Article by Mike Connery
Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition in which your breathing stops for a very brief moment during routine sleep due to a narrowing or blocking of the airway. People may sometimes be experiencing many hundreds of these apnea episodes, or interruptions in breathing, through a single given night. Most people identified as having this medical condition, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), have a significant problem with snoring. Snoring becomes a problem either for themselves or for a partner, spouse or another family member with whom they’re sleeping. There are many different popular treatments for obstructive sleep apnea patients to get the condition under control, including snoring and apnea episodes. Oral appliances, or OAs, open the upper airway typically by pulling up as the OSA patient inhales and exhales. This will make the airways less narrow, which minimizes snoring and, purportedly, apnea episodes as well. Another major treatment for OSA patients is with the usage of continuous positive airway pressure machines. CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machines actually send forced air through the airways, keeping them open to prevent apnea and minimizing snoring. Obviously, there is much debate concerning the various treatments for obstructive sleep apnea and which yields the best results. In some instances, the patient may experience less apnea episodes (which is a good thing), but then experience more snoring or additional negative effects. Investigation by scientists and professionals in the medical community has been conducted, especially over the past decade, to compare the effectiveness of CPAP versus other treatments like oral appliances. CPAP Machines At Work Before diving into the myriad of research projects scientists have carried out with obstructive sleep apnea individuals and CPAP technology, you have to first understand how CPAP works to get sleep apnea along with other symptoms, like snoring, under control. Most of the time in sleep apnea patients, the physiological cause of snoring and apnea episodes is due to the relaxation of muscles that occurs. This relaxation causes tissues at the back of the throat and the uvula to collapse, which ultimately restricts the passage of air. In turn, this has an effect on your breathing during the night. Whenever a CPAP machine is prescribed for a sleep apnea patient, they’re given a large machine in addition to a CPAP mask. What occurs during the night time is that the patient wears the mask, that is attached to the machine. The CPAP machine forces air — via the CPAP mask — using positive pressure that gets delivered to the airway to avoid its obstruction and enhance breathing. In addition to improving breathing, the CPAP mask and machine also reduces snoring. Research on CPAP Effectiveness The research conducted on CPAP machines have largely centered on their effectiveness for reducing snoring, apnea episodes and other symptoms related to obstructive sleep apnea. When you consider the entire body of research, you may conclude the CPAP is perhaps the most effective treatment on the market for OSA patients. However, there are downsides as well. Researchers at the university in Tokyo released a study in a 2004 issue of Internal Medicine in which they investigated the patient’s quality of life, depressive symptoms and excessive daytime sleepiness both before and after receiving treatment with a CPAP machine. Before treatment with CPAP, scientists found that patients’ total well being was significantly linked to the ratings on their self-depression scales. Soon after treatment, however, self-depression scales reduced significantly as also did the excessive sleepiness scale scores. The researchers concluded that treatment of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea with CPAP improves patients’ quality of life by alleviating depression. Being treated with a CPAP machine at home also offers great benefits for ones relationship with a spouse or bed partner. Researchers at a university in Chicago, Illinois, published a 2007 study in the American Academy of Sleep Medicine where they examined the sleep of married couples, in both the laboratory and at home. The researchers measured both the husband’s and wives’ quality of life (QOL) using a unique self-report scale, and in addition they required the individuals to take a sleepiness scale. While the husband’s adjustment to being treated with CPAP was positive and also raised his QOL scores, the same was not true for the wives. Whether it was the noise from the machine or simply being conditioned to arousal, the wives’ QOL scores were less than the husband’s after being treated with CPAP. In other words, the husband adjusted better to receiving treatment with CPAP than the wives’ did. However, researchers conclude that a longer follow-up period is required in further research to determine if similar effects are seen.
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