Sleep Apnea and Diabetes - Treating One Helps The Other

Sleep apnea is a sleeping disorder characterized by loud snoring and may cause you to experience fatigue during the day because of unhealthy sleep. Diabetes is a serious disease, possibly cureless, and requires lifelong care and treatment. If you are suffering from both, treating the former could improve the latter.

Treating Sleep Apnea to Improve Diabetes

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a popular therapy for treating sleep apnea, could also indirectly help improve a person's diabetic condition.

In CPAP, a mask and hose is hooked to the diabetic, and this forces air into him while keeping his airway open. Studies show that when CPAP is implemented, it not only corrects breathing patterns but results in better control of the person's glucose levels as well. This is a good sign, considering that there is strong evidence suggesting Type 2 diabetics face a high risk of having sleep apnea.

Basic Facts about Diabetes

There are two types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2. The former is considered incurable and occurs when the human is unable to produce insulin to convert blood glucose into energy.

As for Type 2 diabetes, which is also known as noninsulin-dependent or adult-onset diabetes, your body is either unable to produce enough insulin or incapable of maximizing use of its insulin supply. Type 2 diabetes is also cureless but preventable. The right diet and lifestyle, aided by medication, could prevent this condition from affecting your life in any major way.

Types of Sleep Apnea

There are two types of sleep apnea. The first is obstructive sleep apnea. It is more common than the other and occurs when your throat muscles get into a relaxed state. The second and rarer type is called central sleep apnea, occurring when your brain is unable to send the right signals that will allow your muscles to control your breathing properly.

There is a minor and even rarer kind of sleep apnea. Known as complex sleep apnea, it has characteristics that are a combination of obstructive and central sleep apnea.

Common Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

The following symptoms appear whether you have obstructive or central sleep apnea.

Breathing. Sleep apnea causes you to snore loudly, experience breathing cessation when sleeping and awaken occasionally due to breath shortage.

Sleep. You'll feel especially sleepy during the day but have difficulty sleeping at night.

Other symptoms include experiencing morning headaches and awakening with a sore throat or dry mouth.

Possible Treatments for Sleep Apnea

Besides CPAP, there are other ways you could take advantage of to treat sleep apnea.

Lifestyle Changes. You could be advised by your doctor to reduce or quit smoking to improve your sleep. You may also be advised to lose weight.

CPAP. This is best used for moderate to severe cases of sleep apnea. Although CPAP often reports favorable results, not everyone is in favor of this therapy. Some complain about experiencing discomfort when undergoing CPAP.

It could take an individual a bit of time and effort to get used to the straps attached to his face. A change of masks or concurrent use of a humidifier could however reduce the discomfort the apparatus causes to the individual.

Oral Appliances. These may be used in substitute of CPAP and keep your throat open by pushing your jaw forward. This may improve your snoring problems and even completely solve mild cases of sleep apnea.

Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP). Surgery is used to take out extra tissue from either your throat or nose that could be causing to snore or blocking your airways and resulting in sleep apnea. In UPPP, it's the tissue found on top of your throat and at the back of your mouth that's removed together with your adenoids and tonsils.

UPPP is successful if the removed tissues are the direct causes of sleep apnea. It is not successful if other tissues found at the back of your throat continue to block your airways. UPPP requires general anesthesia to be administered.

Maxillomandibular Advancement. Another type of surgery, this one enlarges the space between your soft palate and the back of your tongue to prevent further air blockage.

Conclusion

If you are unfortunate enough to have both sleep apnea and diabetes, you can at least take comfort in the fact that undergoing treatment to improve the former can indirectly also help to treat the other.

Flor Serquina is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Learn-About-Diabetes.com. She provides more information on topics such as sleep apnea and diabetes, how is diabetes inherited and how do you get diabetes that you can research on her website even while lounging in your living room.

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