Re: Sleep Apnea

Not everyone needs 8 hours of sleep.
In fact it is common for people over the ages of 50/60 to need LESS sleep then before . 4 hours being a healthy , normal amount for some people.

Your mom is not old by the way.
But she is starting to age in the ways that make your concerns valid.

But, when someone is not getting enough sleep, they will be tired, cranky, and you will see drastic changes in mood and sometimes memory.

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that causes people to wake up in the middle of normal sleep because they are not getting enough oxygen.
Their body slows down the breathing process, sometimes through the airways ( snoring being a sign in some cases of apnea) .
Other times, thier bodies just slow down the breathing process TOO much and one looses oxygen.
Most people wake during these episodes to regain their breathing patterns. Some do not.
Only sleeping 3 or 4 hours is not always a sign of apnea..


As for the possibility of stroke / heart attack...
well.. the age old suggestion works best.
Diet and exercize.

Major diet changes can be extreme on ANY ONE espically older people.
( when I say older people , I mean 60+ )

All changes should be made gradually.

Start replacing one meal a day with nothing but veggies / fruits and good grains.
A meal of brown rice, lightly steamed broccoli/cauliflower , Tofu or other protien source that is low in fat/cholesterol. Watermelon, or other fruit for a dessert..

See that's the thing she doesn't have time to eat healthy (only at dinner when she cooks) but she watches her weight and exercises with my sister and I regularly...Thank you for the advice (I never thought she was old...she will never be but she is getting older than she was when she was 20 so I worry) Thank you for the advice

Has she talked to the doctor about this?

When you mention the being @ risk for heart disease, what do you mean?

The reason I asked is because my husband was always a very heavy snorer, sometimes I be next to him and he'd give this really big snort, then exhale.....I'd wait, and wait...and wait....and it didn't seem like he was going to inhale any time soon.

Just when I was ready to shake him, he'd give another big snore.

Anyway, after he had angioplasty, his snoring has VASTLY improved, and he doesn't do that anymore.

I'm not saying anything to be an alarmist...just throwing my experience out there. People with sleep apnea would be tired, not getting enough O2.

Ask her to go to the doctor, they can test her for that. Does she have insurance?

One thing for snoring, which can even help with very mild sleep issues, is Breathe-Right strips. You do have to get used to them, but if the nose is blocked, a sleeping person is going to mouth breathe, which is essentially what snoring is but can also happen with apnea. I'm not suggesting that they are a cure-all for everything, but even pregnant women can use the nonmedicated kind. They're apparently very safe.

Anyway -- not getting enough sleep can exacerbate pain, but so can things like a bad mattress or not using a keyboard properly. You might want to see if your Mom will be a bit less vague about where things hurt, etc. My father has had back pain for years -- it turns out he has one leg about 1/4 inch shorter than the other. He also needs a really good, firm mattress and sometimes sleeps with a pillow under his knees. These are really simple steps. Good straight-back chairs, a wrist rest at the computer ... you get the idea.

There for, if she is doing the cooking, she has time to eat healthy.
But, I should be giving HER that lecture.. hehehe

And , if she were ready to make a diet change, that would be the perfect meal to start with.
Just one healthy , no fat, high vitamin/nutrient content meal a day makes one feel SOO much better and improves all odds of warding off health issues.

How is your mom anyway?
She isnt sick alot is she?

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been implicated as a major cause of hypertension and heart disease, and has been linked to a number of neurological disorders from ADHD to schizophrenia.

It's not just an effect of lost sleep -- though waking up as frequently as once a minute all night long is certainly going to have its own deleterious effects -- but also of the body's response to the hypoxic episodes (periods when the brain stem perceives blood oxygen as being too low and/or CO2 as being too high). When this happens, the brain responds by sending a jolt to the heart, telling it to beat harder and faster, which puts a nightly strain on the cardiovascular system, which causes hypertension, etc. etc. etc.

Does your mother complain of obstructive sleep apnea? (That is, is she a big snorer, especially since menopause?)

yeah patiodog, this can be serious, that's why I suggested her mom check this out w/ a physician.

personally, I'm not so sure I'd rely just on improving diet and all the other good suggestions, although of course it couldn't hurt.

Did she say she was in/past menapause?

The big snoring starts in earnest when the neck starts to get thicker and it requires more muscular force to keep the airway open. In men this happens as one approaches middle age (usually), in women it most often follows menopause.

wow...are you a doctor, or did you just stay at Holiday Inn Express last night?...... :wink:

i'm a vet student, and i have had to sit through a number of lecturers by a preeminent researcher in respiratory physiology lately.

pretty interesting stuff, actually.

P'dog-Is OSA a root cause of "Essential" hypertension? Is it worth getting the testing done to see whether some form of corrective surgery would help the BP problem?
My wife is always kicking me to "kick start" my breathing and I have high BP,
Ive always sort of doubted the intelligence of my internist because he just loads me with pills and when I take my BP during the day its waay low , but dont feel like driving the 35 miles to a better doctor (thats at home, not here, up here, if we die, we die).

A bunch of us don't want to you to die, farmer, even if you have sanguinity about it. Hope you get this **** in control.

As Ive said a few times , I really dont fear death , Ive seen a lot of it. All I fear is dying doing something really stupid, like wiring a circuit hot, or crimping a blast cap with my teeth.

Ah, all right for you, but the rest of us would miss you very greatly.


not that I disagree with your pov, just sayin'.









and besides, none of us would think you stoopid.

farmerman - I'd definitely drive that 35 miles to see someone else.

I "fired" a doctor several years ago when I realized he was taking the symptoms I was was presenting to him over several visits, and becoming increasing worse, in what I considered, an offhand fashion.

Patiodog gives good information. I think it'd be "stupid" not to pay attention.

bsing...hope you're learning from all this...

Maybe. Could also be a sodium retention issue, dunno.

Either way, the research is being done in the hopes of finding effective treatments. As far as I know, there's nothing big on the horizon.

Really not my area, though.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020115/229.html
http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic419.htm

According to the latter, surgery is a last resort, to be considered after other toys have failed to improve things. Looks like there are some nonpharmacological options, though.


possible role of sex hormones (and, thus, of aging):
http://ntp.neuroscience.wisc.edu/faculty/fac-art/Behan2003.pdf

Behan's a very nice, kooky Irish lady, so I'm a-linkin' the article.

Well she is going through menapaus and she does have high blood pressure but like farmer I believe her doctor is just a nut....she doesn't want to change her because she's been seeing her for the past 13 years...I've keep on telling her to do it but she doesn't listen to me....her specific aches and pains is in her lower back and upper legs as well as her left side of the chest. She was in an accident once and when she took an x-ray they found that her disk was shifted so I believe that is what is causing her lower back problems. We have tried shifiting and changing the mattress about every 2 months but nothing helps her with that.

I agree with this. In classic sleep apnea, the sleeper's throat collapses under its own weight, and is often also blocked by the tongue. The sleeper, naturally starts to asphyxiate, blood oxygen drops, the heart speeds up to compensate, etc. It can cause heart, and brain damage, and even be fatal. Fixing it's definitely worth a 35 mile drive.