Stop snoring and sleep apnea....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 10-25-2012

1.  After seeing an ad for an alternate treatment for sleep apnea for people who don’t like or do well with the CPAP device, I thought I’d do a new post on this topic.

Then I found a reference to my post on this subject on Tuesday, 5-8-2007

I’ll use some parts of that post in this one.

“If your significant other complains about your snoring or worse --

Or, if you wake up without feeling rested & then have little energy all day or fall asleep when you’d rather not during the day even though you spend enough time in bed sleeping–

Or, if you’ve been diagnosed as having sleep apnea—

There’s information you should know about.

Snoring in your bed partner can deprive you of sleep or restful and efficient sleep while having sleep apnea directly and definitely causes these things.  Sleep apnea is dangerous and can cause high blood pressure, brain damage, strokes, & heart attacks.

Both snoring & sleep apnea can ruin your sex life or strain your marriage. They often deprive people who have them of normal energy & vitality.

There may be a way you can get rid of all or most of that within a few days for & just a few bucks.

Some solutions take a good bit longer.  But even they can be partly done in a few days in many cases.

Snoring can be caused by the flap in your throat partly blocking your air flow while you sleep.  If it’s not too bad, you may be unaffected and not even be aware of it.  But if it’s loud, it can wake your bed partner or disrupt the sleep of your bed partner and cause you problems in that way.

This kind of throat closure can also cause sleep apnea by completely shutting off your air until your body causes you to gasp for air. 

When that happens, even if you don’t wake up, it disrupts your sleep and increases your physical stress all of which makes your sleep far less effective, increases high blood pressure and more.  Sometimes the lack of oxygen from not breathing on a longer breath stoppage can harm you.

Falling asleep while driving and getting killed or harming other drivers or falling asleep enough at work to do it poorly or get fired all have happened to people with sleep apnea.

Worse, a recent study found that as many as half the people they studied had some degree of sleep apnea.

For low level snoring from this cause, one simple solution is to sleep on your side and NOT on your back.  When you sleep on your back, gravity pulls your tongue back into the back of your throat and snoring often results.

For more severe snoring from this cause and for sleep apnea which is mostly caused by this, the wonderful news is that there is a fast and effective treatment.

(Being obese or severely obese makes this bad snoring and sleep apnea far more likely.  So one sleep apnea treatment and sometimes cure is to lose all or most of that excess fat.  We now know this is doable.  But it isn’t easy and may take two to five years if you have enough to lose.  We do posts on how to lose fat permanently quite often.)

The best news is that the fast and effective treatment for this kind of obstructive snoring or sleep apnea has even turned it off in obese people!

It’s called the Pillar Procedure.

(Instead of the previous idea which was to cut out some of this part of your throat which removed its functionality, hurt like hell, and sometimes caused infections, the Pillar procedure simply inserts a small somewhat hard plastic reinforcer to hold the tissue out of your airway.)

The Pillar procedure does a minor implant in the tissue in your throat that slips down to block your breathing. It is reported to work quite well. And the recovery time is so fast, some people have gone to work later in the day when they’ve had it done in the morning.

If you travel a lot or if your snoring or sleep apnea are quite severe, you may want to check it out at www.pillarprocedure.com .  It also may be worth trying!  (Traveling a lot can make using a CPAP machine almost undoable or at least much more of a hassle.)

The Pillar Procedure costs several hundred dollars. Plus, as busy as many of you are, it can be hard to get that done even if you might have an interest in doing it.

This is because you do need an evaluation appointment with the doctor. You need an appointment to have it done. And, you should have a follow up appointment after you’ve had it done to see how it’s worked for you.

Another treatment is called the CPAP or continuous positive or forced airflow airway pressure device which adds a breathing mask to an air pump which holds your throat open enough to turn off this kind of snoring and sleep apnea.  Some people can’t use it and some won’t.  But for some people who aren’t that bothered by it, they feel so much more rested when using it, they are OK with it.

I like the Pillar procedure better because I’m someone who would NOT like the CPAP device AND when you use the CPAP device it’s like continuing to be sick and having to use a crutch indefinitely while the Pillar procedure is a cure when it works.  By using it, you no longer have the problem!

2.  For some people, snoring can be caused by airflow problems in their nose.  This does NOT cause sleep apnea as far as I know however.

But for snoring problems, it may make the best sense to see a doctor who treats this condition AND performs the Pillar procedure who can diagnose which kind of snoring causes you have.

For someone with the nose problems only, the Pillar procedure may not stop the snoring.

http://www.eossleep.com/ is the website for the EOS sleep doctors who do exactly this kind of work.  They do all of the above and are located in the San Francisco Bay/Silicon Valley area of California, in several locations in New York, and in Philadelphia.

3.  What if you are pretty sure you have obstructive snoring in your throat only or you have sleep apnea AND you hate or can hardly use the CPAP device AND for whatever reason, the Pillar procedure is not for you or too expensive?

There is a device you put into your mouth when you sleep that does the same thing as the Pillar procedure or the CPAP and holds your airway open.

I recently saw an ad for one:

Their ad said it was an effective alternative for people who hate or won’t use the CPAP device.

See www.gotsleepapnea.com . 

4.  Even if you cure your sleep apnea or treat it successfully with one of these methods, if part of the reason you had them was because you were obese or severely obese, being overfat; underexercised; or both can also harm your health & ruin your sex life.  Losing fat can also improve your results in stopping snoring and sleep apnea in many cases.

So, if you also suffer from those conditions, please stop eating refined carbohydrates, high fructose corn syrup, & drinking ANY soft drinks. Eat a lot more green, nonstarchy vegetables & lean protein & beans -- & nuts if you are not allergic to them. And, carefully add some regular walking & strength training to your life each week.

Within days or at most a few weeks, you’ll be much healthier. And, if you keep doing it from now on, you’ll be a LOT less fat.  That will also improve your sex life & will help protect you from even more expensive to treat & dangerous diseases.