What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea?
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a medical condition where your tongue and soft tissues actually close off your airway and stop air from entering your lungs.
When this happens during sleep, the oxygen in your blood decreases, you heart races, and your brain panics - causing you to startle awake, even if you don't remember waking. After a few good breaths, the cycle repeats itself, all night long.
The word apnea means without breath. While sleeping, you may have partial pauses (hypopnea) or complete pauses (apnea) in breathing. The accumulation of these events occurring all night long results in extended periods of time of decreased blood oxygen levels. Night after night, your brain and vital organs can be starved of oxygen.
What is concerning? Most individuals are not even aware this is occurring. These events can occur hundreds of times per night. Yet, when we wake up the next morning and still feel tired or unrested, we attribute this to our busy lifestyle or state “I have never slept well” and simply accept this.
Don’t you think there could be a potential underlying cause for this?
Causes and Symptoms
When we sleep, the muscles and tissues in our body relax. The combination of this drop in muscle tone with gravity allows the tongue and surrounding soft tissues in the neck to drop back and constrict or fully obstruct the airway.
SNORING AND SLEEP APNEA
About Snoring
During sleep, your tongue and throat tissues may relax enough to narrow your airway. Snoring is the sound that is produced when air passes through this partially blocked area causing tissues to vibrate.
About Obstructive Sleep Apnea
OSA is a medical condition where your tongue and soft tissues actually close off your airway and stop air from entering your lungs. When this happens during sleep, the oxygen in your blood decreases, your heart races, and your brain panics- causing you to startle awake. After a few good breaths, the cycle repeats itself, all night long.
Health Effects
HEALTH RISK FACTORS
- 1 in 5 adults have mild obstructive sleep apnea
- 75% of severe sleep disordered breathing cases remain undiagnosed
- 70% of heart attack patients have mild sleep apnea
- 4x risk for a stroke
The statistics are alarming
Why We Care
The detrimental effects of untreated sleep apnea are alarming. Obstructive sleep apnea is linked to numerous health conditions as a contributing and/or exacerbating factor.
By screening patients, we can help educate, and more importantly, assist them in taking the steps needed to get tested and obtain treatment if needed.
Do you exhibit any of the following signs or symptoms?
- Snoring
- Frequent morning headaches
- Know clenching or grinding of your teeth? Or have you been told this by your spouse/significant other or dentist?
- Frequent need to use the restroom throughout the night
- Acid reflux
- High blood pressure
- A-Fib
Completing a sleep test is the only way to rule out sleep apnea as a potential underlying cause for each of the conditions listed above.
We can help facilitate this entire process for you. Either through our connections with local sleep centers or via telemedicine and an at home sleep test mailed directly to your home.