Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Health and Science For Sunday 062809

Hey folks,

OK. Time for me to come clean with all of you out there. I haven't been feeling well. I'll be honest. This is going to be a little difficult for me to share this with you because I really do NOT like talking about myself. But I know many of you have caught on that I have been missing some days, not on "my game" from time to time, and some of you have even asked me flat out. "What's up?"

I got tired of being tired. I mean completely worn out and run down. I bought a bike, and me and Josh go biking nearly every day when I get home from work. I walk MILES a day and even went back to the Gym. I have started eating right and doing some of the things I should do. So what happened? Nothing. I'm still tired.

I'm not talking drowsy after a hard day's work or the exercising thing. I'm talking falling asleep at a red light. Drowsy WHILE driving. Worn out and feeling beat up. I have started going to see some Doctors. I have High Blood Pressure. Debilitating Head Aches, and Heart Burn so bad it makes me sweat. So what is wrong?

Well, after months of blood work, tests, and a handful of medications, I went in for a Cat Scan. They did not like my test results that showed a little something. I went to see a Specialist just this past Friday after leaving the OPNTalk Office and he said this.

"I'm not so concerned about the Cat Scan. It's little. Tiny. We could go in and take it out to see if it is Cancer, but I would rather wait a little bit. Do a Cat Scan in three to four months and see if it grows. But I think that you have Obstructed Sleep Apnea. As a matter of fact. I'm sure you do."

So he wants me to go in and do a sleep study. That is where you spend the night and they monitor you while you sleep. Then I would get fitted for a machine that will make me sound like Darth Vader while I sleep. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to go through all this. But you know me. It got me curious.

Then I remembered when I shared with you folks a while back about Sleepwalking, Anthony posted a comment that lead me to post this. More Serious Sleep Disorders on May 10, 2009

Anthony chimed in and left a link to the Sleeping Disorders Home Page.

Here is what I found when I went to the Link.

Medindia.com - Heart Disease Risk Heightens In Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Researchers have uncovered a link between obstructive sleep apnea (ie periodic interruptions in breathing throughout sleep) and a hike in the risk of several forms of heart and vascular disease.

What's more, the common sleep apnea thickens sufferers' blood vessels, the study published in the May 1 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology claimed.

Emory researchers have found enzyme NADPH oxidase as important for the effects obstructive sleep apnea has on blood vessels in the lung.

Standard treatment for obstructive sleep apnea involves a mechanical application of air pressure. Anything that blunts sleep apnea's effects on blood vessel physiology could reduce its impact on disease risk, senior author C. Michael Hart, professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center said.

Cyclically depriving mice of oxygen - researchers call this "chronic intermittent hypoxia" -- in a way that simulates obstructive sleep apnea gives them pulmonary hypertension. Pulmonary hypertension, which can be life threatening, is a condition in which the right side of the heart has trouble pumping blood because of resistance in the lung's blood vessels.

Chronic intermittent hypoxia forces the blood vessels in the lung to make more NADPH oxidase, Hart and his colleagues found. Mice that lack NADPH oxidase are immune to hypoxia's effects.

NADPH oxidase is a helpful enzyme because it is responsible for making superoxide, a reactive free radical that the immune system uses to kill bacteria. But superoxide also interferes with nitric oxide, a signal that allows blood vessels to relax.

Humans with mutations in genes for NADPH oxidase have recurrent bacterial infections because their ability to fight the bacteria is weakened. Therefore, according to Hart, inhibiting the NADPH oxidase enzyme in the entire body may be harmful, and he favors an indirect intervention.

"We think that strategies to lower NADPH oxidase expression induced by hypoxia may be useful in preventing hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension," says Hart.

I had forgotten all about me saying this to him.

Thank you again Anthony. I snore too. Maybe I should add that to the growing list of things my doctors should be checking out. I encourage you all to check out this site. You may find it as interesting as I did.
Peter

Well, I am looking into it even more now that I have been told by the Doctor that I DO have this. All the symptoms that I have been having ARE symptoms of Sleep Apnea. I had the answer right here in front of me thanks to Anthony.

Do not worry. I will do the follow up Cat Scan to see what this little Lymph Node {?} is doing. But I guess I have to decide what to do about what I KNOW I do have. Thank you again Anthony.
Peter