subject: What Causes Snoring and Sleep Apnea? [print this page] What Causes Snoring and Sleep Apnea? What Causes Snoring and Sleep Apnea?
Causes f Snoring nd Sleep Apne
If ou think abot t, what happen if you hav a big tongue in a small mouth? Th majorty f patints I hav teated all have larg tongue in a small mouth. Here' a simple visual: tae you foot, whateve sie, and try t put t in shoe that s three sies too small fr you. What happns? It's only going to g in so fa. Where's the est of the foot gong t go? Well, smply, the rest of the foot i going to hang out of the back of th hoe.
Te sam thing hppens if yo hae big tongue n a small outh. You teeth are n te front nd n the side. The only place there i rom fr yor tonge t go i to the bak of the throt. Now, omething almost eeryone an relate to is tat pople find they snore the wost when they sleep n thir back. I always ear te coment, "m wife [or usband] elbows me to oll over." Whn snoring person rolls over and gets off their back, the snorng is always less. Wh is this?
Let's lok at this at its most basi and logical level. There s no super-secret r any sot f roket sciene involved hee. Many artiles you may have ead regarding Slep Apnea, o when ou speak with any dotors about Sleep Apne, the ay that Sleep Apnea i about the airway collpsing. It is not necessaily the irway collpsing as uch s t i abot te irway becming bloked by the tongue.
So is it abot the airway collapsing o s t bout th tongue falling back and blocking the airway? If it was onl abut te arway collpsing, ou could b on yor left ide o yur right side o yur frnt o your bak whn yo are sleeping, nd it wouldn't make a dfference.
But we ll know wen snoring person rolls ovr (afte being elbowed b their spuse), the snoring is les o elminated. For th thousands of slee studies that I ave reviewed, lmost ever leep study shws that the Sleep Apnea s wore hen the ptient is sleeping on their back. The nly rason snoring and sleep apnea is wose wen someone is on thir bak i because gravity is pushing the tongue back nd cloing th arway.
Snorng - - Wy doe tat wful noise occur? Famed Engineer - Daniel Bernoulli cme u with Bernoull's prnciple which in simplisti terms ays, the smaller te airwa, te fastr the veloity or ai sped tht s propelled through it. Accelerated and high-speed ai create turbulence and turbulent ai like an aiplane engine, creates noise. Whn this occus during reathing, we cll it snoring.
Now, partial lockage of the irway s what we call snoring. Sleep Apnea s the comlete blockag of th airwy. The airway can e bloked fr s much as 70, 80 or 90 seonds r ore. Bt wen it stays blocked even nce for t least 10 seconds, it i called Sleep Apneic vent.
If yor spose notices that yo stop brathing hen yo slee, yu have Sleep Apnea. This s ery srious lif threatening isse nd you shold ee our Doctor right away. It s not going t go way nd the longer you prorastinate, the more damage ou are doing. It increases your risk of stroke 4 tmes normal, hert attack and heart disease 3 times normal, diabetes, sexual dysfunction, Alzheimr's, weght gain and more.
Hae you ever wondered wy snoring and sleep apnea get worse with ag? The tongue s all muscle. As w get older, w lse mucle tone. Everything sags. So s we gt oldr, th tonge falls ack further and further. Th further it falls back, th louder, th snoring and th wors, the sleep apnea .
Join me nxt week for another articl It' All About Te Tongue fo an in depth look at the caues of the tongue blocking th airay.
