Sleep apnea condition is not only a dilemma for fat and older people. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a disease in which breathing pauses unconsciously for brief periods of time when sleeping. The more likely reasons why OSA is underdiagnosed is the misconception about who is prone to the condition and what signs and symptoms, and aversion to treatment.
While these perceptions may contain grains of truth, there are many differences. For example, a young, thin person who does not snore can have sleep apnea. But her complaint could be assumed by her doctor as insomnia rather than sleepiness. Several sufferers with sleep apnea may not report of tiredness. A study shows that only 37 per cent of patients with severe sleep apnea says daytime sleepiness.
Screening for sleepiness is significantly insufficient for identifying this condition. So if you can’t rely on snoring, tiredness, weight, gender, or age to know OSA, then how can we see a person has the OSA condition?
How obstructive breathing events occur
OSA happens when the brain’s regulation of the top airway musculature leads to repeated occurrences of airway interference which disrupts sleep.
Sleep starts with the relaxation of the muscles of the jaw, tongue, and throat. When the muscles relax, the upper airway is restricted.
When the airway narrows flow of air reduces. But the speed of the airflow has to increase to compensate. The body then raises the rate by creating a unique space in the chest. Thus air is pulled more challenging to get oxygen into the lungs. Most people with no OSA problem, this process would solve the issue, and no further help for free airflow is needed.
Sleep apnea does not affect the fat and older people alone
However, if the airway is not adequate, the raised velocity of airflow may create a vibration of the weak tissue. And this vibration may produce a sound which we call snoring. The extent of how narrow the airway is at the baseline may determine how the space force would lead to the collapse of the top airway tissue and the complete closure of the airway.
Sleep apnea is the result of narrow airflow passage in the throat. A single apnea during sleep is not enough to determine if a person suffers from sleep apnea. Several factors influence the closures of the air flows. These factors may include gender, age, body type, fatigue, sensitivity to airway compromise, and several other issues.
The occasional disruptions in sleep are the causes of excessive daytime tiredness and sleepiness but not oxygen deprivation to the brain—the previously misinterpreted cases in the past. A person can have many breaks in breathing without dropping their oxygen level. For instance, if a newborn baby makes you wake up several times in the night, you may likely feel sleepy in the daytime. The baby does not prevent oxygen from getting to your brain.
Why Sleep Apnea increases cardiovascular risk
The simple answer is to check the levels of changes in oxygen. The answer would be focusing on the changing stations in the chest pressure over some time. The generated vacuum pressure in the chest would determine the work the heart needs to do to contract and reduce the amount of blood to flow from in your system
The result over time would cause mild swelling to the right side of the heart, which may influences the heart to release factors into the bloodstream. Factors that drive the kidneys to get rid of waste fluid to limit the amount getting into the heart is the reason for more bathroom visits.
It can also make the peripheral blood vessels to contract to reduce the excess loss of fluid from the heart. If the body loses more fluid than necessary, the person may have hypertension. Having hypertension is setting yourself up for several severe health conditions like heart attack and stroke.
Lowering the fatal statistics
We now know how the system works concerning OSA. No one is exempted from having the OSA condition. Majority of sufferers of the condition have not been diagnosed. In fact, around eighty per cent are unknown to the health system. The earlier we change our thinking about the OSA condition that it mainly affects fat people, the quicker we can find and help the unknown sufferers.