On The Beat 3/26/20 - Huxford Clinic on Sleep Apnea

Troy sits down with Dr. Cameron Huxford from the Huxford Clinic, and today's topic is all about sleep apnea and how to treat it.

Elcome to the beat everyone i'm over here with dr. cameron from the huxford clinic.

Now you may not know you have this problem or maybe you do but i'm sure someone in your family knows you may have this.

We are talking a little bit about sleep apnea.

Welcome to the show my friend.

Thank you very much.

Alirght is sleep apnea someone who snores?

Not everyone who snores have sleep apnea.

But often those who snore really loudly will have sleep apnea.

What happens if i wake my self up from my snoring does that mean i have sleep apnea?

Probably so or gasping for breath or choking or coughing those are all signs.

Really?

Yes!

Alright maybe you know at home rather you have sleep apnea maybe you don't.

Let's break it down and really give everyone at home in layman's terms if you wouldn't mind doctor what is sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea means you quit breathing at night.

The typically symptoms are loud snoring.

Excessive tiredness during the day.

You maybe wake up short of breath or gasping for breath.

A spouse family member or friend says they witness you quit breathing at night or their maybe a pause in your breathing.

Are their different levels of sleep apnea?

So what i said earlier was wrong.

I was joking when i said that i wake up and find myself snoring.

I'm not gasping for air that i'm aware of.

Most of the time people do not know that it is going on because they are asleep.

The quality is not very good of the the sleep that they are getting but they are asleep.

So we are depending on other people to determine.

Okay now that you said that do you send your patients to a sleep clinic?

I am the sleep clinic.

So we come to your office and snooze.

You come to my office to hear about it then we send you to the place to get the snooze.

I want to dove into if i come into your clinic and i think i am suffering from sleep apnea.

Do you do the sleep testing there or do we go somewhere else?

How does that work?

We determine if you need it or not.

If you do we will send you for a sleep study.

Typically it will be done in lab.

In a formal sleep lab study situation, but depending on insurance you may have to do it at home.

Okay so that's both options then.

Correct!

Before we go i do want to ask you is having sleep apnea dangerous?

Can it kill you?

It can be dangerous.

There are a lot of studies that show a link between untreated sleep apnea and high blood pressure.

Diabetes also increase your risk of heart attacks stroke and rarely you can die from it.

In our next show we are going to talk a little bit about how we can treat this and what we can do about it right?

Yes sir.

Ok one other thing before i let you go.

You did say something about insurance.

So are these treatments that we are going to talk about out of that insurance?

Yes if you have sleep apnea base on the results of your test the insurance company will pay for the treatment.

That's what we want to know.

Building a healthier future.

Thank you so much we really appericate it.

You're welcome.

If you want to find out more about the huxford clinic there's all the informatioin on your