Frequently Asked Heart Disease Related Questions – Part 2

What association exists between heart disease and birth control pills

Research has shown that women who use high-dose oral contraceptives have a greater risk of heart attack or stroke due to a higher risk of blood clotting in the blood vessels. This risk falls once the birth control pill is stopped. using the birth control pill on it own increases the effects of other heart disease risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, overweight and high blood cholesterol. The pills that are particularly harmful are those that contain higher doses of hormones. Those commonly used today have been revisited to lower the risk by eliminating the high dose hormones.

Explain association between sleep apnea and heart disease

Sleep apnea is considered a serious disorder. This happens when a person briefly and repeatedly stops breathing during sleep. Left untreated it heightens the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and congestive heart failure. After menopause women are likely to develop sleep apnea. Factors that increase risk of sleep apnea are being overweight, being obese, smoking, the use of alcohol and sleeping pills.

How to set a standard for the family on heart health

Set an example by following a healthy lifestyle. Adults easily influence children positively or negatively. Let your children see you eating nutritious snacks and enjoying outdoor activities. You may want them to get involved. Teach children to clean fruits and veggies. It is also educational fun to teach children to prepare healthy dishes. Also get kids involved and encourage them to be active exercise wise. Take them on outings such as hiking, swimming or bicycling. You may also jog and walk with them.

How to reduce salt in your diet

Salt reduction in your diet is aimed at preventing and controlling high blood pressure which is a risk factor for heart disease. When salt which contains sodium is reduced, this helps control blood pressure and in turn lowers the risk of heart attack and even stroke. To reduce your salt intake choose low sodium or non salt added versions of food and condiments. Select fresh, frozen or canned vegetables. Use fresh poultry, fish and lean meat rather than canned smoked or processed types. Go for breakfast cereals that are lower in sodium. Limit cured foods such as bacon and harm, foods packed in brine and condiments. Limit even lower sodium versions of soy sauce and teriyaki. These should be used sparingly as you may use table salt.

Learn more about the association between salt and high blood pressure. Not all salts have harmful sodium. These are good for your health. Learn how teenage smoking is on the raise in some countries. This may stand in the way of teaching your children to maintain excellent heart health.

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Sleep Apnea Treatment May Lower Risk of Hypertension

It’s possible that you can lower your risk of hypertension by getting a sleep apnea test and treatment. How so? Researchers have recently learned that chronic high blood pressure could also be linked to an apnea disorder.

Their study explored a large portion of the population to prove what doctors have commonly noticed, that patients with breathing problems due to sleep disorders, also have hypertension. What’s more, it’s possible that sleep apnea, in particular, may contribute to the hypertension in many adult Americans.

Researchers estimate that this sleep condition accounts for the high blood pressure of two million men and four hundred thousand women based on their data and their assumption of a link between sleep disorders and hypertension.

Apnea, to give a general description, is a serious sleep disorder that is linked and identified with loud snoring and frequent breathing interruptions during sleep. The most common type of this disorder is called Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

The most effective treatment of this disorder is continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP therapy. In any case, CPAP alternatives exist for patients who can’t tolerate the CPAP treatment.

It’s known that, while you’re asleep, if you have apnea disorder, you’ll experience regular surges of elevated blood pressure, due to interruptions of your breathing. Researchers studied over a thousand people aged between thirty and sixty, to find out if elevated daytime blood pressure was also due to breathing interruptions.

The researchers learned a lot from their analysis of randomly selected subjects. They found out that physicians fail to detect apnea in women, smoking increases the risk for such a disease, car accidents can also be linked to this disorder, and sleep apnea is more common than previously expected.

In their study, researchers learned that if you have mild to moderate sleep apnea or you experience 15 breathing pauses per hour while you’re asleep, you’re 1.8 times more likely to have hypertension compared to people who don’t suffer from this sleep problem.

They also found that there was a link between the severity of apnea and the risk for hypertension. The worse your sleep disorder gets, the greater the increase in your blood pressure.

As a result of these findings, if you have sleep apnea, you can reduce your chances of hypertension by making sure that you receive regular sleep apnea treatment.

As a stress management consultant and educator promoting and encouraging better sleeping habits in the Washington, D.C. area, 54 year-old Agnes Dunn knows a lot about the common sleep problems affecting people. She keeps up with the latest sleep improvement news and developments such as the latest sleep apnea treatments, sleep preparation rituals, stress relieving exercises, sleep-inducing devices, and others; and this really benefits her clients and audience. Her services have consistently been in demand because of her detailed research.

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Evaluating Surgical Solutions And Risks For Obstructive Sleep Apnea Snorers

As the population in the United States becomes more obese every year, the incidence of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome is also increasing. In the general population, the incidence of obstructive sleep apnea is 2% in women and 4% in men. The airway obstruction in obstructive sleep apnea patients is due to a decrease in the upper airway muscle tone during sleep and airway narrowing due to the deposition of adipose tissue in pharyngeal structures. The structures that may increase in size due to deposition of fat are the uvula, tonsils, tonsillar pillars, tongue, aryepiglottic folds and the lateral pharyngeal walls.

A careful review of all medical records is very important. The preoperative diagnosis, exact surgical procedure being performed and proper consent for anesthesia and surgery should be noted. Reviewing old medical records can be particularly useful with regard to previous anesthetic history, which may reveal airway difficulties, an unusual response to anesthetic agents and the postoperative course. All co-existing medical conditions and treatments should be noted. In addition to the routine laboratory values, any work-up that has been done specific to obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome such as polysomnographic testing, cephalometric measurements, cardiac or pulmonary function studies should be checked. All consultations should be reviewed and if a specific question arises, the consultant in question should be contacted. A detailed history from the patient and bedpartner if possible should identify patients with undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome.

Because of the increased incidence of aspiration of gastric contents, an antacid and metoclopramide should be given to decrease the gastric acidity and volume. Glycopyrrolate to reduce oral secretions and dexametasone to reduce airway edema and nausea and vomiting are generally administered. Obese patients have increased oxygen consumption and decreased lung volumes. Functional residual capacity and expiratory reserve volume are small and patients become desaturated faster during apnea.

Airway edema is a major concern for patients undergoing surgical repair for obstructive sleep apnea. Small airways compounded with surgical trauma or a difficult intubation put obstructive sleep apnea patients at a higher risk for airway compromise. It is of paramount importance for both the anesthesiologist and the surgeon to make all attempts at reducing airway edema in patients undergoing obstructive sleep apnea surgery. Preoperative and postoperative intravenous steroids have routinely been shown to be effective in the reduction of airway edema.

Adequate blood pressure control is very important in the management of a postoperative obstructive sleep apnea patient. Hypertension is more commonly seen in obstructive sleep apnea patients secondary to their heightened sympathetic drive. Consequently, elevated blood pressure leads to more bleeding and increased tissue swelling. Although induced hypotension is not currently used for obstructive sleep apnea surgeries, the patient’s blood pressure should be managed prior to the procedure and controlled throughout the perioperative period.

In addition, it is important to remember the sedatives and narcotics used throughout the case, because of their lingering analgesic and depressant effects on the patient. Unfortunately, the spectrum of pharmaceutical options for analgesia ranges from minimal pain relief with a low incidence of side effects, to good pain relief with a higher incidence of side effects. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are usually inadequate for postoperative pain control and standard narcotic dosing or patient-controlled analgesic infusions put the patient at increased risk of obstructive complications. One regimen found to be effective involves lower dosed intravenous narcotics for immediate pain control and oral hydrocodone or acetaminophen with codeine once the patient resumes eating.

A wide variety of therapies have been described to treat sleep disordered breathing. These range from modifying predisposing conditions, reducing medical risk factors such as obesity, appliances in the form of oral, nasal, CPAP(continuous positive airway pressure) machine, and finally upper airway surgeries. These wide variety of techniques makes assessment of effectiveness difficult when it comes to finding an absolute cure for snoring. If you are interested to learn more about how to stop snoring naturally take advantage of this buy one get one free offer.

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Lowering Your Risks for Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a troubling disorder that will affects your sleep as well as having some very negative consequences on your health and well-being. This disorder can affect someone at any age and is considered to be a degenerative condition when. When sleep apnea is left untreated, the condition can become much more serious. There are things that can be done to lower your risk of developing sleep apnea. Those that are high in risk factors are much more prone to develop this very difficult sleep disorder. There are certain methods people can use to keep their risk for sleep apnea down.

Staying or getting into good shape is an important element to reducing your risk for sleep apnea. Fatty tissues in the neck that are a direct result of being obese are the leading cause of sleep apnea. This excess tissue can obstruct the airway by putting weight on the esophagus, which can lead to sleep apnea. It has been determined that having a neck with a circumference of over 17 inches presents a significant risk for contracting sleep apnea.

The use of depressants also increases the risk of developing sleep apnea. Depressants such as alcohol and sleeping pills cause the throat muscles to relax giving way to a possible airway obstruction. Alcohol should be taken no sooner than four hours before bedtime for this reason creating a lower chance of snoring and sleep apnea at bed time.

Smoking can also contribute to developing sleep apnea. Smoking causes increased inflammation in the throat as well as fluid retention in the upper airway. These two conditions can represent a serious airway obstruction.

Some people that experience sleep apnea only do so when lying on their backs at night. A conscious effort to sleep on one’s side can be made to help remedy the situation. Many different techniques may be attempted such as sleeping with a pillow behind your back to prevent you from rolling onto your back. Whatever your method is, find one that works for you and stick with it.

Some of the most serious risks for sleep apnea can be reduced by lifestyle changes. Other factors such as old age and a narrow air passage cannot be adapted for and are unavoidable risks. If you suspect that you have sleep apnea, get a proper diagnosis from a certified sleep lab and begin to take steps to reduce your risk.

About the Author: Elizabeth Radisson is the editor of http://SleepApnea.OurGoodHealth.org, a website devoted to information on the causes and treatment of sleep apnea. Also, visit http://www.OurGoodHealth.org for more health-related information.

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