Central sleep apnea causes – Part 2

Central Sleep Apnea is an extremely serious disorder. The name is derived from the Greek word apnea, which means “without breath.” There are three types of sleep apnea: Obstructive, Central, and Mixed. A combination of which, affect more than 12 million people in the United States.

People who suffer with Central sleep apnea will actually stop breathing on more than one occasion during the sleeping period, often for a minute or longer and up to one hundred times during the night. It is characterized by a gasping or choking by the patient that will constantly wake them up throughout the night.

CENTRAL SLEEP APNEA usually occurs with people who have been diagnosed with a serious illness as opposed to the more common OSA that is caused by external physiological reasons. Put simply, Central sleep apnea occurs when the brain doesn’t send the right signals to the body to get the breathing muscles to activate respiration.

The brain stem controls breathing, and anyone who suffers from a disease or injury that affects this area may have problems with their breathing while asleep or awake. Central Sleep Apnea occurs when there is a delay in the signal from the brain telling the body to breathe. This can be caused by a combination of factors which involves damage to the brain stem including:

1. Poliomyelitis: This an acute and potentially fatal viral disease and can leads to the invasion of the central nervous system (CNS), the spinal cord and brain.

2. Encephalitis: An Inflammation of the brain that can possibly affect the central nervous system leading to impairment or death.

3. Neurodegnerative diseases: Central sleep apnea can occur in the later stages of Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease and multiple system atrophy.

4. Complications of surgery: Any form of surgery to the secondary radiation in the region of the cervical spine.

5. Radiation treatments: On or near the cervical spine.

6. Stroke: Can cause a rupture of blood vessels or an interruption of blood flow to the affected area.

SYMPTOMS:

1. Short pauses in breathing during sleeping hours that can be a small amount of times to over a hundred times a night.

2. Frequently waking up.

3. Extreme daytime tiredness

4. Occasionally you may find in some cases a difficulty in swallowing, changes in the voice and a weakness or numbness in the body.

The prognosis for a cure will be dependent on the treatment for the original underlying medical condition that is causing this sleep disorder.

It is interesting to note that 90% of people who have sleep apnea do not even realize that they are suffering from it. It is usually the sleeping partner that will notice that the patient is having difficulty in breathing and then will bring it to their attention. Diagnosis and treatment can go a long way to vastly improve the quality of life because if left untreated, any kind of sleep apnea can both exasperate an already existing medical condition or seriously damage the health of a normally sound individual.

Sources:

http://www.sleepdisorderchanne l.com/osa/

http://sleepdisorders.about.co m/od/sleepapnea/a/central.htm