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Home » Reader question » Reader question: Sleep apnea (OSAS) in the Netherlands, but not in Thailand
Dear readers,
I, living in NL and with a Thai partner for years, have been suffering from severe sleep apnea (official name OSAS) for more than 10 years. For this I use an air generator (official name CPAP) through the health insurance, which creates a slight overpressure in my airways so that my sleep is less disturbed.
However, when I stay in Thailand, I don't suffer from this condition at all and I don't use the CPAP either. Here in NL I get no explanation for this.
Question 1: are there readers who recognize this?
Question 2: Are there any expats in Thailand with OSAS at all?
Question 3: does “our” general practitioner have anything to say about this?
Regards,
Khaki
Hi Haki,
I myself had a sleep study done at the VU in Amsterdam and they advised me to have an MRA brace placed over my teeth, which is custom made by the dentist.
Get reimbursed by various companies and works perfectly.
I myself live in Thailand and use it daily
Succes
Haki,
I've experienced exactly the same. Four years on the CPAP, which I only used in the Netherlands.
in Thailand I never used it, nor did I suffer from Apnea. Then again requested an examination in Heeze and went to sleep for a night WITHOUT cpap and see there also in Heeze she found that I had no apnea (anymore). Because I watch a movie all night in my conscious dreams, they assumed I had Narcolepsy. I doubt this too, because I only suffer from those dreams.
I have been living without porridge for years and I feel good.
Exactly the same was a few months (or has it been longer ago) on Thailandblog.
I was also diagnosed with sleep apnea some time ago. Sleeping with that mask on would reduce my fatigue because I would sleep better with that thing on. Well, not so. Helps just as much as that black cat. I used to sleep like a log and still do now. In Thailand nor in the Netherlands: never heard a comment about my snoring.
I did choke a bit when I was just in bed, because of stronger breathing than through those very small holes around that mask can escape as exhaled air.
However, that device went wild one night and worked at maximum pressure. Consequence: spent a night blowing past my mask on my right eye, which now has permanent corneal damage. That thing is now in the closet, until the court has determined the amount of compensation.
Very interested in other experiences and solutions.
Greetings, Harry Romijn hromijn at casema dot nl
Reader Question: CPAP for apnea and medicine in Thailand?
Saturday December 19, 2015
They don't want or can't give an explanation, I don't think it's in their interest to investigate this further, after all, we bring in a lot of money. At the time I was a champion of getting the software so that we could read our papers ourselves. After a long struggle of several years, I finally got permission, but first I had to get a signature from my sleep clinic specialist. Visit lasts less than 5 minutes bill over five hundred euros, that's KASSA after all. Reported to my insurance, they referred me back to Heeze. WHY CARE COSTS TOO HIGH.
I also have it, but my wife tells me that I snore there just as loudly (with the necessary apneas) as here in Holland, so I am not familiar with that phenomenon in Holland and not in Thailand and I have no rational or medical explanation for it either. What I do think about is that you may be lying on a different (kind of) mattress or pillow, but that's all. But you can always take your CPAP stuff with you without an extra surcharge (small consolation)
Hmm strange story. My question in this is.
How much do you weigh? People who are overweight suffer from it. So that's the first.
What's different in your diet?
What is different in your sleeping pattern and sleeping position. (back, stomach or side)
Do you use less soft drinks in Thailand and what about alcohol?
More stress in the Netherlands than in Thailand?
There can be multiple causes and effects.
Yes I also use a CPAP
The explanation is quite simple, I have been from one throat nose and ear specialist to another for years, always the same explanation your synuses are fine, but you are overweight.
Ended up here in Phuket with a Professor Pirapan who works in an international hospital, we Europeans do not have a straight nose canal like Asians. Had a small procedure done by him and since then no more sleep apnea, no more snoring, no more stuffy nose, a new life started.
Eh sleep apnea is NOT snoring as reported here and there. Sleep apnea is the cessation of breathing. Without APAP I have that up to 32 times an hour. I don't snore.
Restriction of breathing, resulting in a drop in the oxygen level in the blood. And that is usually measured indirectly by a sensor on a fingertip.
Symptoms of bad breathing (tongue falling backwards etc) = snoring. Symptom of poor sleep = fatigue. But the reverse way: “snoring = sleep apnea” is of course not correct.
Bought such an oxygen meter at Lidl. (about € 25), but values are always between 96 and 98%...when I'm awake. But looking at it at night is a bit more difficult.
Well, I am now going to release an experience that is so simple that I can quite believe that someone has trouble with it.
There it goes. Apparently I had been snoring for years and had trouble holding my breath. That is not okay of course because that can have consequences as you know.
I looked in the internet and I found the following Russian article.
Most problems arise from sleeping on the back because the tongue etc.
Then you do the following because you want to get rid of sleeping on your back.
To start, take a long scarf and tie a decent knot in the middle. The scarf wraps around you with the knot on your back. Then sleeping on your back is not comfortable. My wife replaced that after a week by sewing a pocket on the back of my shirt and putting a button in it.
So now I always lay on my left or right side and since then I have not snored or had breath holdings. After some time, that knot on your back is no longer necessary because it turns out that you have trained the brain!
And so the article was in English because if it had been in Russian I would still have had the problem and so would my wife!
If anyone wants, he or she can come and check it in Chiang Mai.
Super simple and cheap. They have already invented something for it and sold it for big money.
I don't charge for the advice! Spread the word.
Dear,
I treated my sleep apnea with a natural remedy. They wanted me to fit a mask so that I had to put it on for years before going to sleep. Coincidentally, the day before I come to a naturopath who manages reflexiology. According to him, sleep apnea is due to the fact that the brain forgets to give the order to breathe. With apnea as a result. He gave me a powder and I had to take a pinch of it every morning. For 6 months. And yes. . . . i'm off it. No masks, no expensive doctors. But I can't remember the name of that powder.
Greetings,
Norbert
Alias Mister Magic
I have apnea in different forms. One person can be helped with a brace. The other is helped with an operation by an ENT doctor, others who cannot use a CPAP or BiPAP, etc. . If a brace or surgery cannot help you, you MUST continue using your device. ALSO IN THAILAND. Apnea can be very dangerous (arrhythmias, high blood pressure, brain damage in the long term, heart damage in the long term, obesity {the weight is often reduced when you use a c- or bipap because the metabolism is recovering} etc etc). Self-medicating as described above is strongly discouraged and I do not understand this with such a serious illness. What was written IS STUPID VERY STUPID (unless you are also a somnologist). Damage occurs slowly (often after 5 years) and to stop without advice and examination from a somnologist is madness. CLEARLY SO?
Which is very stupid that science does not know everything and if I had not experimented myself I would have slept with a horn on my nose for 10 years for nothing.
People feel themselves whether they will feel fitter with or without a device. So it's very wrong what you write here.
Roja,
Are you sometimes one of those specialists and do you have apnea yourself? People who experiment really don't do this for years on end. A few weeks won't hurt. After your experiment you should definitely have another sleep test done, but NOT with your mask on but without a mask, this is the mistake the specialists make. There is nothing as changeable as a human body and testing with your mask on is pointless unless you want to test the device. I also think that you should read carefully before calling people very stupid.
CLEARLY SO
I suffered from apnea in the Netherlands and in Thailand as well. No difference. For over 20 years. Service parts and equipment available in BKK. Handle by phone!
I too suffered from apnea for a long time, in the Netherlands. A few years ago I moved to the Caribbean islands, where my apnea was over within a day and didn't come back in 4 years.
Less than 2 weeks back in the Netherlands and I woke up Spanish stuffy again from the apnea. Fortunately, that stay in the Netherlands did not last very long.
I also have no problems in Thailand.
I had myself tested for all conceivable allergies, but nothing came up.
I think it has a lot to do with the dirty swamp climate in the Netherlands.
Even many asthma patients benefit from being away from the Netherlands.
There must be a cause for it somewhere. Apnea is on the rise and I regret that these messages are not being seriously investigated. Would the money be more important than preventing or solving Apnea? I advise everyone with apnea to have a sleep test done without your mask at least once every three years, who knows, the apnea has disappeared, which was not possible according to the specialists.
Please, let yourself be examined first and sleep a night with your head full of censors and that computer on your chest they read out and then it will show how many stops you have per hour, with me 49 and my Thai beauty could not sleep anymore from the stopping of my breathing and then suddenly again with a lot of strange snoring sounds that I didn't feel myself, but when I was awake and had to go to work I was dead tired.
My Thai wife saved my life otherwise I wouldn't have been there anymore according to my professor.
It's not nice to sleep with such a mask, but you get used to it and you feel much fitter
So sleep well and go to a good doctor, you live longer and are healthier for your body and you can enjoy beautiful Thailand longer
Dear Mr. Momsnor, to be clear: if you have an apnea of 30 stops or more - as in your case - you are no longer insured to participate in traffic. Please take this into account.
Roja,
Please stop making these hasty comments. Bromsnor is, as he says himself, on the CPAP and if it works, something that the specialist checks, he can just drive.
It is not the cbr but the specialist who decides. If you call the Cbr, you will get a different answer from every doctor, at least in my time.
I do advise people to have themselves thoroughly examined, but not to accept everything at face value and possibly request a second opinion elsewhere, this would probably have saved me four years of that horn and all the misery it brought to my work.
Exactly the same experience. In the Netherlands heavy apnea, and that horrible machine, in Thailand no problems. After 2 years, when I returned to the Netherlands, I had myself tested again one night, and then the apnea had largely disappeared. My explanation: the air quality. In Thailand where I live there are no (0) factories, in the Netherlands I live in the center of Amsterdam. My own conclusion: My synuses can't stand the air pollution. I hardly ever have to blow my nose here in Thailand, while in Amsterdam I always have a full nose..
Hi Roya,
Strong language I must say and you ignore the experiences of others.
A striking experience is that many only suffer in the Netherlands. Has your somnologist (perhaps that be you yourself) ever scientifically researched this?