Low blood oxygen?

I've read mixed things regarding low blood oxygen levels during the day..some say yes some say no.. anyone here have lower than normal blood oxygen levels before you began treatment ?

Hello again ktan49,

Please keep posting in the thread you started. And if you haven't read the the replies to your other post, please read them now. Otherwise we all get confused.

As far as this question goes, I'm not quite sure what you mean.

While awake, a normal person has a percentage of oxygen saturation (O2 sat) of between 94 and 98. If you were in A&E and they clipped that thing to your finger – a pulse-oximeter or 'pulse-ox' – and it showed between 90 and 94, they'd keep an eye on you.

And below 90, they'd be concerned.

Now, a person who has sleep apnea doesn't automatically have a lower O2 sat during the day. They may have a lower than 94 saturation – but that can be for lots of reasons.

But if you don't mind me saying so, I don't think that's quite what you're asking. When you listed in your other post all the symptoms you've been experiencing, I noted that some of them are indicative of sleep apnea, a night-time breathing disorder. And some are suggestive of hyper-ventilation syndrome, or HVS, a day-time breathing disorder.

The thing to note about HVS is that it isn't so much about the percentage of oxygen you have in your system as the amount of carbon dioxide you don't have in your system. Through over-breathing, a person blows off too much carbon dioxide, or CO2.

The remedy is to do breathing exercises, every day, and four or five times a day.

In some UK Foundation Trust Hospital areas, you can be referred to a respiratory physiologist for teaching and supervision of these exercises.

Here's a leaflet about HVS from an NHS hospital:

http://www.dchs.nhs.uk/assets/public/dc ... ndrome.pdf

Now, while there's no automatic connection between HVS and OSA, if an OSA patient were also over-weight, and if some of their excess body fat were to settle below the diaphragm, keeping it 'pushed up', then that patient might not be able to fully expand their lungs. Such a patient might then go on to develop hyper-ventilation syndrome.

But it would be the weight which would be the causitive factor, and not the OSA.