How To Get Rid Of Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that can result in other health conditions as well. If left untreated, it can greatly impact your heart and its related functions, which can ultimately be life-threatening. Thankfully, there are many treatment options available that can help improve its symptoms.

Choosing the treatment that suits you the best depends upon your current situation. Sometimes a combination of different treatments might also work. In simple words, to find the treatments that fit your condition, you need to try them first. It's a figuring-out-as-you-go case. Some of the options that have worked out for sleep apnea patients are mentioned in this blog. 

Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAP Machine Or CPAP Machine

The primary treatment that your physician will recommend would be treating sleep apnea with the help of a device commonly known as a CPAP machine. It's a device that keeps your airways open by exerting continuous air pressure. Some CPAP machines only cover your nose, while others cover both your nose and mouth. Some of the results that you might witness while going through CPAP therapy are:

• Reduced snoring.
• Significant decrease in sleep apnea episodes from 29 an hour to only 3.7 an hour.
• Decreases daytime sleepiness.
• Decrease in high blood pressure.
• It helps reverse the metabolic abnormalities in people with moderate sleep apnoea to severe sleep apnea.
• It helps restore memory.
• Enhance skills for daily functioning.

Some people find it hard to tolerate CPAP therapy as it can cause discomfort because of its loudness. If that's the case with you, you can always try alternate CPAP machines that you find more comfortable while sleeping.

Furthermore, suppose you have breathing restrictions or can't handle the constant pressure exerted by a CPAP device. In that case, you can opt for a bilevel-positive airway pressure machine instead, as it has multiple options to manage the air pressure.

Losing Weight

Sometimes excess weight can result in developing central sleep apnea. In such cases, the only treatment is to lose weight. Some effective ways of reducing weight include cognitive-behavioral weight reduction programs and implementing low-calorie diets.

Exercise For Obstructive Sleep Apnea

It goes without saying that exercising can help in getting rid of so many health conditions. It improves blood oxygen levels which is beneficial if you have heart disease. Heart disease can also become the root cause of sleep apnea.

Exercising also helps the case of moderate sleep apnea. You will notice that exercising reduces the number of breathing episodes while you sleep.

Oral Appliances

People with sleep apnea experience discomfort while using CPAP machines. Due to their loud noise, they find it difficult to sleep. Thus, initially, many sleep specialists advise starting with oral appliances or mandibular advancement devices.

They have proven to be less invasive as compared to CPAP machines. However, their results can also vary as they are less effective than the CPAP machine.

Incorporate Vitamin D, C, And E Supplements In Your Diet

With extensive research, it has been observed that vitamin D deficiency is common among obstructive sleep apnea patients. Moreover, alongside CPAP, Vitamin C, and E are also potential treatments for this sleep disorder.

Implement Some Lifestyle Changes

For patients who have mild sleep apnea, it's beneficial for them to implement some healthy lifestyle changes. It can almost reduce the symptoms to the extent that the disorder becomes non-existent. Some of the changes that you can incorporate into your daily life are:

• Avoid alcohol.
• Quitting smoking.
• Sleeping on one side as doing so can help keep the blocked airways open.
• Using a saline spray can encourage clearer breathing and also help in keeping the nasal passages open throughout the night.

Tetrahydrocannabinol

As bizarre as it may sound, it's indeed true that tetrahydrocannabinol, also knowns as THC, can help treat sleep apnea. It is a psychoactive component found in the cannabis plant.

THC is responsible for making you lose your senses and feel high. It is effective in treating obstructive sleep apnea because of its capability to make you feel high. This component works well in reducing the average number of sleep apnea episodes per hour.

Keep Your Sleep Environment Clean

Since this whole disorder revolves around sleeping, it's vital to keep your sleep environment neat and clean.

Small dust particles in the air can block your airways and can be the reason why you find it difficult to breathe while asleep.

Conclusion

If you have mild obstructive sleep apnea symptoms, then you can use the above-given solutions to get rid of it. However, severe obstructive sleep apnea might require you to go through surgery.

These surgeries can include the removal of soft tissue from your mouth's back side, soft palate, or throat muscles. Also, if your doctor is sure that your condition is due to a blocked nasal passageway, then they might recommend you undergo nasal surgery.