Scary Stats About Sleep Apnea

An article written by Don Gronning entitled "Sleeping your way to health" (view article here) on the Daily Record's website (Ellensburg, Washington) quotes Dr. Geoffrey Greenberg, a sleep apnea specialist, as saying that studies show that of the people who have untreated obstructive sleep apnea, 40% die within 8 years.

My advice: Don't fear treatment.

Most people use a CPAP machine, which is simply Continuous Positive Airway Pressure delivered by a small device to a mask that goes over your nose or mouth and nose.

I have severe sleep apnea and use my CPAP every night, all night long. It's set on a very high pressure setting. It took some getting use to, yes, but it is not a medicine. I am currently unaware of side effects except nasal passage dryness, which is treated with over-the-counter saline nose spray.

You are not alone. A lot of people have sleep apnea.

Dr. Greenberg also points out that 4 to 5% of the American population has sleep apnea and it is more common than diabetes.

He reaffirms what I've heard before, that sleep apnea is not necessarily weight related. He states that 10% of sleep apnea sufferers are normal weight.

Sleep Apnea a Problem in China

According to an article by China Daily (here), obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) affects more than 50 million Chinese people.

But a lot of people don't take sleep apnea seriously. The article goes on to quote Han Fang, of the People's Hospital of Peking University sleep center, who explains that 80% of the patients the sleep center sees are seriously troubled by sleep apnea.

Yet, the articles quotes Fang as pointing out the true issue: "Most of them are transferred by other medical departments to our center - usually in serious condition - rather than turning to us on their own in an early stage."

They didn't know.

The issue is the need to increase sleep apnea awareness. Hopefully, blogs like this one help.