Tag Archives: oxygen

The Strange Ways of Sleep Apnea

Sleep Apnea is a strange medical condition usually requiring a CPAP OR BIPAP machine to draw in room air through filters into a hose attached to the facemask we have harnessed to our head. The facemask confines the air and pushes it through the open airway into happy air gulping lungs. The machine lets us sleep.

The latest and greatest news first is that a small clinical study showed the CPAP machine might help the heart function better in sleep apnea patients. http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ASE/tb/14658

What did the study indicate about the BIPAP patients? That is a good question to ask Harrison Medical Center’s lead Sleep Specialist, Daniel Moore, at the next AWAKE sleep support group meeting on the 17th…

Another study shows something amazing to me…

In an eight-year study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the moderate to severe sleep apnea patients appear more likely to die from any cause, regardless of age, gender, race, weight, smoking history, or other medical conditions…

“… It is still unknown whether treating sleep apnea reduces risk of death and cardiovascular disease. …

(SHHS) enrolled more than 6,000 men and women ages 40 years and older at multiple centers around the U.S. to determine cardiovascular and other consequences of sleep-disordered breathing…. researchers found similar relationships between sleep apnea and deaths related to coronary artery disease.

They also found an association between the lack of oxygen that results when patients with sleep apnea momentarily stop breathing and all-cause mortality. But they found no relationship between mortality and waking due to apnea….

…the researchers cautioned that the study had several limitations. …might have introduced some bias into the study…. they noted that this study was the largest of its kind to date…. carefully collecting data on sleep, breathing abnormalities, and a wide range of other health factors….

…”Given the high and likely increasing prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing in the general population, additional research in the form of randomized clinical trials should be undertaken to assess if treatment can reduce premature mortality associated with this common and chronic disorder,” the authors wrote.”
The authors are Dr. Naresh M. Punjabi and co-investigator, David M Rapoport.

Punjabi N, et al “Sleep-disordered breathing and mortality: A prospective cohort study” PLoS Med 2009; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000132.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonary/SleepDisorders/15574?impressionId=1251401547027

More later… Sharon O’Hara

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Does Oxygen Take a Bad Rap?

Patients have a vested, personal interest in taking charge of their own health.
Our doctors help us medically but they cannot teach us how to live with whatever we have.
They cannot tell us to ignore shortness of breath – to exercise through it to achieve a quality of life we can feel slipping away.

Active, forward, informative patient support groups can and do inform and educate to give us the choice between living a quality life and just existing.

I am not on oxygen, but many lung patients are. The following is taken verbatim from the online support and advocacy group that taught what no one else was teaching – what COPD patients can do to help ourselves.

I have permission to use the following…

Mark Mangus, RRT and active educator on EFFORTS (www.emphysema.net) is one RRT who thinks outside the box.
(Harrison Medical Center has one to tell you about another time)

The following comments are on oxygen use.

Mark is responding to Tommie, an oxygen patient commenting on a previous post from Mark:
.
… they can be up to date on most everything else and still be misinformed on this matter.

It took years to become what it is today…it will take years to reverse and eliminate it…. this myth pervades across several professional lines, so it is a multi-focal,multi-front problem…

Mark W. Mangus, Sr., BSRC, RRT, RPFT, FAARC
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Coordinator
Christus Santa Rosa, Medical Center
San Antonio, TX
mark.mangus@christushealth.org

Responses reflect my positions and opinions alone and do not necessarily represent the positions or opinions of Christus Santa Rosa Health Care.
…
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 3:09 PM
To: EFFORTS@EFFORTSLIST.ORG
Subject: [EFFORTS] Old School Thinking

Mark’s quote:

“But, they are likely stuck in the school of those who still believe that using too much oxygen can decrease your drive to breathe and cause you to stop breathing – – – the “myth” I’ve discussed so many times over the years.”

****
> I had my PCP tell me this very thing last Thursday! That if I turn my 02 up too high, my body would think I had too much 02 and my brain would send a signal telling it not to breathe!!
I had always thought he was very up to date … I’ve also had 02 suppliers say the same thing.
Too bad, we can’t get rid of this “old school thinking”. …
If your PCP has told you the same thing, please discuss this with him/her.

Thank you EFFORTS, Mark, Tommie.
Sharon O’Hara

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