> Benadryl! She's been taking it every night before she goes > to bed for a couple of months now and it has done wonders for > her. She's not complaining about being tired anymore. Her > behavior has improved markedly. It's wonderful. > All because of a link posted to this list! > That's why I stay on Brin-L! > > - jmh
I would guess that the antihistamine in the Benadryl is stopping inflammation or swelling that was causing her to have difficulty breathing? My 9 year old daughter has ADHD and asthma and did a sleep study for sleep apnea. She sleeps poorly, has big bags under her eyes and is tired and irritable. I started watching what she was eating, put a HEPA filter in her room and use a waterproof slip cover over her mattress to help reduce any allergens that may be there. Her symptoms of ADHD have decreased dramatically. Her doctor explained that the sleep problems were greatly aggravating the ADHD. I have severe obstructive sleep apnea. I have been using a bi-pap for over a year now and my life has changed dramatically. Aside from not feeling like a truck hit me every morning, my memory has started to return and my cognitive abilities have dramatically improved. My short term memory was to the point that I often could not remember where I parked or sometimes even my phone number without making a serious effort to concentrate on remembering it. Other changes I am experiencing - I stopped falling asleep at my desk and at stop lights, my blood pressure has returned to normal and I have been taken off of blood pressure meds and the most dramatic, and my favorite, is that I have started to lose weight. My family doctor has suspected for years that I had sleep apnea, but he didn't send me to the neurologist because he was not that familiar with the causes and treatments. His solution was to lose weight. But the irony is, that it was impossible to lose weight with the sleep apnea. My metabolism was slowed to the point that weight loss was nearly impossible. The metabolism slows to compensate for the lack of oxygen at night. My blood 02 content was below 47% at night during my sleep study. The neurologist said that, untreated, I had a 100% chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 5 years - that is if I didn't kill myself falling asleep in traffic. So needless to say, I chose the treatment. Nick, if you suspect that you have any degree of sleep apnea, ask your family doctor to send you to a neurologist that specializes in sleep disorders. You won't be sorry. Since I have responded so well to the treatment, and I have started to lose weight, I have recently found out that once I lose a bit more weight, I can have a minor throat surgery and likely be completely cured of the apnea. The neurologist said that I would have had sleep apnea even had I not gained weight and aggravated the condition. The symptoms that originally took me to the doctor were rapid and unexplained weight gain, snoring (of course), severe heartburn at night (also vomiting in my sleep) , waking up gasping for breath, waking up exhausted, and the morning headaches. There is nothing like a headache induced by lack of oxygen. I would choose a migraine ANY day over that. Of course, there were the weird things like not being able to breathe in my dreams. Gheeze, and I thought it was all because my ex-wife was putting the pillow over my face at night :-) I finally decided in March 2002 to seek treatment when a former co-worker, who also had sleep apnea, vomited in his sleep and aspirated it into his lungs as he gasped for breath. His wife watched him die on their bedroom floor before the ambulance got to him. This is my favorite sleep apnea site: http://www.sleepnet.com/ Gary _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
