Severe sleep apnea and stroke risk
Elderly people who suffer with severe cases of sleep apnea face more than twice the risk of having a stroke -- and that's not counting any other risks they might already be facing.
Sleep apnea occurs when your breathing is frequently blocked (usually for brief periods of time) while you're sleeping. As a result, you may snore loudly, experience restless sleep, or even wake up frequently throughout the night. (Snoring is the main symptom of sleep apnea so if you snore you should make an appointment to see your doctor about it.)
Sleep apnea puts you at a greater risk of heart disease and stroke whether you're elderly or not -- studies have shown this over and over again. But the fact is that if you're elderly, your problem is even more risky.
Until recently, no one had really put much focus into how sleep apnea affects older folks. But in a recent study out of Spain, researchers spent six years monitoring a group of 394 people, all of them between 70 and 100 years old. When the study started, none of the participants had ever suffered a stroke.
But, during the study, 20 people suffered a stroke. And when the researchers examined the different cases, one of the main things that a lot of the patients had in common was sleep apnea.
Diagnosing sleep apnea requires a special overnight test in which your breathing is formally evaluated. The usual treatment for sleep apnea is nighttime oxygen. You wear a small nasal mask that delivers normal air at an increased pressure. This helps keep your airway open so you don't stop breathing and makes sure you get enough oxygen through the night. Sounds worse than it is. Most folks quickly get used to it -- the machine makes a soothing whooshing noise. And any inconvenience sleeping with the device causes quickly becomes worthwhile when they realize how much better they're sleeping at night and how much better they feel during the day.
One treatment for sleep apnea sometimes involves a pretty painful surgery, which most people opt to avoid. The usual treatment of choice is a nighttime oxygen machine, which includes wearing a small nasal mask intended to regulate your breathing. But if surgery and oxygen machines don't interest you, there are several things you can do for yourself.
For instance, being overweight or obese is a proven cause of sleep apnea. (In fact, many of the patients I've seen with sleep apnea are overweight.) The solution to that is obvious. And you can actually do a lot to help your problem just by losing between 10 and 20 pounds.
If you have sleep apnea, it's also good to avoid things like alcohol and sleeping pills. Even though these things sound relaxing, they actually relax the muscles in the back of your throat, disrupting your breathing.
Finally, try as hard as you can to sleep on your side. I know it's difficult to control your position, but sleeping on your back actually causes your tongue and soft palate to rest against the back of your throat, blocking your airway.
To prevent this, the Mayo Clinic actually recommends that patients sew a tennis ball to the back of their pajama tops. I think that's a little extreme -- and it sounds pretty uncomfortable. Just ask your significant other (if you have one) to roll you over if they notice you're on your back (and if you're snoring that loudly, believe me, they'll notice). And if you sleep alone, try wedging a thick, heavy pillow under your back to keep you tilted sideways.
