Our Sleep Apnea Blog | I Hate CPAP

People are split on chiropractors. There are those who believe they are quacks and those who believe they are skilled medical practitioners capable of providing lasting relief to serious medical conditions. Patients have long been able to describe and voice the benefits they receive from going to the chiropractor, but objective measurement of these benefits has been difficult to obtain.

However, a recent study shows that adjusting the atlas, the top cervical vertebra, can lead to a significant decrease in blood pressure, one of the dangers of sleep apnea. The decrease was the equivalent of taking a double dose of prescribed blood pressure medications. Chiropractors who have eschewed full-spine adjustments in favor of delicate manipulations of the atlas vertebra see this finding as a vindication of their approach.

In a different study, it has been shown that neuromuscular dental treatment can help adjustments of the atlas vertebra to stay in place. Because the alignment of the atlas depends almost exclusively on soft tissue, including muscles and ligaments that can be affected by TMD.

To learn more about how neuromuscular dentistry can increase the effectiveness of your chiropractic treatments, contact Dr. Ira Shapira, neuromuscular dentist, at his Gurnee, Illinois office.

The first thing most people do for a headache is go to the medicine cabinet to take an aspirin, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen. However, all medications produce side effects, and these medications are no exception. Aspirin side effects include bleeding in the brain, kidney failure, and increased risk of stroke. Acetaminophen has been shown to be very bad for the liver, and ibuprofen is an NSAID, in the same class of medications as Vioxx, which was pulled from the market because of it increased risks for heart attack and stroke. As a result, it is wise to seek non-drug relief from chronic headaches.

Instead, consider neuromuscular dentistry. The trigeminal nerve, or dental nerve, accounts for half of all input into the central nervous system, and it controls the front 2/3 of the meninges (membranes) that control blood flow to the brain. Because of this role in controlling blood flow, the trigeminal nerve can be blamed for many chronic headaches.

Neuromuscular dentistry, by relieving pressure and dysfunction of the jaw, has, among other effects, the ability to improve the function of the trigeminal nerve.

To learn more about how neuromuscular dentistry can relieve your suffering from chronic headaches, contact Dr. Ira Shapira at his Gurnee, Illinois office.

One common complaint among CPAP users is that they get sinus and ear infections. They are more likely to suffer bronchitis than the general population. The constant mucous surplus created by your body in an attempt to fight against infection can be almost as disruptive as the sleep apnea that CPAP is designed to cure. These infections are the result of exposure to the micro-organisms that breed on the mask and hose of the CPAP machine. With daily use, the CPAP machine can host a dangerous menagerie of bacteria, fungi, and viruses that feed on the skin, mucous, and oils from your body that accumulate on the mask.

Then, once these populations have been breeding all day, the CPAP machine becomes a delivery system that pushes them inside your body. The positive airway pressure makes sure these micro-organisms are forced throughout your otolaryngal cavity. The inside of your ears, your throat, even your lungs are all seeded with a breeding population, making it highly likely that the populations will take hold. This is made even more likely as a result of the drying of your mucous membranes that can be a side effect of CPAP treatment.

To avoid the dangers of the CPAP machine, it is essential that you maintain an impeccable cleaning routine for the mask and hose. It is often advisable that you have several sets of hoses and masks so that you can rotate them and soak them in an antibiotic solution between uses.

Another option is the use of oral appliance therapy, which not only fosters less in the way of bacterial and other micro-organismal populations, but is easier to clean, and, even if it becomes populated, does not give these infectious disease organisms a free ride into your lungs. Most people prescribed CPAP therapy can actually get as good or better results from oral appliance therapy, without this health-threatening side effect.

To learn more about how oral appliance therapy can be healthier than CPAP, contact Dr. Ira Shapira at the Snoring and Sleep Apnea Treatment Center today.

Dr. Shapira has been treating people for sleep apnea in the Chicago area from his Gurnee office for over 25 years, and will soon extend the same high quality care to more patients through his partnership with another sleep apnea expert.

Dr. Alex Golbin is the founder of Sleep and Behavioral Medicine. He is a well-known expert on children with sleep disorders, and has written the only textbook on Sleep Psychiatry. He maintains three offices on the North Shore, in Vernon Hills, Skokie, and Bannockburn, all accredited by the Academy of Sleep Medicine. At these state-of-the-art offices, Dr. Golbin treats sleep apnea, insomnia, and bedwetting in children. He also coordinates a number of advanced research projects through his Vernon Hills office, constantly advancing the state of sleep medicine.

The hope is not only that this cooperative effort will not only give patients in the North Shore better access to advanced sleep medicine, but by sharing ideas, experience, and practices, the doctors will be able to improve the treatment of sleep disorders for all their patients.

If you are suffering any of the symptoms of sleep apnea, please contact the Snoring and Sleep Apnea Treatment Center today for a free initial sleep apnea consultation.