Seek therapy for sleep apnea at Heartstrong Sleep Centers

THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Passion meets treatment at Heartstrong Sleep Centers with a mission to help people get better sleep and treat them for sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is a common condition where people pause their breathing or have shallow breathing several times a night. Co-founder Joshua Arterbury said this could be due to narrow air passages, tongues that fall back or severe snoring. In the most severe cases, a person can stop breathing up to 60 times an hour.

“Imagine depriving your body of oxygen every single night over the period of your lifetime and what that can do to your brain, your vital organs, your heart and your disposition,” Arterbury said. “Sleep is so vital to our everyday health but also our long term health.”

Before getting treated for sleep apnea himself, Arterbury would sleep walk, fall asleep at red lights and wake up constantly throughout the night. Arterbury found ways to cope with the condition, but he received a serious wake-up call after his wife caught him trying to remove a ceiling fan in the dead of sleep. He saw a sleep specialist shortly after, where he was diagnosed with sleep apnea and received his first C-PAP machine, a device that ventilates clean air to facilitate breathing.

Arterbury witnessed several improvements to his health, including decreased blood pressure. He grew more passionate about sleep apnea therapy and decided to open Heartstrong Sleep Centers as a way to provide education and treatment for people who struggle with restless sleep.

“For me, it truly changed my life, and it’s been a path to this career,” Arterbury said. “It’s not a job for us. It’s always something I’ve been passionate about because it truly changed my life. That’s not a cliche around here; that’s the gospel.”

Patients begin treatment with Heartstrong Sleep Centers with a two-night stay at the facility. The first night is a diagnostic test where the sleep specialist will either diagnose or rule out sleep apnea. If the patient is officially diagnosed, they will stay a second night to sleep with the therapy. A technician is present to monitor sleep and tailor the C-PAP machine to the right air pressure to suit the patient’s needs, and the next day, they are prescribed with a C-PAP of their own.

The process of treatment doesn’t end with the issuing of a C-PAP. The next challenge is to help patients understand the importance of compliance. As a society that puts sleep on the back burner, it is often difficult to get people to prioritize this aspect of their health. Some are even concerned with how they look when they wear the mask. Arterbury said that’s when they have to explain all the associated health risks with sleep apnea.

“To put it bluntly, sometimes we have to give them the reality of the situation, and a lot of times the doctors don’t explain it very well, so we do a lot of education,” Arterbury said. “We make sure that once they’re on the therapy, we follow them for the first 30 days very rigorously. We call, and with the technology now, we can view their sleep to see if there’s any leakage with the mask and to see if they’re using it at all, so big brother truly is watching in terms of compliance.”

Those who have sleep apnea are often at risk for other health issues, such as hypertension, diabetes and kidney failure. If a patient already has these associated health problems, sleep becomes a lower priority.

“In the pool of money that gets spent on healthcare each year, sleep inevitably falls to the bottom because they’ve been living with it and they can kind of cope and reprioritize,” Arterbury said. “In reality, it should be switched. If we can catch people at 35, it’ll save them a lifetime of trouble.”

Heartstrong Sleep Centers is in the process of creating a new pediatrics room with the goal to provide an alternative for children as young as two years old treated or cleared for sleep apnea. Arterbury said that the average wait time at large hospitals for the same test and treatment is about six months.

“A lot of children have sleep apnea, especially with the onset of childhood obesity,” Arterbury said. We’re trying to break into that market and truly be an alternative for the large hospitals.”

The goal to change lives drives Heartstrong Sleep Centers to provide patients with excellent care and educational materials.

“I want people to know that we truly care about the patients that come here,” Arterbury said. “Our philosophy is, number one, take care of the patients and everything else will follow.”

For more information about Heartstrong Sleep Centers, visit their website at www.heartstrongsleep.com, or call them at (832) 770-3200.