Why do so many need help breathing???

[Country4ever]

Hi all,
I hope this isn't a repeat. I couldn't find the topic anywhere. I'm finding more and more people using CPAPs. Why do you think that is?
Do you think they've done studies on "normal" people and maybe everyone has this kind of sleep??
I also wonder about obesity and consumption of carbs....which tends to "inebriate" us to a degree.
What else might it be? Something in our modern lifestyles?
Sometimes I think we're just not supposed to live as long as we're living, and maybe we're expecting our bodies to hold up too long??
Preservatives? Allergies?? Ignoring the cues from nature as to when to sleep and when to wake up?? What's your take?

[Slinky]

I don't think there is any question that we don't live as healthy a lifestyle as previous generations.

Prior to this boomer generation and halfway back to the previous, there were mucho more physical labor intestive jobs. There weren't the number of mentally stressful jobs. We ate more natural foods, most of us had at least a small backyard garden or fresh vegetables and fruits were available from carts traveling thru our neighborhood. There were no fast food take outs on every corner. There weren't as many preservative in our foods. There weren't that many prepared foods available.

We were too busy making a living for our family to worry about "keeping up w/the Jones'".

And there is just plain the matter of fact that no one knew or recognized snoring could indicate a more serious underlying problem. The medical profession is becoming more aware of it as a precursor to other serious medical conditions.

[Wulfman]

I think you could SAY that previous generations had healthier lifestyles, but I'm not entirely convinced that that in itself is a cause-and-effect situation/answer.

I told John I liked his story and I'm going to mention the link again.

viewtopic/t25643/A-Question-Only-Mom-Could-Ask---.html

Since this is a "recent" medical discovery.....and we're learning more about the serious effects it's having on our systems every day, we can't really go back and ask our grandparents and great-grandparents what their sleeping was like.
I think there are a LOT of factors that enter into it and heredity (genetic pre-disposition) may be one of the bigger ones.

Den

[Suz-E-Q]

Who knows! It might have been around forever. I know my dad had apnea. He was a huge snorer and when he would fall asleep in the recliner we could hear him stop breathing. My mom said that he was taking Geritol (I don't even know if it is on the market anymore) and he was hiding it from her. One day she saw him breathing from the oxygen tank on his welding machine. He was a hard working man. He grew up on a farm, ate fresh vegetables from the garden. He was about 6' tall and weighed no more than 160 or 170 lbs.

I think there is so much more to it than is even understood at this point. I think there is something about the brain function as well. And as you can see by all the articles and research that is being done, many of the doctors are probably thinking that too.

It might be that there are a multiple of causes for it. Some people respond great to xPAP and others it takes a much longer time or they don't ever feel really great even on xPAP.

I think that we are so in the infancy of understanding this condition. We'll see as the research continues to come out.
Suzanne

[Country4ever]

That's true. Its probably always been here. We just know about it now.
Do any of you remember that one segment from one of Bill Cosby's old records about the Dad snoring at night, and stopping breathing?? Its pretty funny. (although sleep apnea isn't funny) He said when he was a child, everyone would listen to him breath at night, and breath with him. When he would stop breathing, so would they. It was a pretty funny record.

[kteague]

I'm surprised some of the top sleep industry marketers haven't taken something like the blurb you describe and use it in advertising. But paying Bill Cosby for rights to use it might be prohibitive. That audio along with some still clips could make a good youtube video.

[ozij]

Before antibiotics were discovered, people were dieing right left and center of infectious diseases. Despite their healthy life styles, the majority didn't live as long as we do.


O.

[roster]

It is a basic flaw in the human anatomy that has been around since Adam and Eve were kicked out of The Garden. Now that I know what it is, my family and I have discussed parents and grandparents who died of stroke, heart attacks and complications from diabetes. We remember individuals who snored loudly and were often tired.

My maternal grandfather used to come in from the fields in the middle of the day, take a straight-back chair and lay it upside down on the floor, drape his coat over it, lay down on it in a partially upright position and nap and snore. He snored all night and was often tired in his last decade of life. At 71 he died of a stroke. This was 1945 and no one knew what sleep apnea was. BTW, he was very slim just like me. He also worked a 100-acre farm with a pair of mules. Hard work did not save him from sleep apnea and a stroke.

Now from the scientific point of view, I saw a doctor say it is an evolutionary design flaw of mammals: food and air have to move through the same passage.

There are "so many more cases now" because we are finally learning how to diagnose it. Personally I think if we could implement an easy/cheap diagnostic test and an easy/cheap treatment, there would follow a big increase in life expectancy. Not to mention quality of life, productivity, etc.