Sleep apnea and treatment
Sleep apnea (OSA), this disease is characterized by obstructive apnea and hypopnea caused by repeated collapse of the upper airway during sleep. Untreated OSA can lead to a variety of potential consequences and adverse clinically relevant manifestations, including excessive daytime sleepiness, impaired daytime function, metabolic dysfunction, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death. For adults, sleep apnea occurs more or less occasionally in everyone. But some people will persist for a long time and develop sleep apnea disease. Such diseases are not easy to detect, but there is a possibility of death. In addition to the monitoring of medical devices, we can also perform monitoring through smart watches that bring sleep apnea.
The goal of treatment of OSA is to relieve its symptoms and signs, improve sleep quality, and restore sleep apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and oxygenated hemoglobin to normal. For OSA, it should be treated as a chronic disease that requires long-term, multidisciplinary management. The potential benefits of successful treatment of OSA include improved clinical performance, reduced use and cost of healthcare services, and possibly reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The monitoring of sleep apnea must arouse people's attention.
In medicine, the treatment of sleep apnea mainly adopts positive airway pressure therapy. However, for patients with mild to moderate OSA who are unwilling to use positive airway pressure therapy or the treatment is ineffective, oral appliances are an alternative therapy that has been proven to improve the symptoms and signs of OSA. The tolerance of some patients to oral appliances May be better than positive airway pressure therapy. For patients with severe upper airway obstructive disease that can be corrected by surgery, upper airway surgery may replace oral appliances as an alternative treatment.
The use of surgery to treat sleep apnea is the last option. For any disease, we should take precautions, early warning, and avoid surgery. Now our monitoring of sleep apnea is very convenient. Traditional medical equipment is no longer needed for monitoring. Smart watches can replace medical equipment to monitor sleep apnea. Both high-end smart watches and some health monitoring watches on the market can do it. Huawei, Apple, Xiaomi, Veepoo and other companies can monitor sleep apnea and have a warning effect.
Education and behavior.
Patient education — The management of OSA patients begins with a strict determination of the diagnosis and its severity. The severity of the disease can guide treatment through the following aspects: identifying patients at the highest risk of adverse outcomes; providing a baseline level to measure the effectiveness of treatment. Once OSA is diagnosed and its severity is clear, all test results should be reviewed with the patient. Clinicians should educate patients on the risk factors, natural course and consequences of OSA. It is important to warn all patients that without treatment, OSA can increase the risk of motor vehicle accidents and the possible consequences of driving or operating other dangerous equipment when drowsy. Patients should also be advised not to engage in activities that require vigilance and vigilance when they are drowsy.
Behavior modification — All patients with OSA who have correctable risk factors require behavior modification therapy. The doctor should determine the type of behavior modification treatment based on the characteristics of the patient. Patients who are overweight or obese should be encouraged to lose weight. Patients with orthostatic OSA should change their sleeping position accordingly. Doctors should inform all patients that alcohol and certain commonly used drugs (such as benzodiazepines) may aggravate their OSA.
Weight loss and exercise — For all OSA patients who are overweight or obese, they should be recommended to lose weight and exercise. Although weight loss, including weight loss caused by bariatric surgery, rarely completely relieves OSA, current studies have shown that weight loss can improve overall health and metabolic parameters, and reduce AHI (the number of apneas and hypopneas per hour of sleep) , Lower blood pressure, improve quality of life, and may reduce daytime sleepiness.
The above method is just a kind of rehabilitation behavior. For any disease, we should take prevention. Preventing illness is the best protection for the body. At present, we can use smart watches with sleep monitoring function to monitor our sleep state. For example, Veepoo watch RIG, HUAWEI watch3, Apple watch, Xiaomi, Huami and other smart watches can monitor our sleep state.
