In the United States today, there is a growing medical condition that is both dangerous and life threatening. It can cost thousands of dollars in income, and create a host of other medical problems if left untreated. And the most disturbing thing is this condition can be extremely hard to diagnose unless you are specifically looking for it. The problem is sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea has only come into the public consciousness fairly recently. Luckily, every year there is more and more money being spent on sleep centers and other research efforts to combat this condition. However advanced the research gets, the problem of discovery lies squarely on the face of the patient.
What makes this a particularly hard thing to diagnose is that many of the apnea symptoms can easily be mistaken for something else. Many people feel the symptoms, know they have the symptoms, but unfortunately do nothing to treat them simply because they think these symptoms are part of an ordinary daily life, and not an indication of some deeper problem.
What are the exactly symptoms? The purest indication of sleep apnea is if you stop breathing while you are asleep. Since you are usually sleep, you don't notice. So you have to rely on secondary indicators, like headaches, drowsiness, and an inability to concentrate. One test is to see how sleepy you become if you are bored. If you feel sleepy relatively quickly, despite having a full nights sleep, that could be an indication of sleep apnea.
So can you be sure? The simplest way is to record yourself while sleeping, or ask your partner if you make any noises like you are stopping breathing. The more data you collect, the easier it will be for your doctor to figure out what to do.
Once you present your doctor with sufficient evidence, it will be much easier for him to suggest a solution. The good news is that there are several solutions that can help, and you don't need to suffer much once you figure it out.
Sleep apnea has only come into the public consciousness fairly recently. Luckily, every year there is more and more money being spent on sleep centers and other research efforts to combat this condition. However advanced the research gets, the problem of discovery lies squarely on the face of the patient.
What makes this a particularly hard thing to diagnose is that many of the apnea symptoms can easily be mistaken for something else. Many people feel the symptoms, know they have the symptoms, but unfortunately do nothing to treat them simply because they think these symptoms are part of an ordinary daily life, and not an indication of some deeper problem.
What are the exactly symptoms? The purest indication of sleep apnea is if you stop breathing while you are asleep. Since you are usually sleep, you don't notice. So you have to rely on secondary indicators, like headaches, drowsiness, and an inability to concentrate. One test is to see how sleepy you become if you are bored. If you feel sleepy relatively quickly, despite having a full nights sleep, that could be an indication of sleep apnea.
So can you be sure? The simplest way is to record yourself while sleeping, or ask your partner if you make any noises like you are stopping breathing. The more data you collect, the easier it will be for your doctor to figure out what to do.
Once you present your doctor with sufficient evidence, it will be much easier for him to suggest a solution. The good news is that there are several solutions that can help, and you don't need to suffer much once you figure it out.
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