Posted by bob on May 17, 2000, at 23:59:29
In reply to Med question Cam or anyone , posted by Danielle on May 17, 2000, at 23:03:05
A more important question may be whether you've ever noticed his breathing while asleep to be labored in the past, particularly with respect to snoring or actual stops in his breathing. A number of us here also have sleep apnea on our list of disorders. After having a sleep study done, I was rather shocked by the results. I mean, I knew I snored -- but I didn't realize that my oxygen level in my bloodstream (which should be up above 95%) was dropping to 68% while asleep. Can you imagine the trauma that getting 2/3's of the oxygen you need for 1/3 of your life can cause? Yikes!! Furthermore, I was showing some cardiac arhythmias, had at least one partial stoppage of breathing each minute, and actually stopped breathing completely for half a minute on one occasion.
You know, if you asked me to right now I wouldn NOT be able to hold my breath for 30 seconds voluntarily!
Anyway, I've have a CPAP (continuous positive air pressure) machine to help me breath at night for about five months now. Depression tends to be fairly common in people who have apnea, and treating the apnea MAY help partially or fully alleviate the depression (as it did for a colleague of my therapist's ... lucky b*st*rd!). My ENT specialist also is an expert on the apnea/depression link, so maybe he'll have something to contribute for me ... but I understand it can take some time to see any effects on behavior or mood.
Still, I'm sure my brain cells, individually at least, are much happier with the amount of oxygen they're getting every night nowadays.
cheers,
bob
poster:bob
thread:33844
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000517/msgs/33855.html