Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea - What’s the Difference?

He gasps, he snorts, and he is grappling for breath! He likely has sleep apnea. (This can happen with women as well.)

You’ve probably heard these telltale signs.

It’s also scary. If you’ve ever lain beside someone with sleep apnea and literally watched that person stop breathing - it is scary!

Snoring
The actual loud snoring sound is created as the soft palette and the uvula vibrate. The uvula is the little fleshy bit of skin that hangs down at the back of your throat. From physics, we know that any rapidly moving air will try to elevate and vibrate the objects in its path; hence, voluminous airflow passing through the nose or mouth causes this loud, intense vibration. It’s the irregularity of the air movement when it’s not consistently even, that causes the sporadic vibration of the soft pallet. The National Sleep Foundation research suggests that about 44 women snore and this snoring affects their bed partners. When someone snores loudly and constantly every night, it is considered chronic snoring. Other times, snoring only occurs on an occasional basis and can be due to excessive tiredness, overeating, sleeping on one’s back, excessive alcohol consumption etc.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea, on the other hand, is where the sufferer’s breathing actually stops for a brief period of time - anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute. The initial culprits that trigger the onset of sleep apnea are weight gain, aging, and lose of muscle tone, though this can also occur in younger people without the typical triggers. In a home setting, sleep apnea is often misdiagnosed, as very often, it is accompanied by loud snoring, though snoring does not need to occur for the person to be having apnea events. When the throat muscles relax during sleep, the windpipe collapses. This then prevents the oxygen from flowing. As the blood oxygen level decreases, the brain finally kicks in and say, ‘Hey! It’s time to give me oxygen’, so it wakes you up just enough for you to tighten up the upper airway muscles and open your windpipe. This results in a huge intake of air and causes snorting and gasping, literally for breath. This pattern can repeat hundreds of time through the night and the sufferer is never the wiser. This is why it is so important to monitor your daytime behavior and how you feel. My husband suffers from very mild apnea events and he can always tell when he’s had a ‘bad’ night as his throat tends to be sore the next day, and he is very tired and groggy upon waking. If left unchecked or untreated, it can lead to intense irritability and depression, as well as morning headaches, loss of sex drive and a decline in cognitive functioning. There can also be an increased risk of high blood pressure, irregular heartbeats, and an elevated risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Millions of people have their sleep interrupted with this disturbing medical condition…and millions go undiagnosed. This extremely common sleep disorder is one that definitely needs medical attention. It is diagnosed by spending a night or two in a sleep lab hooked up to Polysomnography equipment that monitors your heartbeat, breathing and brainwave activity.

Once sleep apnea is diagnosed, the common solution is to sleep with a CPAP mask (continuous positive airway pressure) over your nose and mouth. It provides regulated flow of air through the nasal passages, which prevents your windpipe from closing. For milder cases of sleep apnea, learning to sleep on one’s side often will correct the situation. Extreme solutions involve surgery to correct structural deformities. All solutions must be discussed with your medical practitioner.

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www.budurl.com Sleep Apnea Treatment and Symptoms Learn the secrets to how YOU can finally Stop Snoring For Good and sleep quietly all night with this All Natural Ways to Stop Snoring www.howtostopsnoringremedies.com Dont waste any more of your hard earned money on ineffective, uncomfortable or inconvenient anti-snoring treatments. My revolutionary new Natural Ways program will teach you how to permanently stop snoring … GUARANTEED I was a Snorer. And that was an understatement. My wife …

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(805) 899-3600 - www.santabarbarasleepdentist.com - Doctor Mark Weiser of Southern California helps patients sleep through the night without being disturbed by snoring and sleep apnea. People who snore excessively are not getting the rest they need when they sleep and this is sometimes caused by a much more serious problem called sleep apnea. Many patients diagnosed with sleep apnea have been prescribed a CPAP machine which can reduce the symptoms of sleep apnea, but can also be very …

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Having suffered for many years with sinus trouble or chronic sinusitis he was refered to Dr. Lieurance, Cranial expert, for NCR or NeuroCranial Restructuring by another physician. She tried nasal spray’s steroids, turbinate surgery, or resection, septal correction for deviated septum among other treatments with limited results. Used a CPAP for sleep apnea and snoring. By adjust the sphenoid using endonasal balloons along with specific body positions. This is a functional neurological treatment that allows better communication with the inner ear or semicircular canals. Also fee’s up the area around the ear for better circulation to help speed healing through acupuncture meridians and lymphatic drainage of the ear organs responsible for balance. There is also cerebellar correction that improves frequency of firing of shunt stabilization to spine and postural stabilizer muscles which communicate to the ear and brain to maintain proper balance under gravity. in This treatment was first discovered by Stober ND then Dean Howell refined the technique. Dr. Lieurance is a Chiropractor and Naturopath in sarasota, Florida. Advanced Wellness Center is the 3rd largest Holistic center in the state of Florida. Some of the special services we offer besides NCR is Acupuncture and chiropractic are, Pettibon, Class 4 laser (k-laser) Prolotherapy, Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy, EWOT or exercise with oxygen, nutrition, homeopathy, herbal medicine, kinesiotaping, cold and class 4 laser therapy, kinesiology ak, spinal decompression, spinal rejuvenation, super slow zone training, Asyra testing and biological terrain testing acupoint injection therapy.Also using neuroscience for neurotransmitter testing for dopamine, serotonin, gaba, acetyl choline, histamine, tauren, glycine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, hormones such as cortisol, dhea, testosterone, estrogen, dht, progesterone, for specific areas of interest or for anti aging for longevity and vitality.

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