How to Tell If You Have Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Ever wondered how to tell if you have obstructive sleep apnea? I must admit, during my postdoctoral training in 2011 was my first encounter with a patient diagnosed with sleep apnea.

Don’t get me wrong, I had learned about the condition during my education at the university. Yet, in practice, I had never encountered a patient with it, and I could not tell if I had it.

Some experts think that the obesity epidemic has increased the number of people suffering from this disease. However, alcohol, smoking, sleeping pills, and hypothyroidism could also put you at risk for obstructive sleep apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea is more common in men between the age of 50 and 60. Your health care professional can do a health history, physical exam, and blood test. The assessment would determine if you need a sleep study.

The sleep study will be positive if you have obstructive sleep apnea. You will be told if you have a mild, moderate, or severe case and offered treatment options if needed.

What Is Obstructibve Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a serious condition with or without periods of apnea. Hypertension or high blood pressure is a complication of obstructive sleep apnea. Treatment that corrects the problem often resolves hypertension or resolves high blood pressure. Untreated obstructive sleep apnea can lead to heart disease, a heart attack, or stroke.

Apnea just means low oxygen levels or periods of stopping breathing. Carbon dioxide could build up in your brain and your heart could lack enough oxygen. Usually, it’s your tongue or soft tissue in your throat that relaxes and partially blocks or obstructs your throat while you are asleep.

This blockage or obstruction causes the most common symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, snoring. Breathing stops temporarily and stops you from getting enough oxygen while sleeping.

Restlessness or waking up frequently while sleeping is another common symptom besides snoring that many people complain of. Others might complain of waking up tired (chronic fatigue), morning headaches, foggy thinking (brain fog), impotence, or daytime drowsiness.

What Are the Symptoms

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) deemed snoring as one of the potential telltale signs of sleep apnea. According to the CDC, people who are sleepy all the time during the day are not getting enough rest during the night. Their sleep apnea is disturbing their sleep.

Click on this link to see Shaquille O’Neal, a former basketball star and his wife talk about the symptoms he had when he was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea.

In addition to the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, most health care providers order a sleep study (polysomnogram). An overnight sleep study detects your sleep wave activity, breathing, heart rate, and oxygen saturation. You can have your sleep study done at home or in a sleep study center. Either way, the study involves one overnight monitoring of your breathing while you sleep.

You can find out if you have obstructive sleep apnea by contacting your primary health care provider or contact a sleep center directly here.

Two Quick Checks

An overnight sleep study is the most accurate test for determining if you have obstructive sleep apnea. Here is how to do a spot check for obstructive sleep apnea:

– Use a pulse oximeter when you go to sleep and have your partner take a look for 20-60 minutes after you are asleep and snoring.

– If your saturation decreases less than 95 while asleep, make a note and contact your health care provider. Call the next day for an appointment as soon as possible to be evaluated for sleep apnea.

– Your lab test hemoglobin and hematocrit may show erythrocytosis to compensate for the hypoxemia if either value is high.

High Blood Pressure and Sleep Apnea

Dr. Schuyler VanDyke, Montan Sleep Therapy Centre, says that sleep apnea contract your blood vessel and causes a heart attack.

What is the Treatment for Sleep Apnea

There are several kinds of sleep apnea, and the general treatment is a CPAP machine. This device forces soft air pressure into the nose and lung to improve oxygen to vital organs and tissues. Using a CPAP machine nightly resolves obstructive sleep apnea, but everyone should strive to correct the underlying cause if possible.

Dr. Zafar Sayed, a surgeon at Nebraska Medicine, believes that he has found a way to help people with sleep apnea with surgery. This is not an option for most patients but some patients are eligible. Dr. Safar said that about 20 million Americans have moderate to severe sleep apnea symptoms.

I am not affiliated with Dr. Sayed, and don’t know anything about this potential solution. I do know that research has shown that obesity is a common underlying cause of sleep apnea. Therefore, weight loss is a natural solution to resolving obstructive sleep apnea. A CPAP machine is the most common treatment for sleep apnea. However, I wanted you to know that a surgical solution is available.

I look forward to helping you get control of your blood pressure!

Resources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention