstruction of upper airway occurring during sleep resulting in lack of oxygen in blood and lungs. This can lead to excessive daytime sleepiness, loud snoring, morning headache, irritability, high blood pressure, depression, difficulty in concentration, dry mouth, overweight, heartburn, insomnia, reduced libido and change in personality. If sleep apnea treatment is not given on time, it can prove to be life threatening. The effects include stroke and heart attack.
The Sleep Apnea Treatment
Main goal of sleep apnea treatment is to restore normal breathing while sleeping and relieve the symptoms such as daytime sleepiness and loud snoring. Sleep apnea treatment may also help in medical conditions linked to sleep apnea such as high BP, heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
Currently, there are no medications available to treat sleep apnea but mouthpieces, lifestyle change, breathing devices and surgery can be used to treat it. If the apnea is mild, it can be treated by some lifestyle changes and mouthpieces. The lifestyle changes for sleep apnea treatment include avoiding alcohol and medications that make you sleepy, lose weight, sleep on your side rather than your back, keeping nasal passage open during night with the help of sprays or allergy medicines and avoiding smoking.
Mouthpiece can help people suffering from mild apnea. You can get a custom fit plastic mouthpiece for sleep apnea treatment. Talk to your doctor if you feel an kind of pain while using the mouthpiece.
Continuous positive airway pressures (CPAP) is used for mild to severe sleep apnea. This includes fitting a mask over your nose and mouth and the machine slowly blows air in your throat.
Sleep apnea surgery works depending on the causes of sleep apnea but it can be an effective sleep apnea treatment. Surgery widens the breathing passage by removing, stiffening or shrinking the excess tissue of mouth or throat. This is done in the hospital by giving a shot or treatment to the tissues. Medications are given to make you sleep during the surgery and post surgery, you may have pain in the throat for 1-2 weeks. As a sleep apnea treatment, tonsils may also be removed that block the airway. This can be very helpful for kids.
Sleep apnea affects adults as well as kids. If you suspect that you or anyone in your family have the symptoms of sleep apnea, do not let it go undiagnosed. Lack of oxygen to the blood and lungs can have some serious side effects that can even be life threatening. See your doctor as soon as you can.