DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE UNIQUE DIFFERENCES DIAGNOSING OSA IN MEN AND WOMEN?


Interesting discoveries on OSA  and women:

Aummary:  A recent article in the European Respiratory Journal states obstructive sleep apnea occurs in 50% !!!  of females ages 20-70 years old.  Twenty percent of females have moderate and six percent have severe sleep apnea


Women with sleep apnea are less likely to be diagnosed


Women are less likely to be diagnosed because they are less likely to be tested.  Part of the reason is the unfortunate predefined notion of the typical sleep apnea patient.  The typical stereotype is a middle -aged, overweight or obese male.  Physicians and dentists may not be thinking of the OSA possibility when the patient is female.  Secondly, women often present with very different symptoms than the textbook ones of snoring, cessation of breathing, or excessive daytime sleepiness.  Women are much more likely to present with disrupted sleep, insomnia, chronic fatigue, depression or other symptoms.  Breathing disturbances can be much more subtle. They are more likely to have REM-related apneas.

  See you rsleep professional if you have any questions or suspect you may have sleep apnea.. male or female!!!  

NORTH TX. SLEEP APNEA.          ALTERNATE TX CLINIC



 

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GOOD-INTERESTING SLEEP ARTICLES - COPY AND PASTE URL





WHY SEVEN HOURS OF SLEEP MAY BE BETTER THAN EIGHT - online.wsj.com/articles/sleep/experts-close-in-on-the-optimal-nights-sleep-14059884970



TEENS AND SLEEP - SLEEPFOUNDATION.ORG/SLEEP-TOPICS/TEENS-AND-SLEEP



SHORTNESS OF SLEEP LEADS TO AGING OF THE BRAIN - www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/279010.php



Untreated Obstructive Sleep Apnea and  Pediatric Patients

abstract:  A recent study comparing children between the ages of 7 and 11 who were diagnosed with moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea to children who slept normally, found significant reductions in gray matter within the brain. Though the exact mechanism of the reduction remains unknown, the study's author's - David Gozal, MD, and Leila Kheirandish-Gozal, MD, stressed that there is clear evidence of "widespread neuronal damage' when compared with the general population and this "altered regional gray matter is likely impacting brain functions, and hence cognitive developmental potential may be at risk."

Though more research is necessary to study the exact nature of the gray matter reduction, Dr. Gozal sums up the study's findings: "If you're born with a high IQ - say 180 - and you lose 8-10 points, which is about the extent of IQ loss that sleep apnea will induce on average, that may never become apparent. But if your IQ as a child was average, somewhere around 90 to 100, and you had sleep apnea that went untreated and lost 8-10 points, that could potentially place you one standard deviation below normal... No one wants that."