Best Snoring Treatment

In a study, researchers found that almost 60 percent of pacemaker patients had undiagnosed sleep apnea which might have possibly contributed to their heart disease. This study is reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Moreover, more than 21 percent of the patients had severe sleep apnea, characterized by 30 or more periods of interrupted breathing each hour during sleep, said Patrick Lévy, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study and a professor physiology at Grenoble University in Grenoble, France.

“Because of the excessive prevalence of undiagnosed sleep apnea we found, it could be recommended that all patients referred for a pacemaker should first be screened for sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is known to increase risk of cardiovascular disease,” Lévy said.

In the study, researchers investigated the prevalence and consequences of undiagnosed sleep apnea in pacemaker patients. Ninety-eight French, British and Belgian pacemaker patients (average age 64) who were undiagnosed with sleep apnea underwent laboratory monitoring of their sleep.

Twenty-nine patients had received pacemakers to treat heart failure, which means that the heart cannot efficiently pump blood. Thirty-three patients had a high degree atrioventricular block or AV block, which is a blocked electrical signal from the heart’s upper chamber (atria) to the pumping chamber (ventricle).

Thirty-six had sinus node disease, in which a heart chamber pumps too fast or too slow.

Abnormally slow heart rhythms (Bradycardic rhythm disorders) are common among patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Researchers screened the patients with the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and polysomnography, a device that records breathing and sleep. The pacemakers were programmed to pace the heart at a uniform lower pacing rate. Sleep apnea was defined as an apnea hypopnea (abnormally shallow breathing) index of 10 or more an hour.

Fifty seven patients (59 percent) had sleep apnea and 21 (21 percent) had severe sleep apnea, Lévy said. Half of the patients with heart failure, 68 percent of patients with AV block, and 58 percent of patients with sinus node disease had sleep apnea.

Previous studies have found that about one fifth of the general population has sleep apena, he said.

Researchers said they couldn’t determine if the sleep apnea preceded the pacemaker implantation or if it developed after the initiation of pacemaker therapy. Lévy noted that successfully treating sleep apnea with weight loss, smoking cessation and continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) might eliminate the need for pacing. But additional studies are needed to define optimal treatment strategy for pacemaker patients who have obstructive or central sleep apnea.

Source-Eurekalert

So that make it even more important to treat Sleep Apnea, it might be the reason for more severe health problems, we can not just ignore it. Find the natural snoring treatment and sleep apnea cure.

Now as you know loud snoring may be a symptom of sleep apnea. When a person is suffering from this problem, they will stop breathing countless times during the night while they are sleeping. They will eventually start breathing with in a gap of few seconds with a feeling of breathlessness. Now this obstruction of breathing may be stressful for the body especially the heart and the brain as the amount of oxygen in the blood goes down when you don’t breathe.

Current research indicates that undiagnosed sleep apnea during pregnancy (SAPS) puts mothers at risk for the following complications in pregnancy:

• growth retardation of the fetus (low birth weight)
• pre-eclampsia (pregnancy-induced hypertension)
• placenta abruptia (tearing of the placenta from the uterine wall)
• premature delivery.

Why it may happen?

Obesity is a major risk factor for sleep apnea, and some experts believe that pregnancy may also make you more susceptible, particularly in the third trimester. The heavier you are to begin with and the more weight you gain during pregnancy, the more likely you are to have trouble breathing at night because of the extra tissue in your neck and throat.

Other factors that make you more likely to snore during pregnancy, such as swollen nasal passages, may also put you at a higher risk for sleep apnea. Higher levels of estrogen during pregnancy contribute to swelling in the mucous membranes lining the nose and can even cause you to make more mucus. Also, the amount of blood in your body increases and your blood vessels expand during pregnancy, which can lead to swollen nasal membranes as well.

What you can do about it?

If your partner notices that you’re snoring a lot and making periodic snorting or gasping sounds in your sleep, be sure to mention it to your doctor or midwife so you can be evaluated for sleep apnea.

When you periodically stop breathing, the amount of oxygen in your blood drops temporarily. If left untreated, sleep apnea can take a toll on your health, and some research suggests it may affect your baby’s growth as well. Sleep apnea is also linked to high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disorders. And feeling tired during the day increases your risk of falling asleep at work, while you’re driving, or while you’re caring for your other children.

If you’re diagnosed with sleep apnea, you may go for the anti snore devices or equipment like CPAPs or you may benefit from some specific exercises meant to cure snoring and sleep apnea.

A never-before-reported association has been found between opioids like methadone and benzodiazepines used by chronic pain patients and sleep-disordered breathing.

“We found that sleep-disordered breathing was common when chronic pain patients took prescribed opioids,” explains lead author Lynn R. Webster, MD, from Lifetree Clinical Research and Pain Clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah. “We also found a direct dose-response relationship between central sleep apnea and methadone and benzodiazepines, an association which had not been previously reported.”

Opioids, effective medications for chronic pain treatment, are often used for cancer patients, but are now gaining widespread acceptance as long-term therapy for chronic pain unrelated to cancer. An increasing number of patients with nonmalignant chronic pain are receiving around-the-clock pain relief through opioid therapy.

The researchers studied sleep lab data on 140 patients taking around-the-clock opioid therapy for chronic pain to assess the potential and prevalence sleep apnea in opioid treated pain patients. All patients were on opioid therapy for at least six months with stable dosing for at least four weeks.

The investigators say that their results show a higher than expected prevalence of sleep disordered breathing in opioid treated chronic pain patients. Obstructive and central sleep apnea syndromes occurred in the studied population at a far greater rate (75%) than is observed in the general population, where obstructive sleep apnea is known to be underdiagnosed but has been estimated at roughly 2% to 4%. Central sleep apnea is estimated at 5% in people older than 65 years and from 1.5% to 5% in men less than 65 years old.

People who stop breathing during sleep because of faulty brain control have central sleep apnea as opposed to obstructive apnea, which is triggered by obesity and other health problems and accompanied by loud snoring.

The investigators comment that the absence of crescendo-decrescendo breath size commonly associated with central sleep apnea suggests that the central sleep apnea mechanism is different for people taking opioids than the general public. They suggest it could be related to the direct effects of opioids on the part of the brain that controls respiration.

The authors also note that if opioid medications increase sleep apnea risk as their research suggests, then chronic pain patients who are prescribed opioids have a higher risk of morbidity and mortality. “The challenge is to monitor and adjust medications for maximum safety, not to eliminate them at the expense of pain management,” Dr. Webster concludes.

“The recent flurry of news reports of deaths associated with methadone use, and the synergy of opioids and benzodiazepines in causing respiratory depression, highlight the importance of Dr. Webster’s research.

Clearly we need more studies of these mechanisms as well as ways of identifying those at risk. Doctors and patients who are considering opioid medication for pain control, must balance this risk against the potential for improved quality of life,” comments Rollin M. Gallagher, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Pain Medicine.

Source-Eurekalert