January 31st, 2012 amogell
Two common questions I hear when talking to patients about sleep breathing disorders are:
What is obstructive sleep apnea? Why is this happening to me?
Sleep apnea is a condition in which the upper airway collapses during sleep. This causes the sleeper to literally stop breathing. Each of these stoppages is called an apnea. Apneas can occur a few times each night or even hundreds of times.
Why this occurs is simple. The throat contains many muscles that control our airway and allow us to speak, breath and swallow. During sleep our muscles relax and this causes the airway to narrow and sometimes to become completely blocked. Think of a garden hose with a kink that stops the flow of water.
Because the airway is blocked, the oxygen levels in the body fall. The sleeper will typically waken with a gasp and begin breathing again. The remarkable thing about this process is that the sleeper does not remember waking during the night.
Most people with sleep apnea are not aware of their abnormal nighttime breathing until a bed partner complains or extreme daytime fatigue prompts them to seek medical help.
Fortunately there are good treatment options for obstructive sleep apnea. While the CPAP is the gold standard for treatment, many patients find sleeping with the masks, hoses and machine difficult and stop treatment. An oral appliance can also be used to treat sleep apnea and most patients find them comfortable and easy to use.
For more information about obstructive sleep apnea and to discover if you are a candidate for oral appliance therapy please contact Dr. Mark Levy at StoneRidge Dental Care in Columbus, OH at 614-476-6696.
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January 27th, 2012 amogell
Common sleep problems like difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or even sleeping too much increase the risk of heart disease and obesity. A study reported in the Journal of Sleep Research looked at almost 140,000 people. Those that reported sleep disturbance three nights out of the week were more likely to experience obesity, heart attack and heart disease.
When the researchers from the University of Pennsylvania adjusted their results according to other health risk factors and sociodemographic factors the association between sleep and cardiometabolic problems remained. The investigators concluded that poor sleep patterns are associated with a number of outcomes including obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart attack and stroke. This supports previous studies but the wording of the questions used focused on sleep quality versus length of sleep — in other words did you actually get 8 hours of good quality sleep or were you continually woken during the night by your bed partner snoring loudly?
Loud snoring can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea which is a dangerous condition for the sleeper. What most people don’t realize is that the person trying to sleep with someone with sleep apnea also has their health impacted in a big way. The loud snoring, gasping for air and pauses in breathing cause both bed partners disturbed sleep. If this sounds familiar it may be time to seek a diagnosis and get treatment.
To schedule your consultation regarding snoring and obstructive sleep apnea please contact Dr. Mark Levy at StoneRidge Dental Care in Gahanna, OH today at 614-476-6696. You both deserve a good night’s sleep to ensure your health!
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January 18th, 2012 amogell
Sleep apnea may be diagnosed less in women because women’s symptoms may be different from a mans. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a disorder that causes people to stop breathing during sleep. Usually loud snoring, gasping for breath and daytime fatigue are symptoms.
Apnea events are counted when the breathing stops or slows for at least 10 seconds at a time and this can occur many times each night. Those patients who stop breathing 10-29 times per hour are considered to have mild to moderate sleep apnea, those with 30 or more interruptions per hour have severe sleep apnea.
Obstructive sleep apnea has severe health consequences greatly increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Most women don’t realize that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women in America so diagnosing and treating a risk factor like obstructive sleep apnea is vital.
Patients with OSA often go undiagnosed. They are not aware that they snore, gasp and stop breathing during sleep and may only seek diagnosis when a bed partner complains about the noise keeping them up at night. Women especially may be diagnosed less frequently because daytime sleepiness is a key symptom that men report much more frequently than women. It is more common for breathing problems to keep women from falling asleep or staying asleep.
Treating obstructive sleep apnea usually involves sleeping with a CPAP machine which pumps air through a mask allowing the sleeper to breath all night. Unfortunately this treatment is not well tolerated by many patients. A very good treatment for mild to moderate sleep apnea is an oral appliance made by a specially trained dentist. The oral appliance is created in a lab and worn in the mouth at night and helps hold the jaw in a position that keeps the airway open allowing a full night of breathing and sleep.
If loud snoring, daytime fatigue and weight gain are a problem please contact Dr. Mark Levy at StoneRidge Dental Care in Gahanna, OH at 614-476-6696 to schedule your consultation and discuss diagnosis and treatment options for obstructive sleep apnea.
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January 9th, 2012 amogell
A study from Norway suggests that poor sleep habits may increase the risk of fibromyalgia in women. Fibromyalgia is a syndrome with symptoms including long term pain throughout the body with increased muscle and joint tenderness. The risk of developing fibromyalgia increased with more severe sleep problems. The connection appears stronger among women who were past middle age as compared to younger women.
This is interesting because about 5 million people in the US suffer from fibromyalgia and most are women. Prior scientific studies have shown that waking at night, fatigue and insomnia are common in people with the condition. This study shows that the sleep problems occur before the patients develop fibromyalgia. Dr. Paul Mork explained “Our findings indicate a strong association between sleep disturbance and fibromyalgia risk in adult women. We found a dose-response relation, where women who often reported sleep problems had a greater risk of fibromyalgia than those who never experienced sleep problems.”
While many people suffer from insomnia or waking at night, others suffer sleep disturbances because of their bed partner’s sleep problems. Loud snoring or the snoring and gasping sounds of a bed partner with sleep apnea provide continual interruptions throughout the night for both parties. The big difference is the partner with sleep apnea doesn’t remember the wakings but the exhausted spouse can detail the night all too clearly.
If a bed partner’s sleep issues are affecting your health it is time to get a diagnosis and put a stop to the snoring once and for all. Not everyone that snores has obstructive sleep apnea but an oral appliance created by Columbus area sleep medicine dentist Dr. Mark Levy can quiet that snore and allow an open, quiet airway all night long.
For more information please contact StoneRidge Dental Care at 614-476-6696 today.
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January 4th, 2012 amogell
It seems that yesterday was National Sleep Day and I missed it. Maybe you missed it too! Considering how important a good night of sleep is to our overall health I think we really need more than one day per year devoted to sleep.
Following the hectic holiday season we are all a little overtired during the first week in January. If it seems to be taking you more than a few days to get back into your normal routine without excessive daytime tiredness you may want to check to see if an undiagnosed sleep disorder could be stealing your energy.
Good sleep hygiene is important for a good night of sleep every night so here are a few tips:
- Make sure your sleep environment is comfortable and cool
- Use a good pillow that supports your head and neck
- Try a white noise machine to help you relax
- Avoid caffeine late in the afternoon and evening and don’t drink alcohol before bed
- Watch your fluid consumption in the evening so you don’t have to wake in the night to urinate
- Stick to a regular bedtime
- Don’t use the bedroom for work or watching TV
Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that causes the sleeper to stop breathing during sleep. If you snore loudly, experience excessive daytime sleepiness, have morning headaches and are having difficulty losing weight you may have obstructive sleep apnea. For more information about sleep apnea and available treatment options please contact your Columbus area sleep medicine dentist Dr. Mark Levy at StoneRidge Dental Care at 614-476-6696 today.
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December 13th, 2011 amogell
Sleep problems affect about one-third of Americans. Some, such as obstructive sleep apnea, are serious and may be life threatening. But many more people suffer from problems such as insomnia or waking throughout the night. No matter what the cause, poor sleep quality can lead to serious medical problems over time. A study in the European Journal of Nutrition showed that drinking tart cherry juice improved sleep quality.
The researchers gave adults 2 glasses of tart cherry juice per day. They found that the cherry juice drinkers slept an average of 39 minutes longer and had up to a 6 percent increase in sleep efficiency (meaning they actually were asleep while in bed). When the study participants drank a non-cherrry juice drink they did not have these improvements. The sleep benefits seem to be caused by the melatonin content of the tart cherries. Previous research had shown that tart cherries could be used as a sleep aid and since American’s spend over $84 million on over-the-counter sleep aids per year drinking tart cherry juice may be a healthier, money saving alternative.
If your sleep is disturbed by loud snoring by either you or your bed partner the problem may be obstructive sleep apnea. This is a serious condition that causes the sleeper to stop breathing many times during the night. The signs of sleep apnea include loud snoring, gasping during sleep, a large neck size and high BMI (body mass index). Obstructive sleep apnea can be treated using a comfortable oral appliance worn while sleeping. This stops the snoring and allows the sleeper to breath all night long.
If the signs of sleep apnea sound familiar to you please contact StoneRidge Dental Care in Columbus, OH today at 614-476-6696 to schedule your consultation.
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November 15th, 2011 amogell
Researchers have found that eating a Mediterranean diet and exercising can improve some sleep apnea symptoms. The study published in European Respiratory Journal looked at the impact of the Mediterranean diet on obese sleep apnea patients as compared to patients on a prudent diet.
Obstructive sleep apnea is one of the most common sleep breathing disorders and becomes more prevalent as weight increases. Approximately 20-40% of obese patients suffer from obstructive sleep apnea and weight loss is an essential part of the treatment. Obstructive sleep apnea causes frequent stoppages of breathing during sleep. Sleep is fragmented causing excessive daytime drowsiness and other health complications.
Researchers in Greece studied 40 obese sleep apnea patients. 20 were placed on the Mediterranean diet and the other 20 were given a prudent weight-loss diet. Both groups were encouraged to walk at least 30 minutes each day. Both groups also received CPAP therapy.
The results showed that the group following the Mediterranean diet had a reduced number of apnoeas during REM stage sleep and were more likely to adhere to the lower calorie diet. While the study showed an improvement for this one stage of sleep it did not show an overall improvement in the severity of the condition. The authors feel that further studies with more patients are needed.
If you experience daytime sleepiness, weight gain and have been told you snore loudly you may suffer from obstructive sleep apnea. For more information about this disorder, diagnosis and treatment in the Columbus, OH area please contact StoneRidge Dental Care at 614-476-6696. Oral appliance therapy is a highly effective method of treating mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea.
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November 8th, 2011 amogell
The symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea can sometimes mimic those of mental illness – lethargy, irritability, forgetfulness. When those suffering from depression or another form of mental illness also have obstructive sleep apnea it can make the mental illness worse and possibly contribute to manic episodes. Unfortunately, screening for sleep disorders in psychiatric patients is rarely done.
A new study from the University of Utah suggests that using a simple questionnaire to screen patients may be helpful. “Sleep problems are so integral to psychiatric problems, we wanted to make sure that along with psychiatric disorders we were treating obstructive sleep apnea too,” said Dr. Vanita Jain. Because many medications used in treating psychiatric conditions are also respiratory depressants it is especially important for these patients to be screened.
The questions asked included: Do you snore loudly? Do you often feel tired, fatigued or sleepy during the day? Has anyone observed you stop breathing during your sleep? Do you have high blood pressure? Are you over 50 years of age? Are you male? Other questions include a large neck circumference and high body mass index (BMI).
If you answer yes to several of these questions you may be suffering from obstructive sleep apnea or another sleep breathing disorder. To schedule your consultation please contact StoneRidge Dental Care in Gahanna, OH today at 614-476-6696. We will discuss testing for a correct diagnosis and treatment options available.
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November 4th, 2011 amogell
Sleep disordered breathing such as sleep apnea has been shown to increase the risk of heart arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation (afib). A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology showed that the risk of having an abnormal heartbeat were 18 times higher immediately after an apnea episode compared to during normal sleep breathing.
The apnea did not have to be severe to raise the risk of afib. “Our focus was on individuals with mild to moderate apnea since it is those people we could compare periods of sleep where there were no apneas to periods where apneas occurred,” said coauthor Dr. Susan Redline of Case Western Reserve University. This work “underscores the tight link between heart disease and sleep apnea dn the need to further evaluate the impact of sleep apnea treatment on reducing heart disease burden.”
Sleep apnea treatment is vital for maintaining a healthy heart. The gold standard for treating the disease is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), however studies show that about half of patients discontinue CPAP within one year and those that do continue average only about 3 hours per night. Another treatment that has been declared effective by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine is oral appliance therapy available from a dentist who is trained in dental sleep medicine. An oral appliance is a small mouthpiece that is worn while sleeping and it works by gently placing your lower jaw in a position that keeps the airway open during sleep. No more blocked airway – no more apnea events.
To find out more about oral appliance therapy to treat your sleep apnea please contact StoneRidge Dental Care of Columbus, OH at 614-476-6696 today.
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October 27th, 2011 amogell
Former Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell talked to Sports Illustrated about the twists and turns his career has taken. One important item that came out of the discussion – Russell suffers from obstructive sleep apnea.
“In the NFL, my first year, I had to be there at 6:30 before practice and be on the treadmill for an hour. Then meetings come, I sit down, eat my fruit. We watch a film and maybe I got tired. Coach Flip (quarterback coach John DeFillippo) pulled me aside and said, ‘What are you doing for nightlife?’ I said, ‘Coach, I’m just chilling.’ He said, ‘I need to get you checked out.’ I did the sleep test and they said I had apnea.”
Sleep apnea causes extreme daytime fatigue and sleepiness which can cause anyone’s work performance to suffer — not only the performance of world class athletes. Decision making abilities and physical coordination are adversely affected by this disease in which the sleeper stops breathing during sleep. Breathing stops because the soft tissues of the mouth and throat relax and block the airway. This can occur dozens of times each night and each episode causes the sleeper to briefly waken, gasp for breath and return to sleep. The following day they are exhausted but have no recollection of the breathing problems of the night before.
Mr. Russell is not the first NFL player to be diagnosed with sleep apnea, nor will he be the last. What is so surprising – these athletes are constantly supervised by physicians and these sleep disorders are usually not diagnosed for quite some time.
Most of us don’t have physically demanding jobs, nor do we have a medical staff on call. What we do have is our sense of well-being. If you have been feeling unusually sleepy during the day, if you no longer have the energy that you used to, if you are gaining weight and especially if you have been told you snore, you may suffer from sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea has been linked to heart disease, stroke, increased risk of accidents and obesity. Diagnosis and treatment are readily available including treatment using an oral appliance. Please contact StoneRidge Dental Care to arrange your sleep apnea consultation today. Conveniently located to serve the Columbus, OH area we can be reached at 614-476-6696.
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