Sleep Apnea and Hypertension

Many people suffer from sleep apnea.  If you suffer from sleep apnea chances are 50/50 that you also have hypertension according to a study done in Tel Aviv, Israel.  The results were published in the American Family Physician.    Serious signs and symptoms can be  associated with this respiratory ailment.  Extreme fatigue is common.  People have actually lost their jobs from falling asleep in meetings and have gotten into accidents from falling asleep at the wheel due to this disease.

Apnea means “absence of breath” and while eventually your body will kick in an breathe it simply is not healthy long term to have long periods of not breathing at night.  These periods can range from a few seconds to close to 2 minutes.  I’m sure there have been a few cases where people have gone longer without breathing.  Just remember, 6 minutes without oxygen is fatal and this is up to 1/3 of the way to that figure.

So how does sleep apnea affect hypertension?  This may sound simplistic, but the reason you breathe is so you can provide your blood cells with oxygen.  When you stop breathing, the oxygen no longer is able to properly be transported to your blood cells and therefore your body tries to fix this problem.  This is called homeostasis.   Your body will increase the blood pressure (causing hypertension) in order to get more oxygenated blood flowing to your vital organs.  When you allow this condition to remain, eventually your body becomes accustomed to this situation and your blood pressure stays elevated, thus making you hypertensive.

There is hope for healthy living if you suffer from obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.  This same survey found that when you fixed the obstructive sleep apnea that hypertension actually decreased.  So how do you fix this the sleep apnea?  One way you can help improve your medical dilema is by using a specialized mask.  Sleep apnea masks help by forcing open the obstruction to your airway that is being caused during an apneic event.  These greatly improve your symptoms to include helping you to reduce your hypertension.

These types of masks are also used in homes, hospitals, and even on some ambulances to help with other breathing difficulties such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

If you have sleep apnea and also hypertension seek your physicians guidance on the treatment of your condition.  Chances are if you have a serious enough problem, your doctor will prescribe one of these sleep apnea masks for you.

Cheers,

Andie

X-Rays and Your Health

We’ve just recently discussed the connection between hyptertension and heart disease and stroke.  One thing I would like to focus on today is how the hospital is able to diagnose whether you have a heart attack or not.

Being in the medical field, I know that when you call 911 the crew on the ambulance has a saying they go by.  Muscle=Time.  In other words, the more time it takes to get treatment, the more heart muscle is damaged or lost.   There are quite a few options available today for paramedics to help you while you are both on-scene and en route to the hospital.

One of the steps that is overlooked by patients while you are in the ER is the activities of the x-ray technician.

One of the spokes in the wheel for effective heart attack treatment is the x-ray technician.  While you may be thinking of the doctors and nurses as being indispensable, and they are, X-ray techs are also indispensable.

What do x-ray technicians have to do with heart attacks?

One of the first items on the list of emergency heart therapy is to get a chest x-ray.  While I am not a tech, I see them on virtually every heart attack patient that comes into the ER.  They are there to help diagnose your condition, and while there are other methods used to help diagnose heart disease, this is one tool the hospital uses often.

X-ray technicians play a very vital part in emergency medicine from heart disease to fractures, both minor and serious.  They are so vital that they rarely get cut during budget crunches.  They also are in demand.  While I am not a tech, I can vouch that if you or looking for job security and willing to be trained, x ray technician jobs are very secure and also do quite well in the pay department.  Look into this very useful field of medicine if you are looking to help others while taking care of your own family as well.

Next post we will discuss other emergency methods of treatment you can expect during a heart attack and how you can help reduce your risk of suffering from this common killer.

Hypertension: The Dangers of Ignoring High Blood Pressure

It has been a while.  I’d like to pick up where I left off.  My last post was centered on how getting rid of caffeine can help lower your risk of stroke .  Another way of lowering your risk of stroke is to keep an eye on your blood pressure.  Maintining proper blood pressure is essential to living an healthy lifestyle.

Most people think of high blood pressure, otherwise known as hypertension, as a precursor to heart disease, and while this is true, hypertension also creates the increased risk of a stroke or cerebral vascular accident (CVA).  When your pressure rises it creates the opportunity for increased pressure in the brain.  The medical term for this is increased intercranial pressure.

The increased brain pressure can strain and weaken blood vessels over time creating a dangerous situation where a stroke becomes inevitable.  Most of the stroke patients during my medical career have had very high blood pressure.  Usually, their pressure was 170 systolic or higher.  Obviously, it can be lower than this for strokes, but this has been my findings.

Bottom line:  keep your blood pressure under control.  There are alternatives if you do not wish to use prescribed medicines.  Terry Didcott has a great article on the silent killer which also discusses the dangers of high blood pressure.  Give this article a read and we will next discuss healthy options for getting your hyptertension under control.

Andie

How Eliminating This One Item Can Decrease Your Risk of Stroke

The last couple of posts we talked about what is a stroke and what to do if you have one.  Those are very important things to know, but most importantly, what can we do to reduce our risk of having a stroke in the first place? While no plan is full proof, you can lower your risk of having a cva and start down the road to healthy living.

Are you a caffeine addict?

Most American adults are prone to starting their day off with a hot cup of coffee.  Add to that an occasional soft drink later on in the day, and you are well on your way to setting up your body to possibly having a dreaded cerebral vascular accident, otherwise known as a stroke.

How is this?  Caffeine in small quantities isn’t bad, but when you repeatedly bombard your body with high doses of caffeine, the caffeine can eventually interfere with your heart’s rhythm.

Your heart runs on a timer of sorts.  Every heart muscle cell is able to generate electricity, the power supply to your heart.  Too much caffeine in the long haul overloads your system upsetting this timing chain.  Your heart can start to beat irregularly.  The term for this is Atrial Fibrillation or “A-fib”.

Irregular beats are where the trouble beings.  Excess blood can pool in your right atrium, the right upper chamber of your heart.  This blood then runs the risk of clotting.  The clotted blood can then be pushed out of your heart and can move up to your brain causing a blockage and thus a stroke.

Heredity plays a big part in contracting A-fib.  If you are susceptible to this heart rhythm, my advise would be to severely curtail your intake of caffeine.  Feel free to slowly reduce your caffeine intake.  No need to come down with a severe headache from withdrawals.  Reduce your caffeine load in a week or two.  You’ll be more likely to stay off the caffeine and your body will react more favorably.

Just by doing this one step you can reduce your risk of stroke significantly.  Eliminating caffeine will also help you take the right step towards living a healthy lifestyle lessening your risk even further.

Stay healthy,

Andie

What is a Stroke?

In our last post on How to tell if someone is having a stroke, we discussed signs and symptoms of identifying a stroke with very high accuracy.  Today’s post is about what exactly is a stroke? 

A stroke, otherwise known as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), is when your brain suffers an injury or death of brain tissue because of the lack of blood to your brain cells.  This can be caused by either lack of oxygen (blockage)  or bleeding (hemorrhage). 

Getting proper stroke care for someone is extremely time critical.  There is a 3 hour window that hospitals go by in order to see if someone qualifies for certain treatments.  These treatments wipe out blockages and help the stroke victim to have a chance to recover from whatever damage the stroke has caused. 

If you get help outside of the 3 hour window, this treatment is not available to you.  Of course, a hospital will still care for your symptoms and you will be able to get rehab, but it will be much more difficult to recover from the devastating symptoms of stroke. 

One thing to note is hospitals will give you a CT scan to make sure that you are not having a bleed instead of a blockage.  If you are having a bleed, you will not be eligible for the “stroke blocker” as this would probably be fatal.  The reason is the “TPA”-the procedure used to unblock the stroke, thins out your blood, thereby unblocking the blood flow.  If you are already bleeding, this treatment would make your bleeding much worse.

So, please read my last post on how to identify a stroke and if someone is having these symptoms, call 911 immediately.  You may very well be increasing you or a loved one’s quality of life. 

 

How to tell if Someone is Having a Stroke With 75% Certainty

Today I’d like to talk to about a subject close to home.  Many of us have had a family member who has suffered a debilitating stroke.  I am no different as my sister in law has had a debilitating stroke and has lived with the results for many years.  She has had multiple strokes since her first one. 

Strokes are very time sensitive.  There is a 3 hour window from the beginning of symptoms and the hospital may be able to help the patient recover whatever debilitating effects of the stroke. 

I am a cpr instructor and one of the questions I get asked on a regular basis is how to tell if a loved one is having a stroke.  Here are 3 signs from the Cincinnati pre-hospital stroke scale that when present have a 75% likelihood that you or your loved one is having a stroke.  Teach these to your family members as they may be having to do this test on you.  Knowing these important health tips just may save your life.

3 Signs That Someone is Having a Stroke

1. Facial Droop

Most signs of stroke usually affect only one side of the body, although there are times when the stroke will affect both sides.  What we are looking for is called a “facial droop”.  This is where one part of your face sags compared to the other. 

One good way to check for this is to ask whoever is having the symptoms to smile.  If they can only lift one side of their mouth, then they are said to have facial droop.

2.  Slurred Speech

The second part of the test involves checking for slurred speech.  Ask the person to say something in a sentence.  Do they have slurred speech?  Can they speak at all?  If they are not able to speak, this is a condition known as aphasia.  This is very strong possible sign of a stroke.

3.  Arm Drift

The last part of the test is to check for arm drift.  Arm drift is a condition where one arm is weaker than the other arm.  How you test for this is to ask the person to place both arms out in front of them.  Can they hold both arms up at the same time?  Does one arm sag below the other?  If so, they are said to have arm drift.

When someone you suspect may be having a stroke or a health crisis moment, and you test for these three things, if two of the three are occurring, according to the cincinnati prehospital stroke scale, there is a 75% chance the person is having a stroke. 

Of course, there are more signs and symptoms of stroke, including headache, sudden onset of blindness, incontinence, inability to walk, and others, but these three will show you how to quickly spot if someone is having a stroke.

AThomas

 

 

Welcome to My Health Tips Blog

Welcome to my health tips and resources blog.  I will be posting from time to time on informative articles and health related news and tips.  Enjoy, and if you have any questions please feel free to post a comment.

Athomas