Is Seasonal Snoring Disturbing Your Sleep?

Spring has just begun, which means more sunshine and nice weather but also the onset of allergy season for those allergic to trees, grasses, pollen, and more. A stuffy nose is unpleasant enough while you’re awake, but congestion can make it hard to breathe at night and potentially cause snoring.

Allergies create blockages in the airway. The goal of snoring treatment is to open up the nasal passages so the patient can breathe more easily, which means managing allergy symptoms can diminish the frequency and severity of snoring.

Potential treatment options for allergies that could also reduce snoring include:

• Laundering your pillowcase and other bedding to remove dust particles and other allergens
• Irrigating your nasal passages with a salt water solution
• Antihistamines, decongestants, and other allergy medication
• Open your airway by taking a hot shower just prior to bedtime

Allergies can make snoring worse by causing the sinuses to become inflamed, restricting the airflow even further. If you suffer from sleep apnea, the effects of allergy season can intensify the symptoms, leading not only to daytime fatigue but severe health risks if the condition goes unabated for an extended length of time.

To learn more about snoring treatment during allergy season and how to keep your airway open to avoid sleep apnea, please call 1 (866) 727-6275 (1-8-NO-PAP-MASK) to speak to a local specialist today.

What Is the Cost of Sleep Apnea?

An article in the magazine Dental Economics recently discussed the toll sleep apnea takes on American society, and the findings are staggering. The estimated economic impact of apnea in the United States is $165 billion.

Previously a problem confined to the bedroom, sleep apnea poses more than just a financial risk. Agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have put in place screening requirements and guidelines in an effort to prevent commercial and mass transit employees from endangering passengers and bystanders due to sleep deprivation.

Like a number of other diseases and conditions, dentists are uniquely positioned to be able to catch sleep apnea in its early stages. Many patients have found relief from apnea symptoms through dental interventions such as:

• Oral appliances
• Dental anti-aging medicine
• Combination therapy with an oral appliance and other treatment options
• Oral surgery
• Interceptive orthodontics

Children as well as adults can suffer from sleep apnea. The author of the Dental Economics piece (who is also a dentist) posits that treating developmental issues affecting the jaw, palate, and other parts of the oral cavity when a patient is young can reduce the incidence of sleep apnea and have a positive overall impact on a patient's growth.

If left untreated, sleep apnea can reduce life expectancy by as much as 20%. To find out how a dental specialist can help you or a loved one, please call 1 (866) 727-6275 (1-8-NO-PAP-MASK) today.

Sleep Well Illinois: Promoting Universal Sleep Apnea Screening inCariology and Internal Medice Practices

Sleep Apnea is a dangerous condition that can have advere effects on all aspects of patients live.  Sleep apneaa is usually easy to diagnose and treat but historicaly medicine has only diagnosed about 10% of patients. 

This is a crisi because sleep apnea can lead to heart attacks, strokes, Atrial Fibrillation, excessive daytime sleepiness, increased memory loss, marital problems, high blood pressure,  gastric reflux, ADD, ADHD and other problems,

Sleep Well Illinois is a new company promoting Universal Screening for Sleep Apnea in Physicians offices.  Learn more about Sleep Well Illinois at:

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/sleep-well-illinois-a-new-company-dedicated-to-improving-the-health-of-patients-across-the-chicagoland-area-by-universal-screening-for-sleep-apnea-in-internal-medicine-and-cardiology-offices-396215.php

Utilizing a physician based screening program will save both patients and nsurance companies money and insure that the 90% of undiagnosed patients have approriate screening.

  

A home sleep study model will also be extremely effective in diagnosing the mild and moderate sleep apnea patients who respond amazingly well to comfortable oral appliance therapy rather than CPAP.

CPAP is still considered the gold standard for severe sleep apnea  but patients with mild to moderate sleep apnea usually prefer oral appliance therapy.  Even severe patients who do not tolerate CPAP  and utilize oral appliances do amazingly well in long-term outcome studies in cardiac patients.  These outcome studies show that oral appliances higher compliance rate more than offset superiority of CPAP in these patient.

The exception is in the morbidly obese population.  It is expected that more and more severe sleep apnea patients will opt for a comfortable oral appliance as their primary treatment.

Does Sleep Apnea Make Fatty Liver Disease Worse?

Though both conditions have been linked to excess weight, researchers were long of the opinion that there was no connection between sleep apnea and fatty liver disease. However, a recent study of obese subjects with sleep apnea symptoms found a strong correlation between the sleep disorder and fatty liver.

Two-thirds of the patients evaluated during the study showed signs of fatty liver disease. The patients with severe sleep apnea symptoms tended also to suffer from more extreme cases of fatty liver.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is a condition where, quite simply, fat deposits build up in the liver. Most patients experience no ill effects from the extra fat, but others might suffer inflammation of the liver and, over time, the development of scar tissue.

If fatty liver disease progresses, possible symptoms might include: 

• Pain in and around the abdomen where the liver is located (upper middle and/or upper right)
• Weakness and fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Weight loss
• Dark patches on the skin

In advanced cases of fatty liver disease, permanent damage to the organ can occur. Liver failure and cancer of the liver are also more likely.

Sleep apnea can negatively affect the health and function of many parts of the body. The liver is no exception, which is why it’s vital for patients suffering from sleep apnea symptoms to seek treatment from an experienced professional.

Please call 1 (866) 727-6275 (1-8-NO-PAP-MASK) today to find a sleep specialist in your area.

Making Sleep a Priority a Painless Choice

It’s Sleep Awareness Week, and the National Sleep Foundation has unveiled the results of its annual Sleep in America™ poll. This year’s survey focused on the impact of pain on quality sleep.

The national poll found that a majority of American adults suffer from some type of recurring pain. For these respondents, pain resulted in an average “sleep debt” of approximately 15 minutes to over 40 minutes. In contrast, 65% of the people who reported not experiencing pain said that their sleep quality was good or very good. On average, these people sleep 18 to 23 minutes more than their counterparts who experience regular pain.

According to the Foundation’s report, people who don’t get the quality of sleep they need due to pain experience a number of negative effects, including:

• Higher stress levels, including anxiety about the impact lack of sleep might have on their health
• Greater tendency to wake up during the night (sleep sensitivity)
• Sleeplessness due to environmental factors
• Interference in their emotional state and personal and professional activities

Making an effort to get more sleep tends to correspond with greater quality and quantity sleep, even among people who experience pain. If you suffer from sleep apnea or other disorders that affect your ability to get a good night’s rest, you know the importance of sleep and the need to set aside enough time to get a healthy amount.

If you’re not getting the sleep you need and you know you need to make positive steps to change that, please call 1 (866) 727-6275 (1-8-NO-PAP-MASK) today. A local sleep specialist can counsel you on treatment options for sleep apnea, pain, and a variety of other issues.