There is not an abundance of
information about alternative medicine and sleep apnea. I have seen
some on acupuncture and sleep apnea, but most is very short and
limited like this by the Mayo Clinic. There is also dental (oral)
appliances for sleep apnea which I wrote about in September 2010.
Oral appliances are available and some
dentists have been through the sleep specialist training to qualify
to fit oral appliances for sleep apnea. If you are a person that
sleeps on you stomach and tosses and turns a lot in your sleep, these
may not be for you and they can do damage to your teeth. This
information was received from a dentist that fits oral appliances for
sleep apnea. More dentists now are qualified to handle mild to
severe obstructive sleep apnea. I have written about oral appliances
here. The national group for oral appliance part of dentistry is
here.
Most of the discussion to this point
has been about patients with sleep apnea that have been overweight.
However, people with normal weight can develop sleep apnea as they
age. So if you happen to be in this group, be careful as well. Also
if you were an overweight person with sleep apnea and have lost
weight, this does not mean that you have cured your sleep apnea
problem. A friend of mine stopped using his CPAP when his weight was
at his normal or ideal weight. Two months later, he complained about
being so tired he could not stay awake.
After several days of discussion, he
said it was six years since he received his CPAP machine and Medicare
would maybe consider another sleep study and definitely a new
machine. After talking to his sleep doctor, it was determined this
would be best. After the sleep lab, it was determined that he still
had sleep apnea and averaged about 50 apneas during the lab. Now he
is waiting for the new APAP machine. He told me that in most of his
reading they have said losing weight normally took care of the sleep
apnea problems. He now knows better.
Two of the organizations for sleep
apnea are:
This one also lists the previous two
organizations.
I have written about surgery for sleep
apnea and from my reading would discourage considering this. Two
blogs are here:
Some other blogs that may be of
interest are:
This article from CardioSource is very
informative and contains some straight forward information about CPAP
use and the effects on lipids, hypertension, and diabetes.
Even with firm evidence that lack of
sleep has a proven effect of making diabetes more difficult to
manage, CPAP has mixed results on improving insulin resistance.
This concludes this series on sleep apnea. I have come across more information and will have a few blogs in the near future.
This concludes this series on sleep apnea. I have come across more information and will have a few blogs in the near future.
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