How CPAP Saves Lives Every Day

By Admin

One of the biggest problems with sleep apnea treatment is compliance. Patients often find it difficult to adhere to the recommendations of their healthcare provider, but anyone with sleep apnea should understand just how damaging the disorder can be, and just how effective the treatments have become. Unfortunately, the more we learn about sleep apnea and sleep disordered breathing in general, the more we recognize the dangers involved when left untreated. Comorbidities, in particular, can include common killers such as obesity and diabetes, heart failure, sudden cardiac death, and stroke, as well as other chronic illnesses that can develop alongside sleep apnea and compound an already dangerous set of symptoms into conditions almost guaranteeing early mortality. In addition, drowsy driving and workplace accidents are common among those suffering the effects of sleep deprivation from untreated disorders. While some may overlook these risks and think of sleep apnea as simply a bad case of snoring or minor choking in the night, that is exactly what makes the disorder so dangerous. It is potentially a silent killer, striking at times when people are unaware, and sound asleep. Sudden cardiac events are extremely common at night, possibly provoked by apnea events. Stopping these events with CPAP is something almost anyone with a sleep apnea condition can do simply by adhering to their prescribed therapy routine. And the longer they adhere to treatment, the more benefits they will experience, both to health and peace of mind.

CPAP and Mortality - A Brief Reminder

As we mentioned in our article on PAP therapy and mortality, some people believe that sleep apnea events do not necessarily cause mortality, due in part to a reaction within the nervous system that wakes a person up to breathe. While this is a common conception among online commentators, it is also a misunderstanding. While deaths resulting from single sleep apnea events are not often reported, they do occur, and can at times be attributed to other related factors such as acute ventilatory failure or other respiratory or cardiac events. These events can be just as surprising, as the effects of multiple apnea events over time are not always detected. This is also the path to mortality for other related diseases and disorders. Metabolic conditions such as diabetes, for example, lead to complications that eventually shut the body down. One would not assume that diabetes itself cannot cause mortality. It is the same for sleep apnea. The disorder is closely related to multiple life-threatening diseases, and each apnea event reduces the amount of oxygen entering the blood, leading simultaneously to hypoxemia and hypercapnia (decreased oxygen and increased carbon dioxide in the blood). This also affects blood pressure and can strain the entire cardiovascular system, from the heart to the extremities.

Some estimates claim that at least 38,000 people die every year from heart complications related to sleep apnea. And the risk of stroke is at least 2 to 3 times higher for those with sleep apnea, versus those without. While the relationship between sleep apnea and cancer is not completely understood, studies have identified strong correlations between the two. As with many medical conditions, the more severe the diagnosis, the higher the risk of mortality, and this is especially true for cardiorespiratory illnesses.

What CPAP Does For the Body

Finally, we come to the good news. CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), or other forms of PAP therapy such as APAP and BiPAP, are becoming more effective, comfortable, and manageable than ever before in the history of the treatment. Not only is PAP therapy clinically proven to reduce or eliminate nearly every health risk associated with sleep apnea, but the devices have become data-collection machines, producing detailed sleep data on everything from vital sign changes to sleep stage cycles and movements in the night, all of which is made accessible online from any device logged into the account. This makes treatment progress and effectiveness easy to track, as each therapy period is logged for future reference, including the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) scores, which measure the frequency and duration of any respiratory event.

In addition to the advanced data features, both the machines and the masks have become increasingly more adaptable to patient preferences, using built-in humidifiers for easier breathing, slow starts called ramp that keep air pressure lower during sleep onset, and have virtually eliminated the noise that bothered some users of earlier models. Some companies are even developing 3D-printed masks for entirely custom-fit designs. These types of comfort features are designed to help patients remain compliant with treatment and become healthier, happier people as a result. With smaller, quieter, more effective devices, the hope is that more patients will continue to use CPAP as recommended by their providers. In the end, a few simple comfort features could be the difference between life and death for someone having difficulties sleeping with a device in use.

The most important thing for those struggling to adapt to CPAP is to continue trying. Remember that CPAP will help the body sleep through the night and stop life-threatening arousals. While some new patients will have difficulties adjusting in the beginning, getting past this early threshold to make a habit out of CPAP can be a life-saving decision. Treatment adherence is usually defined as a minimum of four hours over 70 percent of the time, but any amount of use helps if you are struggling. And this is also true for children. As health professionals learn more about sleep apnea, many are screening for the disorder as early as possible in hopes of preventing or eliminating the condition before it can do damage to the body. Often, this involves much more than a simple diagnosis and a prescription for a CPAP device. Doctors are becoming more holistic in their approach and more involved in the treatment process of their patients. Through periodic interventions, education, and encouragement, health providers hope to better promote the idea of PAP therapy as a gold standard treatment, a device capable of improving sleep, boosting energy, and eliminating apnea events altogether. And at a time when the current global health crisis shows no sign of abating, a healthy immune system should be a number-one priority. By this time, at least, we should all be used to wearing a mask.