Asked & Answered Podcast
The Texas Heart Institute Center for Cardiovascular Care's general and interventional cardiologist, Dr. Alexander Postalian, answers patients' questions about cardiovascular health.
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Asked & Answered Podcast
My husband snores like a rhino on steroids, and sometimes stops breathing at night.
On this episode of Asked and Answered, Dr. Alexander Postalian will discuss obstructive sleep apnea and how it affects cardiovascular health.
Read More: https://www.texasheart.org/heart-health/heart-information-center/topics/obstructive-sleep-apnea/
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And then stop, no breathing for a few seconds. And then, and then I'm, I'm mini awakening. And then the whole cycle starts again. My husband snores like a rhino on steroids and sometimes stops breathing at night. I am actually concerned he's going to die in his sleep. What should I do? What you are most likely describing here is obstructive sleep apnea. It is a condition in which when you sleep, the muscles of your throat relax, and then your airway collapses. I'm gonna do it And then stop, no breathing for a few seconds, and then, and then a, a mini awakening. And then the whole cycle starts again. You choke and you breathe, you choke and you breathe and your oxygen goes down and up, down and up. Blood pressure varies. So that puts your cardiovascular system, uh, under a lot of strain, and that can cause a lot of issues. Hypertension increases chances of stroke, increased chances of heart attacks, increased chances of arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation. So treating that is actually, uh, a quite a lot of a low hanging fruit. You have to treat your potential risk of cardiovascular problems. The way to treat it is with a C P A P machine, which is putting something on your face that pushes air and doesn't allow your airway to collapse. That's a thing you see sometimes in, you know, in videos, a big machine with a tube going to the, to the box, that can be quite uncomfortable for the first few weeks that you use it. But most patients that pushed through the problem of using it for a few days and weeks, they love it. They can sleep much better. They're well rested during the day.
