Natural Health

Photo by littleREDelf In today’s modern age of advanced medical and scientific breakthroughs, there seems to be no end to what we can do to improve health and increase our general well being. If you were to do a web search on “health,” you’d likely come up with millions, if not billions, of hits.

But you break things down into their most basic elements, there are really only four areas of concern. Proper food, proper water, proper air, and proper sleep. Anything that you can find, any idea or plan on increasing help will fall into on of these categories.

Food, water and air are fairly straightforward. Eat healthy fats and carbohydrates, and avoid sugary foods and most animal fats. Similarly, clean water and clean air are so obvious that most people don’t even think to be concerned about them. But what about sleep?

Sleep is by far the most overlooked aspect of health today. Without a consistent nights sleep, serious and potentially life threatening illnesses can quickly develop. And the worst part is that a lack of sleep is very rarely identified as the cause of most of these ailments.

Without question, one of the biggest reasons people aren’t getting enough sleep is sleep apnea, and apnea symptoms. These go unnoticed in many sufferers. Because they happen at night, even if they cause you to wake up, you aren’t likely to remember it.

However, there are simple ways to find out you have apnea symptoms. One of the best ways is to record yourself while sleeping, and play the recording back for your doctor, that way he or she can make an accurate diagnosis.

Despite being a source of many potential health problems, sleep apnea is relatively easy to treat once you figure out that you have it. All it takes is some knowledge, and a visit to your helpful doctor. You’ll be sleeping peacefully before you know it.

If you think you suffer from apnea symptoms, visit the sleep apnea symptoms information page today.

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You are Getting Very Sleepy

Sleep apnea is a chronic condition that causes shallow breaths or pauses in breathing while sleeping. The pauses in breathing can last a few seconds or a few minutes. Occurring 5-30 times in the span of one hour and then normal breathing starts again usually with a choking sound or loud snort.

Sleep apnea can either be obstructive sleep apnea which is more common and occurs when muscles of throat relax or central sleep apnea that is caused when proper signals are not sent by the brain to the muscles controlling breathing.

Symptoms and Causes of Sleep Apnea

Some common symptoms of sleep apnea are sleeping excessively during daytime, morning headache, abrupt awakening with shortness of breath, insomnia and loud snoring. You need to see a physician if the snoring is loud that disturbs of yourself or others, you usually awake from the sleep as a result of shortness of breath, pauses in breathing while sleeping, and feeling excessive drowsiness during the day. Snoring is usually not seen as something potentially dangerous or serious. Also, not everyone suffering from sleep apnea snores and hence it is a good idea to talk to your doctor if you snore loudly.

Relaxation of the muscles in the back of your throat causes sleep apnea. This relaxation of muscles causes the airway to narrow down or close while you breathe in. This causes breathing to stop momentarily dropping the oxygen level in blood. This is lack of oxygen is sensed by the brain and it awakes you from the sleep so that airways can be reopened. This entire process usually is not even noticed by the person.

Remedies for sleep apnea

There are some tips that can help you dealing with sleep apnea without any medical intervention. One good measure is to lose excessive weight and maintain a healthy weight. If you have this problem, it is best to avoid alcohol and some medications such as sleeping pills or tranquilizers. These medications relax the throat muscles and interfere with normal breathing.

You can try sleeping on your abdomen or side rather than your back. When you sleep on your back, it causes the soft palate and tongue to rest against your throat blocking airways. One can use saline nasal spray at night for the opening of the nasal passage.

Treatments for sleep apnea

Sleep apnea can be treated with the help of therapies or surgery. The therapies include Continuous positive airway pressure, adjustable airway pressure devise and oral appliances. Surgery helps it by removing excess tissues from nose or throat that vibrate while you breathe and make you snore.