Question:
I've had my sleep study and am
waiting for the results, but my gp thinks I have moderate to severe sleep
apnea. I don't know anyone who has it so I have no one of whom I can ask
questions. I've picked up lots of info here. I do have a question if I may ask.
I am also being treated for adrenal insufficiency. I take a steroid called
Cortisol. Before starting it I almost felt too bad to live. The medication has
helped, but I still feel terrible most of the time. Not sick. Just so tired. My
knees and back ache and are weak (some of that is from arthritis, but not all
of it is). My knees feel like rubber after I've been in a store for a while,
and I think I won't make it back to the car. I'm too tired to do housework.
Too tired to go shopping. I'm a writer, and I'm even too tired to write. And
weak. My endocrinologist doesn't think this is coming from the adrenal thing
cause the meds have taken care of it. Can sleep apnea cause weakness, shortness
of breath and extreme fatigue? I hope so cause if it's not sleep apnea or
adrenal insufficiency, then I don't have a clue.
Answer:
yes sleep apnea all the symptoms you describe although not necessarily all
together. However, I get very weak somedays and even an hour shopping can
exhaust me, my breathing is bad some of the time but most of all some days i
just don't feel like i have the energy to do anything. that's the day's when
i haven't used my machine properly the night before.
Well, yes, both directly and indirectly (because of the lack of sufficient
deep sleep for your body to heal).
Shortness of breath, however, can have a whole bunch of other causes, most
of them bad. Have you had a heart and lung examination?
There are established links between adrenal gland dysfunction and sleep
apnea. The following is a bit heavy, but might help.
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:6QD8r3AgBRMC:www.elis.sk/bll/99/...
Actually, I found this the other day and even I am amazed at the
connections between sleep apnea and other ailments per this article.
Absolutely! As well as depression, irritability, restless legs, high blood
pressure, acid refux and a whole lot of other things. I think that
concentrating on the apnea for right now would be your best start, and when
that is under treatment see how many other problems improve too!
I have had a look at the article, I'm guessing it wasn't written in english
cause although it seems reasonably well translated I'm finding it hard to
read.....but that could also be the medical jargon that just goes right over
my head.
I did find it interesting that it seemed to suggest - that although SDB
causes (or makes worse if conditions already exist) a lot of health
problems - that also, a lot of other health problems can themselves cause
SDB. I found it particularly interesting that they even included Arnold
Chiari Malformation in this (didn't realise it was widely known that apnea
is often found in those with ACM).
It did seem to indicate that the way apnea "causes" problems like heart
disease etc, is a combination of oxygen deprivation (not only to the brain,
but also other specific parts of the body) and stress.
Thought it was interesting that it mentioned that certain hormones are
produced during deep sleep, and interrupted deep sleep affects the
production - causing probs like weight gain! (particularly around middle and
neck area.) - which in turn contributes to things like diabetes.
Found it interesting that it says it's "unavoidable" to have
"multidisciplinary cooperation" when dealing with sleep disorders - seems
there should be more of this - specialists working together on the bigger
picture of sleep disorders & health. It even goes so far as to say sucess of
treatment relies on this multidisciplinary approach.
I love this line "So called sleep disordered breathing (SDB) often
originates during sleep" umm.....when else would SLEEP disordered breathing
occur exactly ? hehe
Anyway, that's my observations.....athough I really did find it difficult to
understand and I could be way offbase in some of my assumptions about what
the report is actually saying.
If anybody's interested, i saved the doc in word format and fixed some of
the spelling errors and formatting so i could read it more easily.....i'm
happy to send it to anyone who's interested in the article.
