How Sleep Apnea Clinics Can Help Patients Suffering Osa

By Author: Sasan Nickbakht
Total Articles: 7
Comment this article

Sleep apnea is a condition that can claim a person’s overall good health and well being. It is a disorder where the patient suffers pauses in breathing and shallow breathing while sleeping. These pauses in breathing can be as short as 5 seconds and can be as long as a minute or more. The usually oblivious patient may experience the disturbing pauses anything around 5 to 30 times within one hour of sleep. Sleep apnea patients may not require any external interference to resume breathing after pauses. Process of inhalation and exhalation resumes once the pause is over.

Most patients of OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea, which is also the most common form of sleep apnea suffered generally) remain completely unaware of their condition because it happens while they are sleeping. However, there are a number of signs and symptoms that occur during the day, that cab help the patient to realize that he / she is suffering from OSA. This involves, feeling very tired and sleepy during day time and work hours, headaches, restlessness, sudden awakenings at night, forgetfulness, irritability, depression etc.

While ...
... these symptoms may or may not ascertain the presence of the disorder, a sure shot way to identify OSA is through family members who share the same bed with the patient. The latter can break the news to the patient if they wake up to

• Loud snoring in the part of the patient

• Choking, gasping for breath or, snorting while in sleep, and

• Long pauses in breathing

• Labored and shallow breathing

This is reason enough to rush to clinics that provide treatment to this condition. This is because is sleep apnea remains untreated for long, it may result in severe and often irreversible health damages. This can include

• Arterial hypertension and fibrillation

• Cardiovascular diseases like heart failure and myocardial infarction

• Cerebrovascular incidents like stroke etc. and,

• Type 2 diabetes

Seeking help from sleep apnea clinic at the right time will ensure that the condition dos not escalate into something that the patient may regret later. Clinics like Uni Care Sleep Center have successfully helped hundreds of patients over the years to recover from this condition. There are a number of treatments available to control and cure obstructive sleep apnea. Among them that are applied more commonly than the others are CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), Adjustable Airway Pressure Devices and certain oral appliances. Most sleep apnea clinic provide these treatments, however, the effectiveness may differ from one place to another. Choosing quality clinics will go a long way to ensure that reoccurrence of the disorder is prevented.

Clinics usually do not have to resort to surgeries as treatment to sleep apnea in its initial stages. Surgeries though, may be required in case removal of excessive tissues from around nose and throat is required to clear the airway. UPPP (Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty), Maxillomandibular advancement and Tracheostomy are some of the surgeries that can be mentioned in this respect. Combination of surgeries and therapies may be suggested by clinicians as per diagnosis of the condition of the patient in question.

Sasan Nickbakht has contributed a number of valuable write-ups in relation with this topic.

Author Resource: Sammy has been associated to this diagnostic centre since 1996 and has worked on more than 20,000 sleep case studies. Sasan Nickbakht has worked as a business mentor to various Los Angeles companies since founding of his popular sleep apnea clinic. To know more about Sasan Nickbakht, visit: http://sleepapneaclinic.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/control-sleep-apnea-with-unicare-sleep-center/.