How Sleep Apnea Treatment Could Save Your Life

Last year was marked by the passing of numerous well-known people, but two in particular caught the eyes of sleep doctors around the nation. Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame showed symptoms of sleep apnea just a few days before her death, and earlier that same year, noted Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead right next to an unplugged CPAP machine, something that is specifically used for the treatment of sleep apnea. Both of these situations raise the question, “Can sleep apnea actually be fatal?” In most cases, people seek out treatment for sleep apnea simply because they often feel exhausted during the day, but in reality, the condition can easily turn deadly if left untreated for a long time.

How Sleep Apnea Can Kill

Sleep apnea is a condition where a person experiences brief lapses in breathing while they are asleep, and most of the time this occurs due to the soft tissues in the mouth and throat relaxing into and blocking the airway. This forces the body to partially wake up to restore breathing, and it prevents a person from getting the deep, restful sleep they need. Usually, the most prevalent symptoms are loud, chronic snoring and frequent daytime exhaustion, but there is also one other key symptom that many people cannot see: elevated blood pressure.

Sleep apnea is extremely stressful for the body. Whenever it needs to unblock the airway, it panics and goes into emergency mode, which causes the blood pressure to skyrocket. Unfortunately, it doesn’t simply go back down when a person starts breathing normally again. This high blood pressure can continue throughout the night and even during a person’s waking hours. Blood pressure is known as the “silent killer” among doctors of all disciplines because it is often the precursor to things like heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes.

In the case of Carrie Fisher and Antonin Scalia, it wasn’t specifically sleep apnea that killed them, but it is believed to be a driving factor in what likely did: cardiac arrest. This is often how sleep apnea can prove fatal: it doesn’t kill a person outright but rather contributes to something that can.

How You Can Protect Yourself from Sleep Apnea

If you or a loved one are suffering from sleep apnea, it’s imperative that you receive treatment, and in order to do that, you must first get a proper diagnosis. There are two ways to do this:

• Talk to your family doctor and mention your sleep issues. They’ll recommend you to a sleep doctor who will perform a diagnostic sleep test.
• Take our short sleep quiz. It is only 8 “Yes or No” questions, and after you complete it, our team will evaluate it and contact you within 24 hours on what you should do next.

After you have received a diagnosis for sleep apnea, your doctor can then recommend treatment options, which may be CPAP therapy, oral appliance therapy, or in the most extreme cases, surgery.

About 22 million people in the U.S. today currently have sleep apnea, and many of them are unknowingly putting themselves in grave danger by not seeking out treatment. Sleep apnea is very treatable, and with the help of a sleep doctor and sleep dentist, you can get the rest you deserve and have peace of mind as well.

About the Author

Dr. Kenneth Mogell is a board-certified sleep dentist based in Vero Beach, FL. He has over 30 years of experience successfully treating patients using oral appliance therapy, and he can do the exact same for you. If you are showing any signs of sleep apnea in Vero Beach, he can be contacted through his website.