Acupuncture and Sleep Apnea
I saw an interesting news clipping by Alien Sheng in the 17 April 2007 issue of the American Chronicle, entitled Acupuncture and Sleep Apnea.
In it she described sleep apnea quite well, and then went on to explain that there is only one article on the control of sleep apnea with acupuncture. I too question why we have not seen more on Eastern medicine and sleep disorders.
The article stated quite well that:
The basic assumption made in traditional Chinese medicine is that the body is supposed to function properly. When all is in harmony, it will do so. It is necessary to live in a certain way to make this harmony more likely. There are important environmental considerations such as diet, exercise, and even the mental and spiritual well being of a person that contribute to harmony. When something gets out of whack, there is a definite reason and cause. It is the pursuit of this underlying cause rather than a concentration on symptoms that makes acupuncture and sleep apnea such a good match.
While I have read a good bit on insomnia and Eastern medicine, I think that we would all like to see more on the subject. Especially with the recent FDA recommendation that for all medications in the sleeping pill category, explicit descriptions of even unusual side effects must be made known to those using these prescriptions.
I think what we need would be a good set of empirical research studies looking at topics like acupressure/acupuncture and sleep disorders, yoga and sleep, etc.
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: sleep apnea, acupuncture, sleep disorders, insomnia, Chinese medicine, health-and-wellness
3 Comments:
I agree - more studies would indeed be a great thing.
Sleep apnea is caused by over-breathing. The technical name is hypocapnia. Today there are 1885 references to it on PubMed.
When over-breathing, carbon dioxide is pumped out of the body, and the brain stem sees no reason to take a breath until the carbon dioxide reaches a normal level. Then the body takes a breath, and wakes the person up.
Just sleeping with a sheet over the head will allow the body to re-breath the carbon dioxide and there will not be sleep apnea.
Here is a classic link: Xie A, Rankin F, Rutherford R, Bradley TD. Effects of inhaled CO2 and added dead space on idiopathic central sleep apnea. J Appl Physiol. 1997 Mar; 82(3): 918-26.
http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/82/3/918
"there are actually 3 types of sleep apnea....and the "overbreathing" is the least common. In many people the tissues of their airways become obstructive (very common for obese people). Putting a sheet over your head is not a good idea for this at all. See a doctor instead.
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