The first time I ever encountered sleep apnea, it was as a babysitter.  A little 4-year-old boy I babysat for had it.

Sleep apnea is pretty scary stuff if you don’t know what it is.  Basically, the person stops breathing a little bit in their sleep.  If you don’t know what is going on — and even if you do — you may find yourself holding your breath as you wait for the other person to start breathing again.  It’s scary when it’s a child in your care, but it’s just as scary when it’s an adult, such as your spouse or an aging parent.

I didn’t know this when I was babysitting for that kid, but there are actually a lot of ways to treat sleep apnea — you don’t just have to deal with that stress.  A sleep apnea machine, known as a CPAP machine (for "continuous positive airway pressure"), keeps the throat open by continually blowing a little bit of air down it.  Therefore the person’s throat can’t close up and force them to stop breathing during sleep.  A sleep apnea mask might not be that comfortable, however, which is why a person needs to choose their equipment carefully — if you don’t like how it fits or feels, you won’t wear it while you sleep, and therefore won’t benefit from the treatment.

Now that I know about stuff like sleep apnea, I’m a more attentive babysitter.  I like to have the baby monitor nearby so that I can listen to the kid breathe.  It’s amazing what a comforting sound that can be!

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People get into gardening for a number of different reasons. They get passionate about orchid care specifically for a variety of reasons as well. But no matter what the reason is, they all reap some of the same benefits. And many of those benefits are related to being a healthier person because of the time that they spend out in the orchid garden.

Here are three ways that orchid care keeps you healthy:

• You’re in the sun. The sun feeds your body with the nutrients that it needs in order to work properly. Even if you’re doing your orchid planting inside the home, you have to pay attention to the way the lighting feeds the plant. As you do, you’ll be noticing your own responses to light more and catering to your need for sunshine.
• Exercise. Gardening sounds like something that’s easy and laidback but that doesn’t mean that there’s no exercise associated with it. The planting and watering and re-potting all require some effort. That effort is good for your body.
• Relaxation. One of the best things that orchid gardening does for you is that it forces you to slow down and relax while you care for the plants. This decreases the stress in your life and increases your health.

It doesn’t matter what kind of orchid care you’re doing (phalaenopsis care, cymbidium care or some other type of orchid care). For that matter, it really doesn’t make a difference whether it’s orchids or some other flower. Gardening is just plain good for you.

Technorati Tags: orchid care, phalaenopsis care, cymbidium care