Sunday, March 27, 2011

Regarding Sleep Apnea & more

      The main symptom of sleep apnea is the abnormal pause in breathing. It can last a few seconds to minutes and sadly some will even suffocate and die from it. People who suffer from sleep apnea usually have no problem falling asleep, but they snore loudly and during snoring sleep apnea may occur. They can be woke up often by suffocation but fall back to asleep, then wake again and fall asleep again...Others may see them as having a deep and nice sleep but themselves will feel the opposite. In a long run this can cause chronic fatigue and low energy in day time. Some may even fall asleep while driving. 

      However, most of us do snore sometime and that is considered normal. Normal snoring is different from the symptom of sleep apnea. Many of us who snore do not suffer from sleep apnea, but some who suffers from it may not snore. Therefore make sure to seek medical professionals for diagnosis. 

      According to TCM theory. when human falls asleep, some body functional forces/energy stop working, the "spirit" (the force that controls the immaterial aspects of human being is called "spirit" by TCM. Roughly, it can be considered as brain and heart functions) will hide back in the liver and get rest. Meanwhile the "soul" (the force that controls the physical functions of human being, such as breath, senses, evacuation, ect. is called "soul" in TCM. Roughly it can be considered as the spinal functions) will start working, and "soul" is stored in the lungs. Healthy people has normal lungs function during sleep. But snoring indicates the malfunction of the lungs and also can be seen as low in "soul" energy. Many patients had operation to treat the symptoms, disregarding the result, we are not in favor of any unnecessary operations or surgeries. 

      The "branch" cause for snoring is the swollen in throat structures; The "root" cause is because excessive fluid (phlegm) is blocking the throat, trachea,bronchus or even alveolus, therefore interfering the normal oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange process. When awake, one can manually cough out the phlegm, but not while asleep. 

      Some suggestions for these people includes: Lite dinner: Don't eat too much, avoid salty and greasy food. Eat more whole food; And white radish: Drink white radish soup or simply eat it raw with the skin.This will help with eliminating phlegm. 

      The other deeper cause for snoring and sleep apnea is hyperlipemia (high cholesterol or blood fat,and fatty liver). This requires longer and more systematic treatments. Avoiding too much fat and cholesterol is necessary but not quite enough. Improving the body digestive system function is more important for one to break down and burn the fat.

      The key is to increase the temperature of small intestine. This is the essential condition for the digestive enzyme to fully function. Drink no cold drinks especially during meal. Also the TCM believes fruits are cold in nature and can cause negative effects to some patients, therefore our opinion is for those who are high in blood fat should avoid fruits, again, you may not agree with this point and it's up to you to interpret. If you like tea, avoid green tea but drink more red or black tea. You can add a little bit of salt but no milk. Also eat less deep-fried food,but more roasted or baked food (especially grain products) instead. These all will help with transforming the blood fat.

      One simply herbal/food remedy is orange vessels.You can easily collect them from oranges, dry them and then make your "orange vessels tea", this is a very effective remedy for lowing blood fat or cholesterol.




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