The Diagnosing Of Obstructive Sleep Apnea
After ruling out a blockage in your ear, nose, or throat, your physician will probably ask you to take an overnight sleep study, either in a clinic or at home. You will be attached to equipment that will monitor your heart, lung, and brain activity, as well as airflow, body movement, and blood oxygen levels while you sleep.
- Attacks of severe pain in the affected joint
- Pain continues at a lower level after attack ends
- Joint appears swollen and red, and is tender to the touch
- Movement of the joint becomes increasingly limited
Sleep Apnea Secondary Conditions: How To Service Connect Your Va Sleep Apnea Claim
Veterans, in this post I list more than 40+ possible sleep apnea secondary conditions so veterans can win, service-connect, and rate your sleep apnea VA claim in less time.
Many veterans attempt to service-connect sleep apnea as a primary disability condition and cant seem to figure our why the VA keeps denying your sleep apnea claim.
The main problem is that you didnt get amedical diagnosis of sleep apnea while on active duty and you never did a sleepstudy.
I can literally read the VAs denial letter now:There is no evidence in the veterans service treatment records of any sleepapnea condition or subjective complaints of sleep apnea.
Of course there isnt VA!
Why?
Because you didnt go to the doctor enough whileyou were on active duty, and furthermore, you probably didnt even know whatsleep apnea was during you service.
Youre not alone here veterans!
When I was on active duty, I had a ton of sleep issues, but I never realized those symptoms might have been due to an underlying sleep apnea condition.
I chalked it up to long work hours, stress from the job, a deployment, and various mental health issues.
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Is Gout Related To Sleep Apnea
The link between gout and sleep apnea does exist. This was discovered in a study that was published in the Arthritis & Rheumatology and it evaluated around 16.000 people who have sleep apnea and an additional 63.000 that has no condition.
The study deduced that people with gout have a 42% higher risk of developing gout. In the study, people without sleep apnea developed gout 2.6%, while those with sleep apnea were affected by 4.9%.
The highest risk was 2 years after sleep apnea was diagnosed. Surprisingly body weight had to links to gout. People with average weight were still affected by the condition and scientists have concluded that BMI is almost irrelevant in this case scenario.
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Keep in mind that the link is between sleep apnea and increased risk of gout but there are no actual data that suggest that sleep apnea causes gout in the first place.
Gout risk is increased due to the lack of oxygen while a person sleeps. Lack of oxygen will contribute to increased production of uric acid which will cause gout and a gout flare! This is the only connection that was discovered in the study.
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What Should You Do
No matter the cause, if you have sleep apnea, gout, or both, discuss your symptoms with your doctor. Research shows that a treatment for sleep apnea called continuous positive airway pressure , a machine that keeps your airway open during the night, also reduces uric acid levels. What’s more, taking steps to lose weightsuch as diet modification and exercisecan help improve sleep apnea and gout symptoms.
Sleep Apnea May Increase Gout Risk Due To Hyperuricemia: Study
Written byMohan GarikiparithiPublished onOctober 23, 2015
Sleep apnea has been found to increase gout risk due to hyperuricemia, according to new research. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that causes the individual to wake up out of breath, and gout is a form of arthritis, which can be triggered by consuming foods high in purines. Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have now found that sleep apnea should not be ignored as a possible risk factor for gout.
Sleep apnea is associated with hyperuricemia an excess of uric acid, which is the primary cause of gout. For the study, researchers collected data from patients from the Health Improvement Network in the UK. 9,865 patients with sleep apnea were selected along with 43,598 patients without sleep apnea who were used as controls.
Researchers then analyzed incidences of gout in relation to sleep apnea. By the follow-up date, 270 gout cases had developed. Incidence rate was 8.4/1,000 person-years for individuals with sleep apnea and 4.8/1,000 person-years for those without.
Researchers concluded that sleep apnea is an independent risk factor for the development of gout. They said in the report, Future research should examine the potential benefits of correcting sleep apnea-induced hypoxia on the risk of hyperuricemia and gout flares.
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What Is Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea is a condition in which airways are collapsed for a short period of time during sleep. When this happens, a person will stop breathing for a few seconds. Then, breathing is continued.
There are three main types of sleep apnea. The first is when the problem itself is in the airways. The second type is when the problem is in the brain impulses that control breathing. The third type is the most severe and the one a person must start treating as soon as possible. It is the combination of the first two types!
The treatment for sleep apnea is CPAP, which stands for continuous positive airway pressure. It is a machine that will force pressurized air via a hose and a mask into your airways. As such, it will keep them open while you sleep and there wont be any symptoms.
The treatment itself is very successful. If you are planning to start with it, keep in mind that the mask must be extremely comfortable and there are no leaks while sleeping. You can choose between nasal masks or full face masks. Pick accordingly to your needs.
Sleep Apnea Tied To Gout Flares
By Kathryn Doyle, Reuters Health
4 Min Read
– Sleep apnea may increase the risk of developing gout and experiencing flare-ups, according to a new study.
The intense pain and swelling of a joint, often a big toe, that marks gout is caused by the deposition of uric acid crystals in joints and tissues. Sleep apnea, the study team notes, causes periods of oxygen deprivation during the night when people stop breathing, which triggers overproduction of uric acid in the bloodstream.
But little was known about the relationship between the two conditions, the study team writes in Arthritis and Rheumatology.
In 2007-2008, almost six percent of men and two percent of women in the U.S. experienced gout, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sleep apnea, which is much more common, can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and heart failure, among other conditions, if untreated.
Obesity plays an important role in both sleep apnea and gout, but sleep apnea still increased the risk for gout even when weight was accounted for, said lead author Yuqing Zhang of Boston University Clinical Epidemiology Research and Training Unit.
The researchers used data on almost 10,000 people with a new diagnosis of sleep apnea from a U.K. database and compared them to more than 40,000 people of similar sex, age, birth year and body composition but without sleep apnea.
Some studies show that if you get treatment, your uric acid may go down, Zhang said.
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Gout: Sleep Apnea May Raise Your Risk
- By Matthew Solan, Executive Editor, Harvard Men’s Health Watch
Gout is the most common type of inflammatory arthritis and affects more than 8 million adults. Men are at a higher risk than women. And according to a new study, your risk for gout also climbs if you suffer from sleep apnea, a condition where your breathing repeatedly pauses while you sleep.
If You Or Someone You Sleep With Has Sleep Apnea You Likely Associate It With Disruptive Snoring And Wheezing While They Snooze If Youre Up On The Latest Science About The Risks Of Sleep Apnea You May Have Read That
If you or someone you sleep with has sleep apnea, you likely associate it with disruptive snoring and wheezing while they snooze. If youre up on the latest science about the risks of sleep apnea, you may have read that people with sleep apnea are also more prone to serious issues such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and more.
But people with obstructive sleep apnea are often known to also have high uric acid levels, a risk factor for the inflammatory disease gout. Although researchers have known that the two diseases share some risk factors in common such as obesity and alcohol consumption few studies have considered an association between sleep apnea and gout.
In a recent study published in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatology, researchers found that those with sleep apnea were at an increased risk of developing gout.
Milica Blagojevic-Bucknall, PhD, of Keele Universitys Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre in the UK, and colleagues studied more than 15,000 sleep apnea patients and another 63,000 people without the sleep disorder, and followed them for about five years. They found that 4.9 percent of those with sleep apnea developed gout while only 2.6 percent of people without sleep apnea were diagnosed with gout.
The risk of gout was greatest between one and two years after the diagnosis of sleep apnea, but people remained at increased risk for as long as 10 years after diagnosis, she said in an interview.
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Cpap Treatment And Gout
CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure, therapy is one of the most common and effective treatments for sleep apnea. CPAP therapy keeps your airways open with a constant stream of air, allowing you to breathe easier and prevent apnea by keeping your airways unobstructed.
Breathing freely at night isnt something you should take for granted. Getting enough oxygen while you sleep can not only prevent health problems, but it can help improve pre-existing ones.
So how does CPAP therapy help with gout? More research is needed to know for sure, but one theory is that correcting low oxygen levels from sleep apnea may also reduce elevated uric acid levels that can cause gout. This could help treat existing gout or lower your risk of developing it if youre currently being treated for sleep apnea.
Low oxygen levels can also spike your heart rate, your blood pressure, and your blood sugar, creating further problems. This is why CPAP is also effective in treating other underlying conditions along with sleep apnea, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
Sleep Apnea Tied To Gout Risk And Flare
– Sleep apnea may increase the risk of developing gout and experiencing flare-ups, according to a new study.
The intense pain and swelling of a joint, often a big toe, that marks gout is caused by the deposition of uric acid crystals in joints and tissues. Sleep apnea, the study team notes, causes periods of oxygen deprivation during the night when people stop breathing, which triggers overproduction of uric acid in the bloodstream.
But little was known about the relationship between the two conditions, the study team writes in Arthritis and Rheumatology.
In 2007-2008, almost six percent of men and two percent of women in the U.S. experienced gout, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sleep apnea, which is much more common, can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and heart failure, among other conditions, if untreated.
Obesity plays an important role in both sleep apnea and gout, but sleep apnea still increased the risk for gout even when weight was accounted for, said lead author Yuqing Zhang of Boston University Clinical Epidemiology Research and Training Unit.
The researchers used data on almost 10,000 people with a new diagnosis of sleep apnea from a U.K. database and compared them to more than 40,000 people of similar sex, age, birth year and body composition but without sleep apnea.
Gout was almost twice as common in the sleep apnea group as in the comparison group, according to the analysis.
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Study Proves Increased Risk For Gout Both Short
Overall, the risk of gout is greatest between one and two years after the diagnosis of OSA, with risk of onset of gout being more than 50 percent greater among those with sleep apnea compared with those without.
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But this new research shows that the risk remains long after that initial sleep apnea diagnosis. This increased risk persisted over a longer period of time following sleep apnea diagnosis, those with sleep apnea having approximately 45 percent higher risk of gout compared with those without sleep apnea, explains Milica Blagojevic-Bucknall, PhD, senior lecturer in statistics at the Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre in the Research Institute for Primary Care & Health Sciences at Keele University in the United Kingdom.
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The Connection Between Sleep Apnea And Gout
If youre reading this article or have been reading our blog for a while, then you probably have a good idea of what sleep apnea is and how it impacts your health.
Maybe you even know someone who has sleep apnea.
We wont go into detail on the condition here, but if you need more information about obstructive sleep apnea, we recommend checking out our information about Sleep Apnea Diagnosis and Treatment once you finish reading about how sleep apnea contributes to gout.
While sleep apnea does not cause gout, multiple studies have found that sleep apnea and gout are linked. Sleep and gout also have a correlational relationship, since gout attacks may be influenced by your circadian rhythm, and your sleep quality is likely affected by nighttime gout flares.
According to one study published by BMC Rheumatology, diagnosed or suspected OSA patients are at higher risk of developing gout, and patients with gout often reported disorders including insomnia, restless legs syndrome, and obstructive sleep apnea.
Obstructive sleep apnea patients were nearly 3 times as likely to also have gout. Gout patients were also more likely to have more comorbidities, or accompanying conditions, alongside sleep apnea including diabetes and heart disease.
But why is this the case? Researchers believe that sleep apneas characteristic breathing cessation and low oxygen levels can lead to increased production of uric acid in your body, which can cause gout.
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Guidelines For Treating Gout And Sleep Apnea
Many of the tips to ease gout and sleep apnea are the same therefore, following these tips can actually improve both conditions simultaneously.
- Lose excess weight.
- Control conditions like hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol.
- Dont eat organ meats.
- Limit shellfish, fruit juices, sugar and salt.
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.
- Limit or avoid alcohol.
Gout risk is higher with purine-rich foods as it increases uric acid levels. Purines are a chemical compound found in some foods. Gout is a condition that affects joints and the musculoskeletal system. It is a form of inflammatory arthritis caused by an excess of uric acid. Uric acid is the product of metabolic processes. Continue reading
Gout pain can be debilitating, so using natural remedies can offer gout suffers much relief. Gout is a condition characterized by a buildup of uric acid. Uric acid is the result of purines breaking down, which are found naturally in the human body as well as in food. Continue reading
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Linked With Higher Gout Risk
Posted by Sree Roy | Sep 4, 2018 | Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Sleep & the Body | 0 |
New research reveals that people with obstructive sleep apnea have a higher risk of developing gout, even beyond the first years after being diagnosed with the sleep disorder. The findings are published in Arthritis & Rheumatology, an official journal of the American College of Rheumatology.
OSA is associated with a range of serious comorbidities, and it has previously been shown that people with OSA have a higher risk of developing gout in the first year after diagnosis. To investigate whether they may also be more likely to develop gout over a longer term, a team led by Edward Roddy, DM, and Milica Blagojevic-Bucknall, PhD, of Keele University in the United Kingdom, examined information on 15,879 patients with OSA and 63,296 without, with a median follow-up of 5.8 years.
During follow-up. 4.9% of OSA and 2.6% of non-OSA patients developed gout. Incidence rates per 1,000 person-years were 7.83 and 4.03 among those with and without OSA, respectively, for a 42% increased risk among OSA patients.
An elevated risk of developing gout was observed throughout follow-up for OSA patients, but it was highest one to two years after diagnosis of OSA. This finding was seen in patients with normal body mass index as well as those who were overweight or obese however, the risk was greater in those with normal weight.
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Treat Sleep Apnea To Treat Gout
Here are a few natural ways you can treat sleep apnea:
- Lose excess weight: Lose excess weight to help relieve constriction of your throat. Sleep apnea may go into remission when you return to a healthy weight. But, it is likely to come back if you return to an unhealthy weight.
- Keep your nasal passages open during the night: Use a saline spray to keep your nasal passages open. Most nasal decongestants and antihistamines are only supposed to be used for a short period of time, so speak to your doctor about using them first.
- Avoid tranquilizers, sleeping pills and alcohol: Consuming these will relax the muscles in the back of your throat and obstruct breathing.
- Dont sleep on your back: Sleeping on your back may cause your tongue and soft palate to rest against the back of your throat, blocking your airway. Sleep on your side or abdomen instead.