Notes from an Interview with Dr. Blumenstock

An interview with Dr. Blumenstock on sleep apnea revealed some interesting facts. Dr. Blumenstock related that snoring which sounds like gasping is actually choking. The weight of your tongue can block your throat, or you muscles relax to cause gasping and choking of snoring. Jaw structure and tongue size also affect one’s breathing at night, and creates the potential to suffer from sleep apnea.

He also mentioned that sleep apnea is also related to quality of life issues such as being diabetic, overweight, and having high blood pressure. Sixty percent of people that develop sleep apnea fall into one of the above categories. It is very important to make health a priority when it starts to affect your quality of sleep.

Sleep apnea is 1 of 3 sleep breathing disorders. With sleep apnea, the airway in the back of the throat closes eighty to one hundred percent. This leads to gasping/snoring and a decrease in oxygen in your blood flow. Snoring is often a good indicator of this sleeping disorder. However, just because you don’t snore, does not mean you do not have a sleeping disorder. Sometimes one’s throat may only close about fifty percent, which is not enough to cause snoring. This issue causes people to wake up tired, irritated, and feel like they have stayed awake all night.

Sleep apnea is a serious disorder, and should be treated as such.

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