Untreated Sleep Apnea in Melbourne Can Wreck Your Health

Here’s a shocking statistic to start your day: nearly 25 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea every single night, but about 80% of cases are either misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. That means approximately 20 million Americans currently have untreated sleep apnea right now, a condition that can easily wreck someone’s mental and physical health. How serious can sleep apnea in Melbourne really get? Here are just a few of the ways it can harm you both inside and out.

Hypertension

Sleep apnea causes someone to stop breathing for short periods of time throughout the night, and in addition to making them feel tired during the day, this can also cause a dangerous spike in blood pressure. This leads to hypertension, which is a leading risk factor for stroke, heart attack, and other potentially fatal cardiovascular problems.

Weight Gain

Practically everyone you meet has tried to lose weight at one point or another, and for those with sleep apnea, it can be almost impossible. When someone is chronically sleep deprived, this throws off the balance of leptin and ghrelin, two hormones that regulate hunger and help a person know when they’re full. Basically, sleep apnea can make a person feel hungrier and need more food to feel satisfied, causing many to eat hundreds of extra calories every day and pack on the pounds.

Depression

Mental health has gotten a lot of attention over the past few years, with the primary focus being on anxiety and depression. For people with sleep apnea, constantly being exhausted all the time has been shown to increase feelings of sadness and hopelessness, leading many to simply “give up” on their life, which can quickly lead to a downward spiral.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

In multiple studies, sleep deprived drivers have been shown to have a much higher risk of being in a motor vehicle accident even compared to drivers who are intoxicated! Thousands of deaths are caused by sleepy drivers every year, impacting not only themselves, but people in other vehicles as well. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that about 90,000 accidents each year are directly tied to “drowsy driving,” and a large part of that is due to untreated sleep apnea.

What You Can Do

If you are experiencing the telltale signs of sleep apnea (constant daytime exhaustion and loud snoring every night), then your next call should definitely be to your doctor. Sleep apnea is actually very treatable, but you have to get a diagnosis first, which is done by undergoing a sleep study. When someone gets their sleep apnea under control, not only will they wake up feeling much, much better every morning, but they’ll also dramatically improve their health and quality of life, avoiding all of the pitfalls mentioned above that claim so many lives each year.  

About the Author

Dr. Kenneth Mogell is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine, and he has been providing custom-made sleep apnea and snoring treatment in Melbourne for over 3 decades. If you think that your health may be in jeopardy because of sleep apnea, give him a call today to start getting the help you need.