Did you play an April Fools’ joke this year or have one played on you? While these can be fun, we’re here to tell you that untreated sleep apnea is no joke.
Right now, there are approximately 10 million Americans with undiagnosed sleep apnea. We hope that by writing, sharing and encouraging all our readers to share this article, we are saving at least a handful of those individuals from major health complications caused by sleep apnea.
Do I have Sleep Apnea?
The most common risk factor of sleep apnea is snoring. However, you can snore and not have sleep apnea or you can have sleep apnea and not snore so this symptom can be misleading. Other common risk factors include sex, weight and age. For example, men are three times more likely to have sleep apnea than women, adults over 60 are a higher risk and overweight adults with a neck circumference of over 43 centimeters are very likely to have sleep apnea.
Signs of Sleep Apnea:
- Very loud snoring
- Breathing cessation (gasping)
- Abrupt awakenings
- Morning headache
- Insomnia
- Attention problems
Is untreated Sleep Apnea affecting my health?
Oh, yes! An overwhelming response in Sleep Apnea studies conducted in the past 10 years reveals a close association between Sleep Apnea and an increased rate of cardiac events or cardiovascular mortality. If that doesn’t scare you, here is a long list of other health conditions individuals will suffer from if they leave their Sleep Apnea untreated.
Health Conditions Associated with Untreated Sleep Apnea:
- Headaches
- Falling asleep during the day
- Excessive tiredness
- Weight gain
- Anxiety
- Memory problems
- Impotence
- Low libido
- Cardiac arrest
- Cardiovascular disease
- Atrial fibrillation
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- And much more!
If you or someone you know is may have Sleep Apnea, call your doctor and get a prescription for a sleep test right away. Treating Sleep Apnea is so much easier than you think and you’ll feel the physical changes as soon as a week after starting treatment!
The team at CPAP Central truly hopes you don’t have Sleep Apnea, but if you do, feel free to contact our CPAP experts about which CPAP supplies would work best with your sleep style and make treatment comfortable and effective!