This podcast is for you, the Modern Man. I'm Dr Anne Truong,
your host. I'm an intimate health medical doctor and best
selling author of the book, Erectile Dysfunction Fix. I'll
do a deep dive into sexual health and performance and how
it affects men of all ages and backgrounds. So let's get
started, and be sure to visit my website at
sexualhealthformenpodcast.com for more information and
resources from the show. See you on the inside.
In this episode, we're going to talk about sleep and how it can
affect your health, and especially your sex life. And
stay tuned for this eye opening discussion. It will change how
you think about your sleep.
So what is sleep apnea? Sleep apnea is more common than you
think. About a third of adult age between 30 to 70 have sleep
apnea, according to the most recent estimate. And the
prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea, or called OSA, is about
10% to 30% in the general adult population at this point. And it
gets higher as you get older, and it gets higher as women and
men get into the andropause or menopause years. And it also
increases with age as well too. And approximately right now, 22
million Americans are suffering with this, and about 1 billion
adult worldwide, and that's probably an underestimate.
So how is sleep apnea diagnosed? What are some of the symptom
that you should be noticing? And you're thinking, well, do I have
this? Am I the 1/3 people that have sleep apnea? Well, Sleep
Apnea is defined as interruption in your sleeping pattern at
night that make you choke or stop breathing. So what it is is
that if you have these type of symptoms, you may have sleep
apnea. Sleep Apnea include breathing pauses lasting more
than 30 seconds, multiple times throughout the night, loud
snoring that is indicated by like gasping or choking sound
like that. And in fact, the reason why I'm talking about
this because my husband probably have sleep apnea, and I'm gonna
get him tested, and I will probably go test it myself,
because I'm over 50, I should get tested. Also, another
symptom is daytime sleepiness and fatigue morning headaches
and dry mouth upon waking, and sleepless night and frequent
nighttime awakening, and even for men, frequent urination, you
get up in the morning, you're constantly tired and it's hard
for you to concentrate. And the more severe the sleep apnea, the
more the fatigue, and it has a lot of serious consequences,
like it put you at risk for high blood pressure, heart disease,
erectile dysfunction, sexual dysfunction for women, stroke
and also diabetes. So if you think you have one of these
symptoms, you need to go see the doctor and get a sleep study you
can do now this at home. You can get a sleep study test at home,
which is called home sleep study test, and now it's pretty good.
It's pretty accurate. And there's another test where you
go to the sleep lab and they look at how you sleep and
measure your oxygen level and all your breathing. That's more
accurate. But the home test is getting to be pretty accurate as
well, so go see the doctor and have the sleep study done.
What are the risk factors for sleep apnea? Well, the risk
factor is age. It gets higher when you're over 60 years old,
and men are two to three times more likely to develop sleep
apnea than women. And if you have a family members with sleep
apnea, then it increases your risk of physical characteristic.
If you are overweight and your BMI is over 28 then you're at
risk for sleep apnea. You have a large next of conference that's
also correlated with increased risk, and that if you have a
small lower jaw or large tongue and also facial configuration
that will put you at risk as well.
Now the lifestyle factors that are important, smokers have a
higher risk of sleep apnea. Increased alcohol consumption,
especially at bed tine, can worsen your sleep apnea. So when
do we socialize? Usually at night. When do we drink? Usually
at night. And you have heard me talk about alcohol, too much
alcohol, more than 14 drinks a week, can affect your sexual
function. Now, alcohol can also affect your sleeping pattern,
putting you at risk for sleep apnea, which, when you have
sleep apnea, you get decreased oxygen to the brain, and you
have inflammation, and that's what is affecting your sexual
function. Another lifestyle factor is sedentary, lack of
physical activity increases the risk as well. Also, medical
conditions such as chronic nasal congestion is associated with
twice the risk of sleep apnea. Hormone disorders, conditions
such as high full thyroid or low thyroid and acromegaly also
increase your risk. High blood pressure increased your risk.
Diabetes will increase your risk of sleep apnea as well other
factors. Menopause, post menopausal women have an
increased risk compared to pre menopause women, and certain
drugs will put you at risk for this. So if you are over 60, and
if you're noticing that your partner is snoring a lot and
almost like a choking when they're sleeping, then you need
to get sleep tests.
So how does this relate to your sex life? ED is highly common
among individuals with sleep apnea. The research has shown a
significant correlation between the two. The prevalence of ED in
patient with sleep apnea ranges from 40% to 80%. Some studies
show that 92% of people with sleep apnea also have ED. 92%,
you didn't hear that incorrectly. These numbers are
substantially higher than the general population where ED
approximately affects 52% of men over 50. So what I'm trying to
say is that if you have sleep apnea, you have a high chance of
having ED, and if you have ED, you should be screening to see
if you have sleep apnea. Correcting your sleep apnea will
also help with your ED as well. So that's very, very important.
So we talked about what sleep apnea is. We talked about how
that relates to ED. Now, how does sleep apnea really cause
ED? If you're like, Well, how does my breathing affect my
penis? Well, how it happens is that when you have sleep apnea,
you have interrupted sleep, you're feeling tired, you're not
getting enough oxygen. Well, there are several things that
happens when you have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can reduce
testosterone level, which is essential for getting an
erection. It also affects the hormone that's being released in
your brain, which then regulates your testosterone. It disrupt
that cycle. Number two, for the vascular or blood vessels, it is
inflammatory and inflammatory to the blood vessels, and therefore
you have less blood flow. It also will decrease your nitric
oxide level as well, and will also increase constriction of
the blood vessels. So the blood vessel get inflamed and swollen,
the blood vessel becomes smaller and also decreased nitrous
oxide, kind of like a triple whammy, almost. So you got the
hormone, and now you got a blood vessel, and then you got the
nerve. So sleep apnea will lead to nerve damage and the penis as
well because of the decrease in REM sleep, or REM sleep. And
because of this, it will lead to erectile dysfunction. On top of
that, sleep apnea can cause stress, fatigue, mood disorder,
which then will exacerbate your sexual function, and it's also
associated with depression and anxiety, and you can get a test
at home to diagnose sleep apnea. You can go to the sleep lab, and
it can be easily treated with a home system that is probably the
size of, like a little box like this. It used to be big, but now
is about the size, like about four by six box. It's very
quiet. It's called the Continuous Positive Airway
Pressure Therapy Machine, and that you wear either a mask or a
nasal cannula, and that little machine will give you more
pressure and more oxygen while you're sleeping. It's called a
CPAP machine, and it's covered by your insurance, the
conditions easily diagnosed. And CPAP, when you have the machine,
it improves oxygen, it improves blood flow, and it improve your
erection by helping you have a better night sleep. It also
raises your testosterone level and it raises your oxygen level
as well as your nitrous oxide level. Now, there are other
things that you can do aside from getting the CPAP machine,
but you should get the CPAP machine. But if you combine this
with other lifestyle factors, which then help with treating
sleep apnea, and one of that is exercise. So if you exercise, it
will help you with weight loss, and the weight loss itself, it
will help with incidence of sleep apnea, stop smoking,
moderate your alcohol, less than 14 drink. Maybe when you're
drinking at night time, maybe don't drink more than two. And
talk about physical activity, alcohol and smoking, those are
the main three factors.
So the point I'm trying to drive home is this, if you have ED,
get a sleep study test. If you're feeling fatigued, and if
you're feeling that you're trying to lose weight, you're
not able to lose weight, and you're not able to focus, and if
somebody says you snore, you need to get a sleep study test.
It's so easily done and it's so easily treated with the CPAP
machine, and it just makes a lot of difference, not only in your
health, but also help with your sex life, and it helps prevent
heart attacks and stroke and possibly even dementia as well.
So I'm telling you this because I'm gonna go get a sleep study
test as well as my husband, because I believe in
preventative care and not wait for things to get worse. It's
almost like taking care of your car. So if you have problem in
your car and you bring it to the mechanic early, it can be fixed,
but if you keep having the problem linger, it's just going
to be more difficult to fix that, and you may have some
irreversible consequences as well. So I hope you enjoyed this
episode. I try to give you as much information as I can about
sleep apnea because I feel this is important, and I'm going to
be screening a lot more sleep apnea with the sleep study test
with my patient as well. So let me know what do you think about
this episode. Let me know if you have sleep apnea and or ED. Let
me know what other topic you like me to talk about. It will
mean the world to me. If you get notification, subscribe, and
share this with somebody that you care about that may benefit
from this episode. And just know that you do not have to suffer
in silence. If you have ED, or even women if you have sexual
dysfunction, there are treatment available, such as getting a
sleep study test and that you do not have to be alone. Together,
we can create a sexual revolution. We can get you out
of ED into sexual confidence. And that is why I created the
Modern Man Club. It's a safe and discreet space where we get you
out of ED, to sexual confidence without medication or surgery,
maybe with the CPAP machine. Check out the modern man club at
noedman.com. And also just know that you can have your sex life
until the day you die. You do not have to give it up. You will
have sex span. I'll see you in the next episode, Modern Man.
Thanks for listening to the Sexual Health for Men Podcast.
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