A not so profound oximeter discovery.

Gregg · Post by **Gregg** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:56 pm

Let me add something here. I was going to wait until I verify it. But since this post is moving back up again, and since I really agree with what Gerald has added.

Today I started comparing my diary with my oxygen saturation histories. What I found was revealing.

On the days when I felt badly, my O2 sats were lower and more sustained than on the days when I felt good.

For example, I had a night where my sats were 90-95% for 4.5% of the duration of the night. That next day I was in agony.
I had a night where my sats were 90-95% for 3% of the night, and I felt like a normal human the next day.

Hopefully I'll be able to confirm a correlation.

Stress plays a big role in this, I am absolutely certain. Whether this is apnea or not, I don't know. But it sure seems like it, with O2 sats dipping the way they do.

Gerald · Post by **Gerald** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:21 pm

Gregg......Here's the link to the article that I mentioned.

http://www.hhponline.com/Stevens/HHPPub ... endocument

Thanks to the AWFUL, clunky !@##$$%^^&***(&$% log-in system on this forum, I lost a half-page of logic for Gregg. When that happens, it just takes the enthusiasm out of me.

Gregg...I hope you read the article. I think the answer to your puzzle may be there for you.

Gerald

Offerocker · Post by **Offerocker** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:38 pm

Gerald,

Thanks so much for posting that link.
Mr. Daly has a great method of explaining.
I found this to be especially interesting:

"...what will kill you in sleep apnea is not necessarily the oxygen desaturation — what kills you is the arousal."

In fact, says Daly, the state of arousal signals the brain to activate blood pressure, heart rate and adrenaline — all things that spell disaster for the heart.

"It turns out that there's sort of a paradox here," says Daly, "which is that if you have so many events happening so fast, you don't have time for your blood oxygen to drop 4 percent. So you could start to get to a point where you're so sick that your score goes to zero. … You're having so many events now, you're so intensely ill, you never have time to desaturate, but … you're having these horrendous arousals once a minute. So, if you put a patient on a blood pressure monitor, you can see their blood pressure going over 200 once every minute. That's a picture of somebody's heart getting eaten for lunch"

blarg · Post by **blarg** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:52 pm

That paragraph right there is really interesting. It makes perfect sense that while it's bad to not be breathing, it's probably worse to be aroused all the time by the events....

Offerocker · Post by **Offerocker** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:56 pm

I agree, blarg....seems that we just can't win, eh? .
OK, let's see...do I want to die this way, or that way? Hmmmm