How CPAP Treatment May Save Your Life

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is the standard treatment for moderate to severe sleep apnea, improving the severity of the disease and the quality of your sleep. 

However, CPAP does more than manage your sleep apnea; it may also reduce your risk of serious complications like a heart attack or stroke. 

At Respacare in Bridgewater, New Jersey, Dr. Nehal Mehta and Dr. Prashant Patel are big believers in the benefits of CPAP therapy for sleep apnea and customized treatment at our CPAP clinic. 

Here, we want to explain how CPAP therapy works, what it can do for your long-term health, and why sticking to it can save your life.

How CPAP works

CPAP therapy uses positive air pressure to keep the airway open while you sleep. 

If you have sleep apnea, you repeatedly stop and restart breathing when sleeping due to obstruction of the airway or miscommunication between the brain and muscles that control breathing. Sleep apnea can affect oxygen delivery throughout the body, affecting health and function. 

For therapy, you use a CPAP machine that delivers continuous pressurized air through tubing that attaches to a mask that covers the nose or both the mouth and nose.  

How CPAP protects your health

CPAP therapy can help you sleep better, improving many aspects of your life. Better sleep benefits your energy, mood, and thinking. It also helps lower stress hormones and blood pressure.

By ensuring your body gets a continuous supply of oxygen, CPAP therapy also protects vital organs from functional problems that may occur when there’s not enough oxygen. Studies show that using CPAP consistently can lower your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. 

Using your CPAP for four or more hours a night consistently may help you live longer. 

Overcoming CPAP challenges

Despite being the gold standard treatment for sleep apnea and providing many benefits, many people struggle with CPAP compliance, finding it hard to sleep due to noise from the machine or discomfort from the mask. 

Instead of talking to their doctor about the discomforts of CPAP therapy, they don’t use it or only use it for a few hours a night. But CPAP therapy isn’t a one-size-fits-all treatment. We can help you get the therapy you need without the discomfort by adjusting air pressure settings, changing masks, or using humidifying devices to moisten the air.

At our CPAP clinic, we take the time to teach you how to use the machine and adjust settings so you breathe better. We may also try different masks and machines to improve comfort and compliance.

Additionally, we may recommend pulmonary monitoring so we can track the effectiveness of your CPAP therapy remotely and make timely adjustments.

We may also determine that CPAP therapy isn’t right for you and try alternative therapies like SomnoGuard®, an oral appliance, or Inspire® therapy, an implantable device that uses neurostimulation to keep the airway open.

Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder that increases health risks. Getting the right treatment for your sleep apnea can save your life. 

We can help you get the right treatment for your sleep apnea. Call us today or request an appointment online.