Posts Tagged ‘sleep apnea’

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What is Snoring?

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Snoring is the harsh sounds that develop when the soft collapsible tissues of your throat, the soft palate, the uvula, the lining tissues of the throat, and the tongue – relax and partially block the airway. As air passes through this narrowed airway, the tissues vibrate against each other in the back of the throat and create the snoring sounds. normal-snore
Your airway runs from your nose and mouth through your throat and down into your lungs and is like a hollow tube. There is increased airflow through any narrowed areas in the hollow tube, which causes a drop in the pressure at that point ("Bernoulli’s Principle"). This pulls the throat tissues inward into the tube, making it even narrower and adding to the vibrations. Snoring is produced from the combination of a narrowed tube, the floppiness of the soft tissue walls of the tube, and the flow of air through it. The narrower your airway, the stronger the vibrations and the louder the snoring… Most snoring treatments are directed towards increasing the diameter of the airway, increasing the stiffness of the airway walls, or reducing the force of flowing air.
Snoring can actually occur in different locations as vibrations can occur anywhere along the airway tube where there is a narrowing. It is important to determine from your exam, sleep study and evaluation where the snoring occurs as this will determine your best treatment. Generally speaking, snoring is most likely to occur in those: 
-  who have a narrowed airway 
-  who have a large base tongue
-  who have an elongated drooping soft palate &/or enlarged uvula
-  who have large tonsils &/or adenoids
-  who are overweight/obese with excess tissues around the throat 
-  who have nasal obstructions, such as nasal polyps
-  who have a deviated septum – perhaps from an injury 
-  who have chronic allergies, infections, asthma, etc. 
-  who mouth breathe – usually due to the nasal obstruction
-  who have a short neck/receded chin that restricts their airway 
-  who is hypothyroid, associated with smaller chin, mandible
-  who drink alcohol before going to bed
-  who take certain medications before bed – sleeping pills sedatives, tranquilizers, muscle relaxants, etc.
Most people snore only at night while others can snore almost anytime, anywhere and in any position. Others snore soon after they first fall asleep. Most snore in the deeper stages of their sleep and/or during dreaming. Snoring can occur in both inhalation and exhalation, but is usually consistent within the same individual, but can change depending upon the areas of narrowing or partial obstruction   It can also occur when breathing through the nose or through the nose and mouth combined.
The loudness of snoring has been measured in the sleep laboratory and has been recorded in excess of 100 decibels – about the same intensity as a motorcycle motor running or a passing jet plane – (a pneumatic drill records at about 110 decibels).
Snoring is estimated to affect over 100 million Americans. Specific numbers vary, but studies from all around the world show very large numbers of suffering snorers, and suffering snorer’s partners.
Snoring can occur at all ages, in both men and women, and even in children and adolescents. People who snore usually do not get enough good quality of sleep and are tired and fatigued the next day. Most snorers do not realize that their snoring can be dangerous to health, and many do not realize that it can be treated. Snoring can easily lead to Obstructive Sleep Apnea which can be deadly is not treated.

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From the Snoring relief articles weblog

Some Snoring Treatment Tips

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
snoring treatment

Snoring Treatment Tips

Laser snoring treatment is in the main done in the doctor’s surgery with the patient fully awake. Before going for a medical snoring cure, you should first try some home remedies. Snoring is a question for most people at some time in their lives.

Snoring is often a secondary symptom of another disorder, such as sleep apnea. Lots of slumber clinics offer a excellent snoring treatment and treatments for various sleep disorders such as insomnia and drowse walking. A successful treatment should help you gain a fuller, more refreshed nights sleep.

One point that you need to do is determine whether one does snore or not and if so, find out what are the possible causes of the condition? In case one has obstructive sleep apnea, one may hot pants the sleeping partner to keep a diary concerning their sleeping patterns which will help analyze how often one stops breathing when asleep.

Once the details that you snore has been firmly established, you may look forward to getting a snoring cure and for this there are lots of exercises, products, medical devices and drugs as well as surgery that may aide.

Very often, a simple shift in lifestyle would be sufficient and one may simply abstain from taking alcohol up to three hours previous to bedtime or avoid taking sedatives as well as antihistamines and reducing weight as well as sleeping on the side to effectively counters the snoring hodgepodge.

Some products designed to reduce snoring:

For snoring treatment, there are numerous products especially designed to help one sleep on one’s side which may result in less snoring and there are also quite a few products that can be used to dilate the nasal passages and these cover nasal strips and nasal support devices which could be used for a snoring cure.

There are also sprays, pills as well as herbal products all designed for snoring treatment and in at all events one has a jaw or mouth abnormality that results in nasal obstruction, a dentist may be able to fit a mouthpiece to correct the problem and lessen snoring.

For obstructive sleep apnea, the doctor may recommend snoring cure procedures such as losing superabundance weight, continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP that is a device to blow pressurized oxygen into the nose and thus pressure open collapsed airways and surgery may also be necessary such as radio frequency ablation to help in shrinking the tissues of the soft-pedal palate.

In most cases, snoring treatment is dependent on the diagnosis and this may very often be due to nasal allergies, infections, deformities or tonsils and adenoids. A trite snoring cure includes surgeries for treating obstructive sleep apnea that involves tightening the limp tissues in the throat and palate as well as expanding the air passages.

The snoring cure you need depends on whether you have unpretentious snoring or snoring with sleep apnea. Surgical treatment for sleep apnea and snoring is primarily focused on removing or reducing excessive tissue that is blocking airflow. Weight loss is often an effective snoring treatment for snoring related problems.

Obstructive sleep apnea requires assorted treatment than snoring, and a snoring treatment may not improve the apnea. Head and neck specialists in the USA have found that implanted mini magnets could be an affective snoring cure. An effective treatment can eliminate or help sleep apnea.

In extension, there are certain procedures and techniques used for snoring treatment that includes laser treatments to vaporize the uvula and shrivel up excess tissues in the upper airway such as the palate and uvula, base of the tongue as well as nasal turbinates. In invalid surgery is too risky or not required, the patient could use a nasal mask that pushes air under pressure into the throat, instead.

Permanent link to this post: Some Snoring Treatment Tips
From the Snoring relief articles weblog