Asthmatic inhaler for sleep apnea?

[Batty]

Hello people

 

I am pretty sure i have sleep apnea and was wondering if an inhaler would help during an attack in the night?

 

I need to go to a sleep clinic and find out for sure but after hours on google I am pretty sure thats what I have.  I used to suffer with panic attacks in my late teens, early twenties, mostly due to a few years of raving in the early nineties to be honest, and now as a bloke in his mid forties I have suddenly picked up this weird thing that happens during the night occasionally - waking up gasping for breath, fearing I cant breath.  Up until now I always figured that the panic attacks had resurfaced for some reason or another, but now I am sure it is sleep apnea, something I wasnt aware of untill the last day or two.

 

Its not just simply waking up breathless.  When I am sleeping I can suddenly feel that my lungs are not working as they should and everything sort of tightens around my chest.  Then there will be a voice in my head going "oh man, im not breathing" and it takes a good few seconds of being in this semi awake semi asleep state before I wake up, gasping and heart racing.  Within 2 minutes I am fine, but I am then scared stiff to fall back to sleep.  I would say I have 2 or 3 attacks like this per week. Sometimes twice in one night and always a couple of hours after I have fallen to sleep.

 

I snore very loudly and my wife usually has to bail to the spare room most nights because of it - it realy is top level snoring we are talking here -  and I am overweight.  You might not think I was overweight to look at, as it is all 'under the hood', everything is quite normal apart from a bit of a belly.  I am 6 feet tall and weight in at 105 kilos so I am probably 20 kilos overweight and most of that is belly although as I said, I hide it well somehow.  I just seem a bit portly, as apposed to realy fat if that makes sense.

 

I cant find anything on Google about an inhaler helping with this but it seems logical, given that it will help open up the airways?  I can buy one at the local pharmacy and use it as a crutch until i visit a sleep clinic.  I might need to have a cpap fitted, I guess.

 

In the meantime i need to lose some weight and stop smoking, I know that.  I dont drink too often so thats on plus, I guess.

 

Any advice appreciated.  Thanks.

 

[runforest]

How would an inhaler stop sleep apnea?

 

"sleep apnea It occurs when the soft tissue in the back of the throat relaxes during sleep and blocks the airway, often causing you to snore loudly. Central sleep apnea is a much less common type of sleep apnea that involves the central nervous system, occurring when the brain fails to signal the muscles that control breathing"

 

This is a physical blockage of the throat so an inhaler of course is useless. You need to get a sleep study done in a hospital but your symptoms do sound like you have it .

 

Thailand is the worst place for it , their cpap machines cost at least double here so your probably looking at 75-100k or more

 

if you travel home frequently then that would be the place to do it but don't leave it to long ..

[androokery]

This is in all likelihood NOT sleep apnea. I had the same thing and was also overweight. You have asthma. You've probably had it for a long time. You need to quit smoking. Take long brisk walks. And get yourself some asthma medication. If nothing else, it will help you with your exercise - asthma medication is really good for doping (budesonide and terbutaline). 

[runforest]

10 minutes ago, androokery said:

This is in all likelihood NOT sleep apnea. I had the same thing and was also overweight. You have asthma. You've probably had it for a long time. You need to quit smoking. Take long brisk walks. And get yourself some asthma medication. If nothing else, it will help you with your exercise - asthma medication is really good for doping (budesonide and terbutaline). 

"I snore very loudly and my wife usually has to bail to the spare room most nights because of it "

 

Did you read the OP? just this alone is a strong indicator. How can you rule out sleep apnea? please dont give him false hope as the condition can be deadly. He may have asthma as well

[KhunBENQ]

Wouldn't this be better in the Health forum?

Nothing Hua Hin... specific.

[androokery]

19 minutes ago, runforest said:

"I snore very loudly and my wife usually has to bail to the spare room most nights because of it "

 

Did you read the OP? just this alone is a strong indicator. How can you rule out sleep apnea? please dont give him false hope as the condition can be deadly. He may have asthma as well

Apart from having a wife he described in detail what I was suffering from before. But it stands to reason that soliciting advice from strangers on an online forum is no substitute for talking to a doctor. 

[Batty]

2 hours ago, runforest said:

How would an inhaler stop sleep apnea?

 

"sleep apnea It occurs when the soft tissue in the back of the throat relaxes during sleep and blocks the airway, often causing you to snore loudly. Central sleep apnea is a much less common type of sleep apnea that involves the central nervous system, occurring when the brain fails to signal the muscles that control breathing"

 

This is a physical blockage of the throat so an inhaler of course is useless. You need to get a sleep study done in a hospital but your symptoms do sound like you have it .

 

Thailand is the worst place for it , their cpap machines cost at least double here so your probably looking at 75-100k or more

 

if you travel home frequently then that would be the place to do it but don't leave it to long ..

 

Thanks, I guess thats why there is nothing on Google about it! There is a 'sleep center' here in Udon Thani, where I live (christ knows how I posted this in Hua Hin forum it was supposed to be health forum).  I nipped there today and despite there being signs everywhere saying they cure sleep apnea, all they wanted to do was farm me off with a machine.  I thought I might at least get one of those gum shield things there but when I asked for one, they looked like I just asked them the square root of nine.

 

The local hospital does a one night sleep study for 10K apparently.  I guess I will give that a whirl.

[Batty]

1 hour ago, androokery said:

Apart from having a wife he described in detail what I was suffering from before. But it stands to reason that soliciting advice from strangers on an online forum is no substitute for talking to a doctor. 

True, within reason.  If reasoning applies at my local hospital where the doctor is.  I went there with a stomach problem recently and after prodding around he said 'maybe bad food, dont worry'.  As I was leaving I mentioned I had diverticulisis 10 years ago and he quickly changed his mind and said thats exactly what I have now.  My point being the advice on here might not be too far behind the local doc.  I did find out today since posting this that they do sleep studies at another hospital here so thats a start.

[Batty]

1 hour ago, KhunBENQ said:

Wouldn't this be better in the Health forum?

Nothing Hua Hin... specific.

 

I thought I was posting in health forum to be honest, must have posted here in error.

[Batty]

2 hours ago, androokery said:

This is in all likelihood NOT sleep apnea. I had the same thing and was also overweight. You have asthma. You've probably had it for a long time. You need to quit smoking. Take long brisk walks. And get yourself some asthma medication. If nothing else, it will help you with your exercise - asthma medication is really good for doping (budesonide and terbutaline). 

 

I appreciate your trying to help, and thank you for that, but it is not asthma and im surprised you sound so sure to be honest!  I play golf and never get wheezy walking around, never out of breath when climbing stairs or anything like that (maybe a little but not in a asthmatic way) rarely cough unless I am sick.  I honestly dont have asthma.

 

This thing almost feels like my respiratory system just decides to give in suddenly.  When it gets going again (after I wake in terror) after a minute my breathing is fine.  Its absolutely terrifying to be honest I dread going to sleep some nights.

[metisdead]

6 minutes ago, Batty said:

 

I thought I was posting in health forum to be honest, must have posted here in error.

 

I'll move this over to the Health forum for you.  

[androokery]

1 minute ago, Batty said:

 

I appreciate your trying to help, and thank you for that, but it is not asthma and im surprised you sound so sure to be honest!  I play golf and never get wheezy walking around, never out of breath when climbing stairs or anything like that (maybe a little but not in a asthmatic way) rarely cough unless I am sick.  I honestly dont have asthma.

 

This thing almost feels like my respiratory system just decides to give in suddenly.  When it gets going again (after I wake in terror) after a minute my breathing is fine.  Its absolutely terrifying to be honest I dread going to sleep some nights.

There are different types of asthma and all I can provide you with is the fact that I had your symptoms, I quit smoking, I started to exercise, I got asthma medication and I have not had a single episode like the ones you describe since then. 

During the minute when you can't breathe, are you struggling for a deep breath? Can you try "sneaking" a small breath in, just a tiny one? If your airways are constricted because of asthma, relaxing them in the way I've tried to describe would open them up faster. 

[Sheryl]

An inhaler will not do anything for sleep apnea. It will help only if you suffer from obstructive pulmonary disease. These do have significant side effects and are nto somehting to play around with.

 

As you have no problems except during sleep asthma seems unlikely.

 

What you describe is more likely to be sleep apnea or anxiety/panic attack.

 

A sleep study is a reasonable first step, but rather than a center in a private hospital where there is a strong profit motive I would suggest you go to Khon Kaen University Hospital (Srinagarind) which has a sleep center.