The Lung Association Alberta and N.W.T. is taking a stand for people who suffer from sleep apnea.

The sleeping disorder that results in severe sleep deprivation affects an estimated 100,000 Albertans and is one of three diseases addressed in the association’s Alberta Breathes plan to improve medical services.

The association is now waiting for $20 million from the province to put the plan into action over the next two to three years.

Association president and CEO Tony Hudson said as a provincial strategy, it would work well in Alberta with its new provincial health care structure.

Obstructive sleep apnea causes people to stop breathing repeatedly while they sleep because their airway collapses.

An airway pressure machine, at a cost of $900 to $2,000, is used with a face mask to supply a continuous stream of air pressure to keep a person’s airway open.

However, the devices are not covered by Alberta Health.

The lung association has a $36,000 program to refurbish donated machines and fit them to 100 people a year who can’t afford to buy one.

“Our question is why is this disabling condition treated differently from other ones?” Hudson said this week, National Sleep Awareness Week.

Sleep apnea is fixed with this machine and there’s clear evidence that fixing the problem reduces the strain on emergency wards and acute care beds, Hudson said.

“I always ask people: do you want the driver of the 18-wheeler to be barrelling down the road and he hasn’t had enough sleep for years.”

Troy Copley, a registered respiratory therapist with Parkland Respiratory Clinic in Red Deer, said he had a patient who fell asleep at the wheel, crashing his employer’s truck and trailer.

There’s also the extreme stress that comes with poor sleep.

“I had a gentleman say if this didn’t work, he’d commit suicide,” Copley said pointing to the airway machine.

Sleep apnea can lead to heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypertension and other serious health conditions due to the lack of oxygen to the bloodstream and organs.

Usually it’s caused by the way an airway is shaped. Weight gain as people get older increases the chances, as well as the rate of obesity in the general population, he said.

The incidence of the sleep disorder is “profound,” affecting 15 to 20 per cent of the population, Copley said.

Parkland is one of six clinics in Red Deer that test and fit people with the equipment they need to sleep.

Doug Hill of Red Deer first slept with an airway pressure machine two and a half years ago when he was suffering heart problems and it immediately changed his life.

For years, Hill lived his life in a state of exhaustion.

“I’d stop breathing. Seconds would go by and you’d gasp for air and it would wake up you. It would go on and on and on, all night long.”

szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com