Sleep Apnea Leads to Major Health Problems

Savon Medimart's sister company, Safety First Sleep Solutions, can reduce the risk of sleep deprivation related accidents by offering affordable, low cost testing and treatment solutions for sleep apnea with sleep therapy experts available 24/7 to assist with any questions or problems.  SFSS uses a convenient, in-home low cost testing system that enables patients to be tested in the comfort of their homes.  A large component of the program is educating truck drivers, and the industry, on sleep apnea to help them become healthier.

At this time, the program is geared towards truck drivers, but it can be used for any shift workers, factory workers, pilots, bus drivers, railroad engineers or anyone where sleep apnea can cause poor productivity and put themselves and others at a great risk for accidents.  We want to help employees and companies keep the number of employee related accidents to a minimum.

The most important reason for recognizing and treating sleep apnea is to prevent future health incidents such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, impotence, stroke and heart attack.  Treating sleep apnea early in life enhances your future health and longevity.  When we sleep at night our airway is normally open, like a straw, allowing air to easily flow in and out. Oxygen moves through the lung tissue into the blood stream attaching itself to red blood cells.  These cells carry oxygen to your major organs to keep your body healthy and functioning properly.  With sleep apnea, the airway is narrower (snoring is a sign of a narrow airway) and becomes obstructed, causing the exchange of oxygen to not occur correctly.  In untreated sleep apnea, the exchange of oxygen does not occur causing the organs to not be properly oxygenated.

Think of it this way:  Vehicles require oil to keep the engine running properly.  The engine will be destroyed if the oil is dirty and disgusting.  Drivers would never allow this to happen.  The same can be said for oxygen rich blood and organs.  Untreated sleep apnea causes malfunctioning organs which causes many health related issues.  

Robin Ivany, Savon Medimart VP says: “Not only does untreated sleep apnea cause countless accidents, left undetected, it can lead to a plethora of other major health problems.  It just makes tremendous financial sense for companies to be proactive with this health issue.  This condition creates such a tremendous liability for companies, mostly because most people that actually have sleep apnea do not even know they have it.  There are no blood tests, for instance, to detect such a condition.  People are dangerously sleep deprived while they routinely operate vehicles or machinery throughout the day.  This is even a problem for employees that sit at a desk all day.  It is a huge productivity issue.”