Sleep Apnea - The Brain Needs Oxygen

I remember taking psychology the foundations in college. In that course it tought about the affects of alcohol. Their goal was simply a scare tactic to prevent people from  drinking alcohol. Their strategy was to use a simple fact...the brain needs oxygen. They taught that when you drink alcohol it blocks oxygen to the brain therefore killing off brain cells. It has always been my theory based on psycology that sleep apnea causes brain cells to die.

If you want to learn more about the brain visit Disabled-World.com. They will show important facts about the brain. One of their facts is that the brain needs about 20% of your body's oxygen. Keep your brain healthy because it regulates human activity.

Here a few others sites that offer inforamtion about the brain:

MedHelp.org

Empowher.com

Living healthy lives is the only way we can function at the top of our game. Keeping our brain as healthy as we can will give us better days and lesser frustrations. Any loss of oxygen affects the brain in some way or another and must be dealt with before it grows into worse symptoms. The brain affects behavioral health and any damage to the brain so keep it healthy!

Does your Child Suffer? - Sleep Apnea

It is sometimes difficult to tell if children have sleep apnea. Most of the time people think kids will be kids. Individuals believe that the children have a behavior problem  rather than a medical problem. That's the danger of the illness. Without proper treatment the illness can worsen. Look for certain signs that can help you to properly communicate the symptoms with your doctor. My son had many signs that were easy to detect.

The First Sign: When my son was a new born we had to constantly take him to the emergency room. The doctors would constantly tell us that there was nothing wrong with him. My son would be coughing and coughing all night long. The doctors thought that he had croup. Croup is a breathing problem accompanied by a barking cough during the night. Now my son did have those symptoms so it was easy to misdiagnose him. They gave him oral steroids for the cure but it didn't help. He continued to have problems breathing at night.

The Second Sign: As my son began to grow older you can hear him gasping for air during his sleep. This is difficult to detect because you would have to be awake almost all night to hear those times that he was choking or gasping for air loudly. Most of the time when someone has sleep apnea you cannot hear the snoring or the choking. It is silent. The only way to truly tell if he has sleep apnea is to have a sleep study done.

The Third Sign: My son had some odd behavior problems for a child his age. His behavior could easily be mistaken for the terrible two's. He would also have rapid mood swings. One moment he would be happy and then he would become very sad. He would become depressed. He would also start to fidget nervously.

The Last Sign: I noticed that it took my son a long period of time to start talking. He didn't have speech problems but it was a learning problem. He was a little slower because he was exhausted from not getting the proper rest he needed. Most of the time they would want to say he was ADD.

Note: If you have a family history of sleep apnea you must tell the Doctor. When we took the child to get examined they did not want to test him for sleep apnea until we insisted and told them that it may be hereditary. Finally they sent him for the sleep test and scheduled him for a tonsillectomy. Even after surgery he is still having some symptoms of sleep apnea and has gone to a second sleep study. Results are still pending.

Do You Know the The Symptoms? - Sleep Apnea

Growing up as a child with sleep apnea the only symptom I can remeber is having chest pains in the middle of the night. My parents would take me to the emergency room. The doctors would perform the routine EKG and would conclude that nothing was wrong. That was the deceptive part of the illness. It wasn't until about the age of 30 that a doctor finally made the correct diagnosis.  For years and years the struggle with not knowing what was making me exhaused pained me. There are signs that show that one might have Sleep Apnea. Remember most people think that there is nothing wrong with you or they think that it's just a sleep problem. Don't be fooled watch out for the signs!

WebMD has a list of symptoms that you can check if you have. It is a great website and resource that will help you to discover if you need to schedule an appointment with the doctor for a sleep test.

The symptoms that I have experienced were as follows:

• Waking up exhausted
• Dehydration
• Waking up to urinate at night
• insomnia
• Choking while I was asleep or gasping for air
• Lack of energy during the day
• Sleepiness while driving or walking
• mood swings and crankiness

As the condition worsened I developed more severe symptoms that include:

• Severe anxiety
• Depression
• Thoughts racing through my mind
• Anger
• Severe exhaustion

The symptoms that became more severe only happened because treatment was not yet available or was given the wrong treatment. It's important to know that if you suspect having sleep apnea schedule a sleep study with your doctor.

Symptoms my child has experienced:

• Choking or gasping for air
• severe coughing
• Becomes easily exhausted when playing with other kids
• when exhausted after playing with others begins to cough and choke
• beahvior problems
• anxiety
• easily angered and discouraged when he can't perform a specific task

Note: If you suspect your child has sleep apnea schedule a sleep study with a doctor. When my son was a baby we had to take him to the emergency room many times. We would argue with doctors. Doctors have said and I quote "I'm the one with the medical degree and I say nothing is wrong with him." Keep on pressuring your docor to schedule a sleep study!

What is Sleep Apnea? Creating Awareness

According to the American Sleep Apnea Association sleep apnea is a fatal illness. Two out of the five children in the picture has sleep apnea. Can you tell which two they are? Sleep Apnea cannot be seen with the naked eye. There are different types of sleep apnea's and myths that exist. The type that I was diagnosed with I was born with. I inherited the illness from my father.

The First Myth: One common problem that exist is that sleep apnea is just a sleep problem. That is half correct. The apnea part, which is often forgotten about or most people are not informed about, explains the second truth to sleep apnea. The Truth: Apnea (according to the wikipedia) is the term for suspension of external breathing. During apnea there is no movement of the muscles of respiration and the volume of the lungs initially remains unchanged. Sleep Apnea is both a sleep problem and a breathing problem.

The Second Myth: Most people think that they can see the illness by just looking at the outer appearance of a person. They judge people and say things like: I don't see anything wrong with you. We sometimes act like superpeople trying to see air. lol. The Truth: Sleep Apnea is common among overweight people so it is often misdiagnosed by doctors who stick to their books. Doctors have tested me over and over for thyroid problems because of my body size and type. For years these experts made the common mistakes. It wasn't until fifteen years later that one doctor finally had the bright idea to send me for a sleep test. Kudos to that PA.

The Third Myth: This myth and mistake was performed by a doctor. She said "the child is OK he only stops breathing ten times the hour. It is common for everyone to have obstruction four times the hour." That is only half true. The Truth: People might stop breathing four times the hour but more than that causes major problems with daily living. While the child slept we could hear choking and gasping for air throughout the night. The child was obviously ill and in need of treatment.

The Fourth Myth: The child only has a behavioral problem. The Truth: Most parents, schools, doctors, and others often think that the problem is a behavior one. The child is often diagnosed with behavior problems and treated with Ritalin. Research Ritalin and sleep apnea. Sleep Apnea may cause behavior problems in children. Children with sleep apnea are not getting the proper rest or oxygen needed to perform well or adapt to their daily lives.

Sleep Apnea is often found in persons that are overweight or obese. Breathing is obstructed by the tonsils and the throat being enlarged. However it can be found in slender and slim persons. The obstruction is caused by either enlarged tonsils and/or an esophagus collapsed. Sometimes surgery can help but sometimes it does not. A person that is diagnosed with sleep apnea and is not overweight is often born with the illness.

There are three common types of sleep apnea's. The first type is obstruction where airflow is blocked or obstructed. The second type is central where the desire to breathe is not there. The brain does not send the signal to breathe. The third type is mixed or complex sleep apnea. This is where you have a combination of both; obstruction and central sleep apnea.