Sleep Apnea

Hi,

I am Dr. Amol Patil. I am residing and practicing in Mumbai. Today I will be speaking to you about Sleep apnea. Sleep apnea has recently come into the picture because of long term morbidity and mortality associated with the metabolic effects of snoring. Snoring can be just the simple snoring where it just produces the nuisance. The second thing it has multiple metabolic side effects on the body in the long term. That we called as the sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is nothing but the cessation of breathing or drop in the saturation level of oxygen in the blood during our sleep. It can happen at the periodic interval during your sleep. There are multiple factors which are responsible for sleep apnea.

So it is very important for any patient who is suffering from snoring that first of all you need to get it evaluated from an ENT surgeon and from a pulmonologist as well. So evaluation in the form of any obstructive pathology in an airway starting from the nose, nasopharynx, oral cavity and below in the larynx which can give rise to the sleep apnea. Sleep apnea nowadays is an important health factor because it has long term implication in the form of increased risk of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, heart-related elements, stroke.

So it is important to get it corrected. A most important significant factor in the reduction of the snoring is lifestyle modification. Lifestyle modification in the form of dietary changes, reduction of the weight, regular indulgence in exercise. If after doing this there is no improvement there is something called as CPAP that is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure which reduces the symptoms of snoring or sleep apnea. There are a variety of surgical options also available for those people who don't get benefit from CPAP. Hope you understand about the sleep apnea or the snoring problem. So anybody who suffers from this problem or any friend or family member having similar issues please go to the concerned doctor and get it corrected.

Thank you!