As Men approach Middle Age, and by that, I mean over 40, we often hear the same complaints regarding the need to continually get up and go to the WC/Toilet/Bathroom and pee, in some cases, on multiple occasions through the night.
Many men accept this as a natural part of ageing, with some suspecting a ‘dicky’ prostate as possibly being the cause. This is always worthy of a check with your Doctor, but believe it or not, often, the answer is that the Prostate is fine.
Sometimes, the chief culprit can be SLEEP APNOEA. In fact, if you’re getting up more than twice a night, this really could be the problem. In fact, a study published in 2016 found that over 80% of regular, nocturnal ‘pee-merchants’ were afflicted with Sleep Apnoea. To be clear, this is far more than just snoring, or temporarily stopping breathing, this is in fact, a cessation of breathing for up to 20-30 seconds and your body reacts to this, by sending out a jolt of adrenaline into your Blood Stream, essentially, to awaken you, to keep you alive.
Sleep Apnoea has been linked to High Blood Pressure, Heart Failure, Atrial Fibrillation (an electrical issue in the heart’s pacemaker where clots can be released from the heart and cause strokes or heart attacks), Depression, Obesity and other, secondary issues.
The Adrenaline surges are linked to that frequent night-time urination that we have alluded to earlier. The adrenaline diverts blood from your heart to your brain and this sudden shift increases production of a hormone called atrial natruietic peptide (ANP). It’s the ANP that makes your body produce more urine.
In test subjects, only 5% identified the sleep apnoea as the possible cause of their urinary issues. The rest were convinced that excess fluids ingested prior to bed were accumulating in the bladder and were part of the natural ‘passing water’ process.
As we have already touched on, many doctors mis-diagnose prostate issues and prescribe some potent, prostate reducing or cardiac, arterial dilating medications that end up making their patients worse, and not just because of the hideous side effects such as dizziness, fatigue, impotence and decreased libido.
In certain instances, doctors with a breadth of alternative solutions may look at a Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) machine. CPAP is a mask that you wear whilst sleeping at night and continuously pushes air through your nose to keep your airway open to prevent you stopping breathing. However, I have received reports of many struggling to adapt to the mask.
Moreover, there are the issues of forcing too much oxygen into the respiratory cycle, which diminishes carbon dioxide levels. It is a little known fact that increasing levels of CO2 FORCES more OXYGEN into the TISSUES and INCREASES Oxygenation. If you use a CPAP machine, look into this to assess the Oxygen/CO2 mix.
Of course, you can look to lose weight. Carrying extra Kilos/Pounds of weight drastically increases your Sleep Apnoea risk. A study in 2000 found that for every 3.5-4kg of weight lost, the risk of sleep apnoea diminished by more than 25%!
I would recommend that you use nasal strips, or even possibly look to keep your mouth shut during sleep in order to improve the condition of your brain after sleep. The effects of sleep hyperventilation cannot be dismissed lightly and having seen early morning car crashes where people admitted to me privately that they feel asleep at the wheel, and this amply demonstrates what an issue we have here.
Finally, sleep apnoea issues primarily kick in when people sleep on their back, so learn to sleep on your side. Preferably your right side.
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