| By :
David King
If you have any of the risk factors for sleep apnea, you will want to take steps now to reduce those risks significantly. What are those risks? If you are overweight, have a large sized neck or you have enlarged tonsils or a small airway, you are at risk. People that are older than 65 often get this condition and men are more likely to experience it than women are. In addition, those that have heart disease, neurological conditions or other health issues of a serious nature may also have complications from those conditions that can be sleep apnea. So, if this is you, what should you do? - Don't smoke. Smoking is one of the worst things that you can do for yourself if you do in fact find out that you have sleep apnea. If you have risk factors for it, avoid smoking as this will make the condition that much worse. Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in your body. - Lose weight. Maintaining a healthy weight is important. Often, people think that they look fine even though they may have a bit of excess fat around their neck. This is enough to cause a problem for you and it therefore should be treated carefully. - Monitor your health condition. If you find that you are not getting enough sleep or have any of the symptoms of sleep apnea, get them taken care of as soon as you can. This can prevent them from worsening into a condition that is more life threatening. If you are experiencing sleep apnea and have been diagnosed with it, it is very important for you to seek out the help that you need to keep the condition from getting worse on you. The fact is that whatever the doctor tells you to do is better to just do and deal with then having to face the poor quality living and the risk of a cardiac event that comes from not following doctor's orders. Yet, there are a few things that you can do to help take care of yourself and help allow yourself to get enough rest. - Get rid of any excess weight that you can. Even if you just lose a little amount of weight, you will feel better and may even find that your condition has been lessened considerably. - Sleep properly. That is, make sure that you sleep on your side or on your abdomen instead of sleeping on your back. When you sleep on your back you are more likely to find yourself with additional problems. Although this may be a problem to learn, it will benefit you greatly. - Use a saline nasal spray before sleeping. This will keep your air ways open while you are sleeping. You can even get these from your doctor but before you use them you will want to make sure that you check with your doctor first. - Don't take drugs, alcohol or medications such as tranquillizers at bed time. You want to keep your muscles functioning at their best and that means not interfering with these things. Each of them will cause the muscles in your throat to become looser then they should be. If you suffer from sleep apnea, it is essential to seek out the help of a qualified doctor. Once you get a treatment program in place, you can find real benefits in improving your health and well being. It is worth it.
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