Video Library
Clinical Papers Library
Latest NewsAbout Sleep Apnea
Sleep Apnea is a serious disease that affects 40 million Americans. It is as common as Diabetes and Asthma and affects people of all body types, ages and ethnic backgrounds. Yet, most people having this condition remain undiagnosed and are at risk.
A person suffering from Sleep Apnea has their breathing interrupted while sleeping for periods of time lasting from 10 seconds to over a minute in severe cases. Even worse, a patient may stop breathing hundreds of times each night! Pauses in breathing cause the oxygen level in the bloodstream to fall. While an apnea is a completed closure of the airway associated with at least a 4% drop in oxygen level from an established baseline, a hypopnea is a partial closure of the airway, and is also associated with a reduction in both airflow and a reduction in oxygen saturation. These together make up the AHI (Apnea/Hypopnea Index).
Sleep Apnea is often caused by a narrowing of the throat relaxed or enlarged soft palate at the back of the throat, which often also causes snoring. The nervous system responds to Sleep Apnea and the lack of oxygen by triggering the body to take a deep breath, producing the gasping sound heard by those who live with people with sleep apnea.
Because the body is struggling for air while you sleep all night, you never really get the important restful deep sleep you need. As a result, people with sleep apnea wake up still tired, often with a headache, are drowsy all day, and the condition is associated with memory loss, higher accident rates, diabetes, weight gain (obesity), high blood pressure (Hypertension), congestive heart failure, cardiovascular disease, erectile dysfunction, stroke and even death.
If you snore or are always tired, you need to take a simple diagnostic test to find out if you have Sleep Apnea.
