77 - The Silent Epidemic: Sleep Apnea and the Hidden Disruption to Your Hormones, Brain, and Immunity with Beverly Meyer

Alysia Thomas: Welcome back to Autoimmune Adventures. I'm Alysia and I'm here with my sisters, Becky and Stacy. And today we are continuing our conversation with Beverly Meyer, focusing entirely on sleep this time, specifically sleep apnea. Uh why it's often missed and what options exist beyond the standard answers that many people are given. We know that sleep is foundational at Autoimmune Adventure Adventures. It is one of our Big Six principles that we talk about a lot and um when it is disrupted everything else becomes disregulated in our bodies and in our immune systems.

Alysia Thomas:  So Beverly is kind of an expert on this and she's definitely lived through uh a lot of um sleep issues herself. So we are really glad to have her back and discussing this with us. Thanks for being back with us, Beverly.

Beverly Meyer:  Yay. Thanks for having me back.

Becky Miller:  So, I guess we'll go ahead and start with um, the fact that sleep has actually been a major focus of your work that you do. What first led you to study sleep disorders as deeply as you have over the years?  

Beverly Meyer:  Oh, that's a good question. I'm, I'm in my 70s, but um I've always been - not always, but for many decades, I've been a very light sleeper with a with a very high startle response. Um so, you know, any noises or animals in the room or just traffic, or the the rustling of the sheets, whatever, my my immune system would potentially pick those things up as as threats or invaders. So that's the first thing about sleep that a lot of people don't understand is that some of us are, we have a a very quick trigger to, to um, interferences that our body thinks wait what was that you know is that dangerous so some of us do have that that low threshold. I do use a sound machine I've used that for a long time and, and that helps, but then I went through a period of time uh maybe 20 years ago where for whatever reason I my dad was was ill, but that that wasn't entirely it, but for whatever reason I kind of went a little crazy.  

I, I was very anxious. I couldn't sleep. Um, my startle response was to the max, and I did not, I could not take responsibility for things. So, I would just take the phone off the hook because, you know, if somebody's calling me, then I'm going to have to do something or respond or or be useful. Um, so I went through a long period of, of really bad sleep and a lot of anxiety, and uh, and then a friend, a doctor friend of mine, referred me to a a really unusual neurologist in New York, and I'm in Texas and at that time I could barely leave the house, but he was seeing clients in Florida, and I went there and spent three days in their clinic. That was the hardest thing I have ever done. But at the end of that time, he said, "All right, here's the story. You have no GABA in your brain." I said, "What is GABA? I, I don't know." And he showed me. He said, "If I ever write another book on this, you're going to be the poster child for the brain with no GABA."

Beverly Meyer:  And um, so he did, what he did to put me on medications and herbs and things and I left. And of course, that started me diving into the research, cuz that's what I love to do. And that's when I found about the GABA neurotransmitter, which governs dozens of functions in the body. But it's known as the great equalizer. So, so GABA, if something's too low, GABA helps regulate it up. If something's too high or fast or hot or inflamed or whatever, it helps settle it down. So maybe you breathe too fast, maybe you breathe too slow, uh constipation, diarrhea, it's the great equalizer. And it's extremely then, in charge in the body, along with serotonin, for controlling that sympathetic nervous system, that hyper response to threats. And um, and so I went on some prescription GABA, which are actually very low dose seizure drugs at that time, but very low dose, like child dose. And within a week, it was like, uh oh, I'm I'm going to make it. And then, yay, medication. This is, you know, which it, it just that's what I needed.  

But of course, then I came to learn about GABA and I began to sleep and started buying all kinds of different things that that work with GABA or are GABA but not prescription. And that's how I got into sleep was that period of a year where I was a little bit crazy, and um, sleep became an illusion.

Stacy Griffin:  I, I think that people really do not credit how important sleep is to your well-being, to your sanity. I mean people I think everyone knows that if they get tired, they get grouchy, but I don't think they always understand that if we don't sleep we die. Like people who have chronic insomnia can die from not being able to sleep.

Beverly Meyer:  Yeah.

Stacy Griffin:  So we have to be aware of how important it is in our lives and make it a priority. It's, it's kind of important.

Alysia Thomas:  And I also I think that um, if you have never suffered from anxiety, it is hard to understand what is going on. When I first developed it, it came out of nowhere for me.  I, I've had no idea what was going on with me. And it just slowly got worse and worse till it was much like you said, I was it was debilitating. It was debilitating anxiety. And when you find a medication that has an effect, it really is life-changing. You go from being non-functional to having hope.

And I had never heard of GABA until we were talking to you at our pre, during our previous podcast and I'm thinking, why is this not something that is discussed? Why is this not something that is looked at? We know the gut brain connection is there, but why is this not commonly discussed? It makes me crazy. Sorry, I'll go off.

Beverly Meyer:  Well, yeah.

Alysia Thomas:  I get, I get really frustrated because I, I, I feel like modern medicine is failing us in a lot of ways.

Beverly Meyer:  No. Well, the information is out there. Um, and I mean on my website on diet and health, I've I've got six or seven articles and podcasts says a lot of data about what is GABA, and it is in a nutshell if I can. Um, it's very closely related to serotonin. They are, GABA and serotonin are, inhibitory neurotransmitters. That sounds bad. Well, yeah, if you're downhill in a car with no brakes, you, that's not good. So, serotonin and GABA are, they govern the inhibitory responses in the body, and acetylcholine and dopamine govern the the speed, the power, the excitatory neurotransmitters which get when, we get then they're too active. So, it's a balance between the four.

And I liken it to um the tires on your car. You want them all the same age and size and inflation and you know, you don't want one flat and one too small and one turning in, you know, and that's how the four neurotransmitters work. But serotonin became famous decades ago and a lot of prescription drugs came out of that. And but, but GABA as I'd mentioned to ya'll earlier before, it's, it's known as a medically, it is known as a sedative like, like heroin or alcohol or the benzoazipines or opioids or, you know, it, it's they they've translated inhibitory into into 'sedative,' and it's the key neurotransmitter in seizures.  

So where yes, we need stability in this brain it's having seizures, but when you step a little bit outside that the herb, the world of herbs and other supplements can, can um supplement GABA safely, and you can, you can choose how much you want to take depending on what's happening. Like you're going into an exam or, or you know you're racing to the emergency room with your daughter. Well, let's both take some some passion flower real quick. Or you're falling asleep. Well, let me get my Pharma GABA , like pharmaceutical GABA, and and chew up a tablet of that and and boom, it'll just help you ease into sleep. So, there's GABA, you can buy it in any drugstore, but then there's Pharma GABA , which is different. It's been, it's been fermented. It, it's, it's, it's not the same. It's, it's been fermented and it, it, it can cross the blood brain barrier, which regular GABA does not in most people. So anyway, chewing it up before bed and you're like, "Oh, all righty then. Let's let's go night night." It doesn't knock you out like, you know, you just had 12 beers or something. It's just, it just inhibits all that the thinking or the muscle tension or whatever. It just settles things down. So yeah.

Alysia Thomas:  Which is really important when you have anxiety, because you can't sleep. You just can't sleep. You need help. You can't turn your brain off. You can't turn it down. So, that's that's awesome.

Beverly Meyer:  There's another supplement. It's not in my online store. The Pharma GABA is, but uh you can buy it anywhere. And that's Theanine. And that's T-H-E-A-N-I-N-E.

Alysia Thomas:  Mhm.

Beverly Meyer:  Theanine. And it's, it is a nutrient that's in green tea,

Alysia Thomas:  Yep.

Beverly Meyer:  But it it's like, you know, dozens of gallons of green tea.  So, it's not like just having a sip of green tea. Um, but theanine can be very useful for people. Um, it does help sit on that GABA um receptor site. So, we have receptor sites all over the body for GABA. So it's, it is a universal um, docking location, you know. Yes, here's a GABA the spot and there's a GABA parking spot. So the whole body, it wants support.

Stacy Griffin:  I think that people don't realize how important it is to balance things. I love the tire analogy. I think that's a really good way of getting people to understand it's about balance. So often in life it is about balance. All right. So looking at sleep, we understand that it's important, and yet I would go so far as to say that we have this plague of sleep apnea that occurs, and then people don't understand it. So what are some of the symptoms that are commonly overlooked when it comes to sleep apnea?

Beverly Meyer: Wow.

Stacy Griffin:  Because I know that you and I have talked about how you weren't the type of person to have it, and yet you did. So, could you give us some examples of commonly overlooked.

Beverly Meyer: Well, one way that I talk about it to my to my clients or my family um, is if I say, "Okay, close your eyes and draw up an image." If I say, "Oh, that person has sleep apnea. Describe that person to me." And universally people will say, "Um, um, it's an older white male who's overweight and has a big neck and snores."

Beverly Meyer:  Well, okay. And what about the rest of the human race?  The children, the females, the skinny people, they don't snore,

Alysia Thomas:  Mhm.

Beverly Meyer:  Whatever. Um, it, it's, it is a potentially a universal problem. So sleep apnea means uh that you stop breathing for 10 or more seconds, and during that time your your blood oxygen levels can plummet and if you stay stopped breathing long enough, your blood oxygen levels can really go down. So when I did a home sleep study, which is very easy, strap a little box on your chest, and a canula in your nose and couple little electrodes that stick on and you know, then you go to bed. It really wasn't a big deal. Um um what was I going to say? Oh, at one point my oxygen dropped to 78%. So you know, we are oxygen-based creatures. Um, yeah. So, that's not good. So, the cessation of breathing can be completely invisible to you. Completely invisible. You I had no idea that I did not breathe a hundred times that night. A hundred.  

Okay. We're not talking about a little snoring or, you know, you kind of a little now and then. No. and and I'm moderate. In fact, I was right at the crest between mild and moderate by 0.01. So, if I ,if I'd had one thing of better breath somewhere during the night, I'd have been classified as as mild. But fortunately, I got crossed over into moderate. But anyway, so there's as you get older, your the, the tissues and collagen in your throat are are not as uh not as tight. So age is a factor, but children can also have sleep apnea. Um, so there may be structural anomalies in of course enlarged tonsils, sinus infections, um, sleeping with a cat on your bed. So your allergies are so bad you you can't breathe anyway. And you breathe through your mouth. And so children can have sleep apnea too, not only from allergies and enlarged tonsils, which I think come from dairy allergies, that's another story, but you know any of us can have a an issue in our uh, airway which is down in the back of the throat or the way that the up the pallet sits inside your mouth.

And remember on our last show we talked a little bit about vitamin K2 how K2 carries calcium, well universally humans have become deficient in K2 because the source for it naturally is in animal organs. So during evolution and hunting and all that of course we ate the the livers and the kidneys and thyroids and we you know we ate everything, except the skin and whatever, but uh so K2 is that's where it's generally found. So when we don't have enough K2 you get a jaw that like mine. So, a very narrow small chin and jaw. That's a classic sign that you're don't you're not going to be breathing well. Um, it because the pallet flattens out in your mouth and um you know little skinny neck and all of that.  

Beverly Meyer:  So, that's a constricted airway. So, that's ,you're trying to breathe but but the airway shuts down. Shuts down. Shuts down. And eventually, like in that 10-second time, or if you're lucky, in 2 seconds, your your brain squirts out some hormones and neurotransmitters, which are stimulants basically to say, "Wake up, you, you've got to breathe." And so we, and we breathe, but we don't know this. We're asleep. So it's it's micro, uh, micro death. It's like a little death.

Alysia Thomas:  Yeah.

Beverly Meyer:  We're just not breathing and we don't know it and something in the the body says, "Hey, wake up. Take a breath." So, if you have a sleep partner, they may well notice, you know, sometimes you you take a big a snort in the middle of the night or or cough or I, I look over there and they're like, "Is he dead?" You know, and then oh no, now he's breathing. So it partners are often the ones that that hear this and see this, that their partner is not breathing but when you sleep alone you you may not have an idea. 

Now I am a big fan, I have three articles and podcasts on taping the mouth. So I tape my mouth at night with specific mouth taping tape so that you don't while you sleep because then you're guaranteed to snore. So everyone, children too, we need to tape our mouths when we when we sleep to keep us from mouth breathing, and keep the nose working because it moistens and and warms the air coming in. Mouth breathing does not do that. The nose also filters. So you know, the simple the the tape I use is called Somnifix. Somni like insomnia, fix like 'fix that sink.' Somniix. And I've been wearing that tape 15 years and there are a lot of imitators which I have tried and just, but thrown them all out. So I stick with Somnifix. Anyway, it's very gentle and you can lift it up and put it back down five times if you want if you needed to take some water or talk to your husband, whatever. It's very simple. It doesn't leave sticky residue on your face, and it doesn't rip your skin off like some of them do.

Alysia Thomas:  So, how does untreated sleep apnea affect anxiety and hormones, adrenal health, chronic illness?

Beverly Meyer: And everything else you can think of. weight, uh...

Alysia Thomas:  Yeah.

Beverly Meyer:  ...urination. Um, that's actually one of, the how I came to this was that I'd been having headaches at night for 10 years, and I'd seen so many doctors and specialties and tests and labs and, you know, brain tumor or and, you know, nobody ever suggested, you know, you might have sleep apnea. Well, I what I know now is that because I'm a, I'm a thin female that that I, I don't fit that picture of an overweight white male who's who's snoring and, you know, not breathing at night. So, um...

Alysia Thomas:  So nobody dug deeper for you.

Beverly Meyer:  No, nobody even considered it. And in fact, when I tell them now, they're like, "You have sleep apnnea?" I'm like, "Yes." So, um, having to get up to pee at night is actually one of the signs Um, as I've been treated with with CPAP, um, I don't have to get up at night. It's like, this is crazy. So, it's affecting the whole hormonal system of the the kidneys for one.

Um, coughing, um, snoring, um, waking up, you know, startling to breathe, headaches at night is a classic sign. I know now, uh, being overweight is a classic sign. whether you're male or female and what race you are. It's it's a you know, as I say, this is universal. And children that are bedwetters, for example, there's a there's a a percentage of them that are absolutely having sleep apnea and that is affecting them and they wet the bed. or young people with ADHD, that's also can be an apnea sign, because basically the body the body's been slapped in the face hundreds of times a night to to wake up and breathe. And so yes, what does that do to your your hormones and your energy? Everything. It does everything.

Stacy Griffin: You know, it's, it's interesting that you mention that because my husband was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and they told him when he was diagnosed with sleep apnea that he had probably had it most of his life, that it was a struggle he'd had most of his life...

Beverly Meyer: Yeah.

Stacy Griffin:  ...and that there was probably a correlation between his ADHD and the way that he was breathing at night. So, thank you for mentioning that.

Beverly Meyer:  Yeah.

Stacy Griffin:  I think it's not something that gets talked about very often.

Becky Miller:  I was just going to say when I was diagnosed, um, I didn't have any of the traditional symptoms either. I actually went in to a neurologist because I was having nerve pain and and kind of similar to restless leg only it was like my legs were on fire as well. Like just awful, awful nerve pain in my legs. And he had me do the sleep study and that was actually the most effective treatment for the nerve pain in my legs was actually you know being on the CPAP machine, and kind of though, one of the questions I was going to ask you, because CPAP is typically the presented to people as the only solution, can you tell us about other solutions, because I know we've discussed that a little bit but and why the CPAP machine doesn't work for everybody. I know for me personally I pull it off in my sleep sometimes just cuz I...

Beverly Meyer:  Well, we're going to talk about that because I'm going to show you a couple of the real minimalist masks that are so popular now. And kind of when you think back to that classic image of that person has sleep apnea and then you visualize this, you know, giant mask on their face and some people still do that. That's fine. But we now have minimalist masks that are just, you know, incredibly easy. And so when you're on a CPAP machine, you you're you're you are directing air under pressure into your nose and it, it forces is too strong a word, but it it just pass that uh restriction in your airway and you you don't notice it. You don't feel anything. You don't feel the air. You you just like I'm I'm breathing. This feels very comfortable. You know, it's, it and then you have to tinker with your settings and all of that.

Beverly Meyer:  And by the way, I wanted to give you the name of this forum which I have found tremendously helpful for me. And it's SleepHQ like 'headquarters,' SleepHQ.com. I'm not associated with it. I'm just one of the people on there saying, "Hey, I'm noticing this. who is somebody else having this problem or can you look at my statistics and tell me what's happening with that cluster of apnea between two and three, the rest of the night is clear. So it it's incredible and there's thousands of people on there, and you can you can download all your stats from your machine and they're right there, if you want to share them with everybody, they can look at respiratory rate and and how many apneas and how many hypopneas - which is not a full apnea - and whether they're clustered or, you know, all this stuff. It's just is just terrific.

Um so anyways and then they also have consultants that you can hire uh, which you know respiratory therapists and people that I've just now started that I have actually my first appointment tomorrow, although we've already spoken on the phone for 30 minutes, and you know already she's had me make changes and helped a lot, Uh, but anyway, you can hire a consultant there and see that is one of the big problems like when I got diagnosed, because I asked my primary to run a test because I'm still trying to trace these headaches at night and I thought, you know, maybe my blood pressure is crashing or can we run a test? She said, "Sure, cuz I'm 73 and age is a factor." Um, and then she said, "Well, you've got moderate sleep apnea, so here's your prescription. Good luck." What?  

That was literally it. I I I'm like, well, what do I do? What kind of a machine? What's happening here? So, I struggled around on my own buying stuff with my own cash. Medicare will cover it, but I wasn't ready yet. And so, I bought a machine and a bunch of different masks. And I kind of fumbled my way through and eventually found Sleep HQ.

Stacy Griffin:  I was just going to ask, can oral appliances or positional therapy be effective? But I think that this will kind of be covered as you discuss this. So, why don't you show us the equipment that you wanted to show us because I think it will be very helpful in helping people understand.

Beverly Meyer:  Well, yes, and you're you did ask about the sleep appliances or other things and so yes, there absolutely are what they call MADs, mandibular advancement devices, which are expensive um, oral appliances that that that gently and you you can do it by degrees, move your lower jaw forward.  And I bought two of them, and they work terrific for some people. And the first few nights I wore them, they worked terrifically for me. And then they cause such violent pain all up and down my neck and my spine that I was like, well, this is definitely not an option. So, but they do work quite well for, for some people. They can have a tendency to move your teeth and give you TMJ pain and which, I knew that's why I was going to go really slow, but I didn't expect that my, my spine and my neck were just outrageously in pain. So that's me. But again, I have a small, thin, damaged, long neck. So, you know, that's me.

Um, okay, let me show you these. So, these are the two masks that I use. So, this is um this is the first one that I bought on my own when I didn't know what I was doing, but I thought, well, gee, that that doesn't look so bad. And I can't slip it on my head because I'm wearing a mic. But this, this is the backstrap. No, actually that's the...there we go. This is the top that goes over your head and it has little holes for sizing.

Stacy Griffin:  That is great.

Beverly Meyer:  And this strap then goes behind your head to, to hold it to hold it on. And it has uh, little Velcro tabs that you can cinch up or loosen or tighten to hold it at the back of your head. And then this is the mask. This little ridiculously tiny thing. So...

Alysia Thomas:  And for anybody who hasn't seen what a real CPAP mask or or a traditional CPAP mask looks like, this is much more minimal.

Beverly Meyer:  Yeah. It's like a sandwich on your face, you know. And I have some of those. And there may be reasons why you need that, for sure if you're not taping your mouth...

Alysia Thomas: Yeah.

Beverly Meyer:  ...but there are other reasons. But anyway, so so this is my first mask. And um um you know, sometimes it kind of leans. So then you get a leak and then it leans and then you get a leak or you got it too loose so now it's leaking. And so it does drive you a little crazy, but they all do that. And then this just plugs right into the heated humidified hose that goes to your CPAP machine. So you get warm, humid air. It's pretty cool. So, I've been doing that for a couple of months, and then I was on the SleepHQ, the forum, and um, somebody started talking about the Eclipse, or I found it at cpap.com, I think, and I thought what's that? So, this is what I use now. So, this is the mask. It's this these little tiny things with magnets on the end. I don't know if you can see that. Little tiny magnets on the end.

Alysia Thomas: Mhm.

Beverly Meyer:  And these are the little sticky pads that you align with your nostril and then snick it down so it's on that one. And then you pull the other one off. And then you align it with that nostril and smooth it down. And then and then you just stick it on.

Alysia Thomas:  That's crazy.

Stacy Griffin:  That's a pretty cool.

Beverly Meyer:  Isn't that insane?

Alysia Thomas:  Yeah, that's crazy. I haven't seen anything like that.

Beverly Meyer:  Well, so there you go. And then if you have to get up in the middle of the night, you just you just flick it off.

Alysia Thomas:  Mhm.

Beverly Meyer:  It's incredible. So there's like zero leak with this. And for anybody that's had anything to do with CPAP, leaking is what drives part of what drives you mad.

Becky Miller: That's I was going to say - zero leak is huge.

Beverly Meyer:  So you wake up and you feel it dry air...

Stacy Griffin:  So you rip it off your face in your sleep, because your body's just like...

Beverly Meyer:  Yes. Right. And it No...

Stacy Griffin:  "I can't do this anymore." 

Beverly Meyer:  ...It's leaking and it's uncomfortable. Well, this is nothing. I mean, it's a little sticky thing with, you know, hanging down. So, you know, it's so super easy. And then some nights just because I switch and and do this because I want my face to still be familiar um with having some kind of mask because you know long story, but it's nice to have choices. Um and then setting up your settings that that really becomes the hard part, and I think everybody that's doing continuous positive airway pressure CPAP or APAP which is adjustable positive airway pressure, or uh you know uh the mass that you choose and fiddling with the settings more pressure less pressure what happens between breaths and it you know, there's all these little settings which like I say I had zero help to do um I mean the medical equipment supply that sold me my machine he you know tapped in the defaults basically and that's where I started but um, anyway, so... 

Alysia Thomas:  It sounds like it's a very it's it's a very customizable thing.

Beverly Meyer:  Yeah.

Alysia Thomas:  There there are a lot there are more than one option. There are options out there. There are solutions out there. Um, it sounds like SleepHQ is a great place to find out about your options and maybe get recommendations from people who have been down the road before, like yourself. But what um one question I thought of is like who do you recommend get a sleep study?

Beverly Meyer: Well, any, any doctor can order a sleep study for you, but what I like I'm working to get some family members having sleep studies, and uh, I don't want to be the person responsible for their settings. So, you know, if they're going to walk out with a piece of paper, they're all going to look at me and say, "Well, what do we do?" I'm like, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no." So, you need to do research in your own city and county for for sleep doctors. And these are people that this is what they do. They test you and some of them do sell the equipment and some of them don't sell the equipment.

So, some of this plays into your insurance and this and that, but uh and then some of them will fit you like they have a room you can go that has 12 different masks and you know they'll play with you to try to find a mask. Neither of the three that I went to had either of these by the way. I found them both on my own. But um, but they were able to you know maybe change a setting or whatever and then if you allow them to, some of them will hook up to your machine so that they control your settings. So they may go and look at your settings once a week and without you knowing it make a change in your pressure or something. So that's not a bad option for some people. Um, especially if you if you can talk to them and say, "I don't know what you just did, but I'm having a hard time breathing." So, can we reduce the inhalation pressure?

Alysia Thomas:  So, there's a there's a learning curve to this and and probably after a diagnosis...

Beverly Meyer:  There's definitely a learning curve, but...

Alysia Thomas:  ...you're not going to get much help. You're going to say, "We we're prescribing a CPAP for you. That's that's the, that's what you do." But, uh, from there on, you you've kind of you've got to figure it out yourself.

Stacy Griffin:  Well, I, I have to jump in here and say that I agree with a lot of what's been said, but my cardiologist is the one who had me do a sleep study. And after he had me do the sleep study because I was having weird heart palpitations, we couldn't quite figure it out. Figured out it was sleep apnea that was part of the problem. When he gave me that diagnosis and got me the prescription, the company that he set me up with took me through everything in detail. Everything. So, I had no question.

Alysia Thomas:  Good.

Stacy Griffin:  I knew exactly where my program was supposed to be and I've been doing it for over a year now and it's never I've never had a problem since the day I started.  

Stacy Griffin:  Day one.

Beverly Meyer:  Yeah.

Stacy Griffin:  They gave me everything I needed.

Beverly Meyer: Yeah.

Stacy Griffin:  But that was recent. That's been just a year ago. So, anyone who had apnea before these new programs were put into effect...

Beverly Meyer:  Yeah.

Stacy Griffin: ...they were just crap out of luck. I know my dad had sleep apnea and the doctor knew he had apnea and he was like, "I don't know what to tell you. You've got, you've got problems, you know...

Beverly Meyer:  Yeah.

Stacy Griffin:  ...and they never really did anything for him." And he had heart problems and apnea and it was never addressed. So, it's a struggle. It's just a real struggle.

Beverly Meyer:  Well, um, fatigue that, uh, not just, oh, you know, I need some coffee fatigue, but, but like, wow, I'm I'm been really fatigued the last couple of months during the daytime. That's definitely an apnea symptom. the night urinations, the waking with the startle and breathing, um, nighttime headaches, um there are more, but those are some of the the main ones.  And if you're older or just in general, why not have a sleep test because it is such an invisible thing?

And by the way, the statistics now say that sleep apnea, the interruption and cessation of breathing is the number one undiagnosed medical condition in the United States. Number one. Tens of millions of people right now have sleep apnea and do not know it. Or they were like, "Well, good luck, Charlie." and you know threw it all in the trash or, or you know got two hours of sleep and ripped the mask off, and you know and so yes there's a lot of options there's a lot of help and if you're not getting help then then move on and and find somebody who will and remember what I was saying about Sleep HQ is that you can download the information from your machine and, and then you can click a button or two and then you can just post a question on the forum like I was saying, "Hey, I think I'm feeling fine, but I'm not sure these are terrific statistics. Anybody want to chime in?" Well, golly, you know, they may not be correct or whatever, but the people are going to look at your stats and say, "Well, it looks to me like, you know, your leak rate is really high. Try a different mask."

Uh, and by the way, one of the things on Sleep HQ, they rank 50 different masks. So, you can go right on there and and just say, well, for leak rate, this these are the top five. For customer satisfaction or whatever, these are the top five. For the apnea/hypopnea events, these are the top five. And there are 50 of them. So, so this guy, the Eclipse, like 'a solar eclipse,' um, has always since it's come out - which is pretty new - it's only two years old has since you know they started finding out about this and telling people about it and people started getting on it. So, it quickly moved to number one, and now there's another one that's that's similar to this. Same company actually um that's now replaced it as number one and it's number two. But, but that's really helpful if you go on there and look at the mask you have and it's like, "Oh, it's mask number 40. Maybe maybe I better try another mask.

Alysia Thomas: That is so helpful to know because um I am sure there are a good number of our listeners who have already been diagnosed and are probably using a CPAC machine. And so if you are go revisit your options, go revisit the new the new products that they that they have out. But before, but aside from that even, what would you say to somebody who has been told that this is just how you're going to sleep forever? You're just going to have to have a sleep mask on. And like, are there any lifestyle interventions they could do or supplements they could take? Anything that would be helpful aside from a physical CPAP mask?

Beverly Meyer: All right. Well, yes. Number one, you must tape your mouth. And again, like I say, I recommend Somnifix. It's 50 cents a night, you know, but it's, it's, it, it's just the perfect tape. It doesn't mess with you. It just does its job correctly. So, you got to tape your mouth. Number one.

Um, number two, you can check into the mandibular advancement devices, but they are expensive and you know whether you they are comfortable for you or not, I don't know. Um, there's a really expensive little medical implant that they can implant here under your collar bone and tie it into one of your nerves. that will do the job of opening your airway while you sleep. And I, so that's like 20 grand. Um so you know, I'm I'm just not real sure about that. But if I ever got to the point where okay my my restrictions are so severe or um maybe I've I'm in a elder care facility and you know they can't get this thing on right or they just don't want to be respon you know. So, I'd be open to that if that's where I have to.  

Um, there's no supplements that I know of. Although, on Sleep HQ, I noticed over the weekend there was a thread where somebody says, "Hey, there's a sleep apnea pill they're they're researching. Maybe we're all saved. Haha." And of course, immediately I went and looked it up and it was basically adrenaline and um another stimulant hormone. I'm like, "Yes, but that's already exactly what your body's doing while you're in the middle of an apnea. So, what is the point of taking a big load of it? You're going to lie there staring at the ceiling all night."

So, anyway, it it's and like I say, the, the Eclipse this this is from a guy, his name is Stuart Heatherington. When you call the number on his website, "Hello, this is Stuart. How may I help you? You're like, then I like this guy. So he's a CPAP person who said,"I don't like this. I'm going to invent something." And he did. And the first version he invented, I, I bought it. I, I was like, "No, that's not working." But but this guy is good. And they're all working on on even bettering this. So, um, and he's, he's an independent and the the two big companies are, I'm sure that I'm sure they've offered him huge amounts of money cuz this you have to replace your supplies every 3 to 6 months or your machine every five years or this is a huge financial market. So, whoever comes up with the better mousetrap...

Alysia Thomas:  Right.

Beverly Meyer:  You know, and the population aging and so on, um, you know, I'm sure he's fighting off offers left and right, and he's like, "No, I'm working on it. I'm we're doing okay." So, anyway, that's that's it on that. I don't know anything else at the moment, but I do like being able to go to the sleep um the mask analytics. And I actually bought that other new mask. I haven't tried it yet. Um, but that one is is similar to this, but it's even less than this because it has uh just two little ports that just, you know, like this, but two little ports that just into your nose.  So, it it can't shift around or leak like this can because when it starts blowing with pressure, those little ports just boom enlarge slightly to to fill your nostril. But then everything, as you all have said, everything is connected to sleep. So, you know, I I know for sure that I'm not doing it perfectly, but I definitely have my, my my energy back. I am definitely not fatigued. And as long as I'm making it through the night without some apneas because I was messing with something, then I don't have the headache and I don't have to get up to pee at night. It's like, well, this is incredible.

Becky Miller:  That's huge.

Alysia Thomas:  So really anybody with some unresolved symptoms can ask for a sleep study or some symptoms where they don't know why they're having them.

Beverly Meyer:  Absolutely.

Alysia Thomas: They can ask for a sleep study and it can't hurt, right? It can't hurt to do  it.

Beverly Meyer:  No, no, but but that's a good point. As is true with any time you approach any doctor for something you want, you need to present them with like three to five um medical uh appropriate um issues that that test or that blood work or that sleep test or whatever that they will fit into their little insurance or medical boxes. So, you know, I've got that in my blog post on my website about, you know, sleep apnea and so on and how to get tests. It it's like, well, just make your list. I'm really tired during the day. My sleep partner tells me I'm I'm coughing or snoring something and um you know, I've had headaches all night and and and yeah, I just can't seem to quite get the snoring under control, whatever. So, it's not like you're lying. You're just uh giving them you're...

Alysia Thomas:  No, you're advocating for yourself.

Beverly Meyer: ... advocating

Becky Miller:  Exactly. And even and even like I said, even if it's something you're not sure of because I mean, like I said, for me it was nerve pain in my legs. So, there's a lot of things that are related that we don't always recognize. Thanks for bringing those to our attention. Thank you for showing us some of the different things that are available to treat sleep apnea. Um, we will have all of your website information and your podcast information in our show notes so that our listeners can go and learn more. And to uh, we appreciate the time that you took to be with us today and for your expertise and your advocacy. It's been really wonderful talking to you.

Um, to everybody watching and listening, remember that sleep is not a luxury. It is a foundation for your health and your well-being. Also, remember you are worthy of joy. Disease does not define your life. You do.

HELPFUL LINKS:

Beverly's Webpage: https://www.ondietandhealth.com/

Beverly's Podcast, Primal Diet Modern Health on ApplePodcast, Spotify, or Podurama: https://www.ondietandhealth.com/resources/

SleepHQ for CPAP help and support: https://www.sleephq.com/

Somnifix Mouth Tape: https://somnifix.com/

The Eclipse CPAP Mask: https://amzn.to/41MUkPc

*The Amazon link above is an affiliate link. There will be no extra cost to you, but we may receive a commission based on qualifying purchases..