SLEEP APNEA TREATMENT-CPAP Pillow And WEIGHT LOSS

CPAP Pillow for CPAP users:

These pillows are designed to aid CPAP users to make them comfortable while sleeping. So, these pillows are not really alternatives to CPAP treatment, but it helps you in sleeping better with your CPAP mask.

This pillow is specially designed to allow the mask and nose to stay in place, while avoiding pressure points on the face and leaks in the mask while sleeping. Many pillows have soft polyester fill with a special cotton cover (removable for washing).

Benefits of CPAP pillow:

 

• Enhance your sleeping experience
• Provides unsurpassed comfort
• Provides increased freedom of the patient's movement during the night   
• Supports the neck and keeps the spine aligned
• Reduces leaks from the mask
• Decreases pressure of the CPAP mask against the face

Disadvantages of CPAP pillow:

• The pillow can be bulbous and hard
• Discomfort
• It can leave little real pillow to rest a head on
• According to some company's return policy, hygiene law prohibit them accepting returns or giving refunds on pillow

Sleep Apnea Weight Loss:

Sleep apnea weight loss should be recommended to all obese patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Decreasing body weight is a logical target to reduce OSA burden but also to improve a range of health outcomes and quality of life.

As obesity is the most important risk factor for apnea episodes, sleep apnea weight loss would be expected to lead to an increase in upper airway dimensions and an improvement in sleep breathing disorder.

It has been shown that loss of weight can lead to an improved sleep efficiency, decreased snoring and improved oxygenation of the blood.

In cases of dramatic weight loss by extreme dieting or surgery, OSA severity is improved and in some patients abolished.

The benefit of Sleep Apnea Weight Loss is that if your disorder is due to obesity, then weight loss is your lifesaver. 

Dietary weight loss remains challenging; therefore, achieving and maintaining a target body weight is difficult.

I think you know very well that substantial weight loss by non-surgical means is both difficult to achieve and even harder to sustain. Therefore, it is an effective but difficult long-term therapeutic strategy.

The treatment for sleep apnea through weight loss is not for lazy people.  You should be very motivated, not only to start this program, but to continue and make a habit of it.

If you add the fact that you are overweight, have fear for surgery, and you can't sleep with a CPAP machine...then I think you are very motivated to try a sleep apnea weight loss.

TREATING SLEEP APNEA

Treating Sleep Apnea is absolutely possible and there are lots of methods to treat sleep apnea disorder. If you have a mild disorder, or your main problem is obesity, you can combine the following types of alternative treatments and have very good results:

• ·         Positional Therapy
• ·         Alternatives to CPAP
• ·         Weight Loss
• ·         Apnea Exercises
• ·         Or pharyngeal Exercises for Sleep Apnea and snoring
• ·         Tongue Exercises for Sleep Apnea

Treating Sleep Apnea-Positional Therapy:  

We heard the argument that if you elbow a snorer and they roll over, their snoring will stop. In some cases, this actually works and after rolling over, the snorer and the person doing the elbowing both get a good and quiet night's rest.

There are devices that you can purchase that help the snorer to sleep in a position that encourages less snoring, like bumper belt or anti snore shirt .The idea behind them is that if the snorer's body is in a certain position the airway through their throat will be more open and that allows a clearer passage of air. The more air that gets through, the less likely the person is to snore.

Sleeping on the side can also successfully treat sleep apnea disorder, when your condition is worse while sleeping on the back (lying flat). That's why during sleep studies, the technician wants some of your sleep while on your back - so that they can see if your sleep apnea is positional.

And that's why understanding your sleep study results are helpful because it shows, how bad your sleep apnea is in different positions when you are sleeping.

Techniques Available for Positional Therapy include:

Placing three to four tennis balls in a pocket sewn on the back of a pajama top. 

Pinning a sock filled with tennis balls to the back of a sleep garment. 

Sleeping with a filled backpack.

Sleeping with a bumper belt or anti snore shirt.

Using a posture alarm that is triggered whenever a person remains in a supine position.

Elevating the head and trunk at a 30 - 60 degree angle

 

·         Alternatives to CPAP

Over the last 15 to 20 years, the CPAP equipment and masks have become increasingly used. These machines are smaller, portable, and quieter.

However, if you can't tolerate your CPAP, even after you applied the advice from CPAP side effects, you may want to try the following alternatives to CPAP:

Treating Sleep Apnea-Sleep Apnea Dental Device:

An oral appliance or sleep apnea dental device is used to relieve upper airway obstruction and snoring by modifying the position of the mandible, tongue, and other oral-pharyngeal structures. An oral appliance also prevents the tongue from blocking the airway passages.

There are two types of Sleep Apnea Dental Devices:

1.       Mandibular Advancement Device (MAAs)

These are oral appliances that are fitted to the maxillary and mandibular dentition, and works by altering the position of the lower jaw, or mandible. The dental device pushes the lower jaw forward. This also repositions the tongue, which is attached to the lower jaw.

By repositioning the lower jaw and tongue, the oral appliance keeps airways open and prevents the appearance of snoring and apnea events.

   2. Tongue Retaining Devices (TRD)

This device reposition the tongue in an anterior position by securing it with negative pressure in a soft plastic bulb that directly contacts the base of the tongue.

 Other type of TRD uses a suction cup that attaches to the front of the tongue, pulling the tongue forward to prevent the back of the tongue from collapsing.

Overview of OSA

Types of Sleep Apnea-Obstructive Sleep Apnea-OSA

Obstructive Sleep Apnea:

OSA occurs when air is physically blocked from entering the lungs during sleeping. When we are sleeping all our body parts relaxes and rest so the muscles of the upper respiratory tract (nose, mouth, pharynx and larynx) also relaxes but if they relaxed too much they collapses the air way. People with OSA have an airway that is more narrow than normal, usually at the base of the tongue and palate. When lying flat, the palate is above the air passage. When the pharyngeal muscles (muscles of the pharynx or throat)

A person who has obesity and is overweight is more likely to have this disorder. In male prevalence of OSA is three times higher women. The reasons are related to hormonal influence. Gender differences in the prevalence of OSA may also be related to body fat distribution. Men exhibit a more central fat distribution, including the neck, thereby increasing the risk for narrowing and closure of the upper airway. Postmenopausal women are at higher risk for obstructive apnea. This disorder is more common in African-Americans and Hispanics.

Numerous studies have shown correlations between the prevalence of OSA syndrome and obesity. Men and women with large neck sizes: 17 inches or more for men and 16 inches or more for women.

Although obesity is the most common cause of OSA, it also occurs in non-obese patients. 

Causes of OSA:

• Narrowing of the hard palate
• Nasal abnormalities including septal deviation and allergic rhinitis.
• Children with large tonsils and adenoids.
• People with Down Syndrome.
• Increasing age - when you become older, there is an increased risk to get a sleep disorder.
• Having this disorder genetically.

Evidence is accumulating that genetic factors may be involved in the pathogenesis of apnea disorder. The risk factors arise from changes to upper airway structure alteration in craniofacial structures.

Enlargement of important upper airway structures (tongue, soft palate, and lateral pharyngeal walls). Drugs, such as narcotics, benzodiazepines and alcohol.

Macroglossia associated with hypothyroidism contributes to the higher frequency of sleep disordered breathing.

Sleep apnea syndrome is more common and often severe in acromegalic patients (a chronic disease marked by enlargement of the bones of the extremities, face, and jaw) presumably related to a large tongue narrowing the upper airway.

Smoking - decrease the amount of oxygen in your blood and with alcohol reduces the upper airway tone relax the palate can fall backwards and this can obstruct the airway risk factors of obstructive sleep apnea.