Tired all the time?

This is a Men's Health article posted to their website that I found the link to on twitter.

ow.ly/eyle0

Men's Health - Tired all the time?

A sleep study can change your life—and save it
By Brian Gedeon, M.D.



A lot of guys come into my office saying they’re tired all the time. One came in thinking the cause could be his thyroid. When I asked if he’s been waking up feeling “refreshed” in the morning, he thought about it and said, “Well, it’s actually been months since I’ve felt good in the morning.”
We talked more about his symptoms and I ordered a full work-up, including his testosterone level and thyroid function, but most importantly I ordered a sleep study. This is a test in which you spend a night in a special facility where they hook you up to monitor to record your brainwaves, breathing, oxygen levels, and even your tossing and turning.
I met with my patient about a week after all the testing had been done. I didn’t want to write him a sleeping pill since I didn’t want to treat the symptom—I wanted to fix the problem. Sure enough, all of his labs were normal, but his sleep study was a mess.  He had “moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea.” Now that we had a diagnosis—OSA—I needed to tell him what it meant.
I explained that he wasn’t getting restful sleep because he would simply stop breathing for brief periods throughout the night. This caused him to ‘wake-up’ even though he didn’t realize it, so he wasn’t getting restorative sleep—which is why he always felt tired in the morning. I recommended that he have the same test but this time be fitted for a machine that would help him breathe at night.
He had a second overnight test with a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine, which is connected to a mask that user wears while asleep. A CPAP machine supplies a constant amount of pressure through the mask, helping you maintain a clear airway. After several weeks of using the device, he couldn’t believe how great he felt. When I saw him next, he looked so significantly better.
This is terrific for him, because OSA, if left untreated, can cause serious problems. Not only do you not get restful sleep, but your heart takes a hit as well. When you stop breathing, your body can tell it’s not getting enough oxygen, so the only way it can compensate is to create more red blood cells in an attempt to carry more oxygen. As a result, your blood gets thicker and thicker. Your heart is only designed to pump a certain viscosity of blood, and as the number of red blood cells increases, the heart has to strain to pump the blood. Eventually, the heart—especially the right side, which is thinner walled and more susceptible to strain—begins to fail. This leads to what we call right sided heart failure, which can become irreversible and lethal.
So if you snore heavily, never feel rested in the morning, and have similar symptoms, see if you need a sleep study to save your heart.  OSA is a serious disorder that needs to be treated so that future consequences can be avoided.
Dr. Brian Gedeon is Chief of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at MidMichigan Health Park in Houghton Lake, MI, and an associate professor of medicine at both the Colleges of Human and Osteopathic Medicine at Michigan State University. Dr. Gedeon is a competitive bicyclist who’s developing a sub-specialty in the physiology of elite athletes.