Sleep is a precious gift to human nature. But for over 87 million Americans, snoring and sleeping go hand-in-hand. Since snoring is often passed off as a simple annoyance, many people don’t understand the potential health problems snoring can cause. Snoring may be a warning sign of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) in which a person stops breathing at times during the night and up to 7 minutes over the course of one night.

In fact, sleep apnea and snoring have been linked to very serious health issues such as heart attack and stroke. It’s also estimated that there are over 40 million Americans with sleep disorders and over 90% of them are left undiagnosed and untreated. In such milieus, it is imperative for folks to look into the World Wide Web for Snoring Treatments and Snoring Remedies. One name which stands out in the crowd due to its sheer resourcefulness and professionalism is Stop Snoring Austin. Read the rest of this entry

Obese individuals typically suffer more medical problems than their leaner counterparts. They are more likely to be diagnosed with insulin resistance, diabetes, increased stress hormones, hypothyroidism, and sleep apnea. Researchers at the Georgia Health Sciences University in Augusta have also found the potential for something else, using an animal model. They have found that a master clock gene which regulates the cardiovascular system  does not fluctuate regularly as it does in non-obese animals. This means that a key gene clock of the cardiovascular system does not work properly when obesity is present. The findings are believed to be the first of their kind.

The study was conducted by Shuiqing Qiu, Eric Belin de Chantemele, James Mintz, David J. Fulton, R. Daniel Rudic and David W. Stepp. Members of the team will present their findings, entitled, “Impact of obesity on the vascular circadian clock,” at the Experimental Biology 2011 meeting (EB 2011), being held April 9-13, 2011 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC. Read the rest of this entry

As parents, we consider nothing more important than the health and well-being of our children. We make sure they eat well, get their checkups, are immunized to prevent serious illnesses, and see a doctor when they are sick. Yet many parents are unaware that problems may occur at a time they least expect — while their children are asleep.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition in which the airway becomes partially or completely blocked during sleep, occurs in 1 to 3 percent of otherwise healthy children.

While long recognized in adults, Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has only recently been recognized as a significant problem for children.

Children with Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) frequently snore and may have difficulty breathing while asleep. They may have pauses in their breathing (called apneas), which can be followed by a sudden gasping for air. Their sleep can be restless, with tossing and turning, and they may sleep in unusual or contorted positions in an attempt to open up their blocked airway.

If left untreated, children are at risk for many physical as well as behavioral problems.

A free information and orientation session for those interested in becoming a polysomnographic technologist, or sleep technician, will be held at Linn-Benton Community College from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 19, in the Calapooia Center, room CC-213, 6500 Pacific Blvd. S.W., Albany.

Polysomnographic technologists assist sleep physicians to help patients with sleep disorders such as sleep apnea.Technologists ready the patient for testing, track the patient’s sleep patterns, and write and interpret the results for the physician.

LBCC’s Polysomnographic Technologist program combines online and in-class instruction with a clinical practicum.Skill areas covered include the physiology of sleep with an emphasis on sleep disorders and their treatment.The program also covers how to administer, interpret and score a variety of sleep tests.Attendance at the orientation session is mandatory before applying for the program.

Classes start June 20 and run through March 17, 2012. Applications for the program are being accepted.Cost is $7,500.

Check the LBCC website for prerequisites at www.linnbenton.edu/go/forms.For more information, contact LBCC Health Occupations and Workforce Education at 541-917-4923.

SleepApneaDisorder/ [Press Release ]/ SAN DIEGO, April 11, 2011 / — ResMed Inc.  today released its new S9 VPAP™ series of bilevel devices. Based on ResMed’s latest design and technology platform, the new bilevels include a range of sophisticated comfort technologies to promote long-term compliance.

“We are proud to announce the launch of the bilevel range of products on the S9™ platform, our latest and most innovative flow generator system for treating respiratory disorders including sleep-disordered breathing. Now, for the first time in our history, health care providers have one platform that can treat obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea and Cheyne–Stokes respiration, as well as provide noninvasive ventilation for patients requiring ventilatory support,” said Michael Farrell, Sr. Vice President of the Global Sleep Business Unit at ResMed. “Our goal is to increase patients’ quality of life by providing comfortable, quiet, easy-to-use and highly effective treatment. A critical element of successful treatment is long-term adherence to therapy.  Since its launch just over a year ago, the S9 Series has been able to help physicians and respiratory therapists achieve that goal—driving therapeutic compliance by patients around the globe.” Read the rest of this entry

Snoring can be a serious health issue, disrupting normal sleeping patterns and disturbing partners as they try to sleep through the noise. Snoring affects more than 90 million adults and their partners.

One British survey found that if your spouse snores, by your 50th wedding anniversary you’ll have lost about 4 years’ worth of sleep. Besides just feeling tired all the time, people who don’t get enough sleep can develop memory and mood problems; they’re even at a greater risk of car accidents.

Moderate snorers include people who snore every night, but perhaps only when on their backs or only for part of the night. Heavy snorers should see a doctor to make sure they don’t have a serious sleeping disorder called sleep apnea. For light or moderate snorers, here are home remedies that can help you and your partner, sleep better. Read the rest of this entry

Is snoring keeping you or your significant other from getting a good night’s sleep?

It could be a serious issue that needs your attention, according to a sleep expert at Baylor College of Medicine.

“Loud snoring, daytime sleepiness and waking up with a sore throat in the morning are all symptoms of sleep apnea,” said Dr. Mary Rose, assistant professor of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at BCM.

Categories of Sleep Disorders

Sleep apnea is a respiratory sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep, said Rose.

Generally, these pauses are defined as apneas, complete cessation of breathing; hypopneas, a 30 percent reduction of breathing; or respiratory effort related arousals, awakenings due to disrupted breathing. When people have more than five of these events per hour of sleep, they are classified as having sleep apnea, said Rose. Read the rest of this entry

As the feds and payors focus on curbing readmission rates, hospitals and caregivers need to revisit management of the hospital-to-home transition. Philips Healthcare shared a new multi-vendor, multi-disciplinary model during the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology.

Philips pointed out that although incentives are not aligned to reduce readmissions currently, the paradigm will reverse on Oct. 1, 2012, when Medicare will no longer reimburse for heart failure and acute MI patients who are readmitted within 30 days of their initial hospital stay.

The Hospital to Home (H2H) Learning Destination at ACC.11 walked visitors through three patient scenarios and illustrated how technology could improve patient management and outcomes.

The H2H Learning Destination focused on three patients: Jose, an acute MI patient treated with a stent and subsequently diagnosed with sleep apnea; Brian, a stage III heart failure patient with diabetes, hypertension and sleep apnea; and Maria, an 82-year old suffering worsening atrial fibrillation despite a transcatheter aortic valve replacement and antiarrhythmic medications.

Jose’s hospital stay entailed standard clinical systems such as echocardiography and 16-lead cardiograph, with patient data stored in the cardiology information system. Other components were cableless monitoring of NBP S_pO₂, sleep diagnostics, a hospital registry for MI patients and discharge planning including risk stratification. Read the rest of this entry

SleepApneaDisorder/[ Press release ]/ OKLAHOMA CITY, April 7, 2011 /- Graymark Healthcare Inc. , the nation’s second largest provider of diagnostic sleep services and an innovator in comprehensive care for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), realized a 107% year-over-year increase in patient resupply shipments in the first quarter of 2011.  Resupply shipments were also up slightly sequentially, setting a record in what is typically the slowest quarter of the year.

In the first quarter of 2011, Graymark shipped 2,244 resupply packages relating to its Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines, versus 1,084 in the same year-ago quarter and 2,220 in the previous quarter.  The increase is an extension of the growth in the number of sleep studies performed through the company’s higher margin outreach program.  The number of sleep therapy setups were also up 10% from the year-ago quarter, from 620 to 680 in the first quarter of 2011.

The resupply portion of the business represents an important recurring revenue aspect of Graymark’s business model.  Patients compliant on their CPAP devices typically receive four shipments of maintenance supplies annually. Read the rest of this entry

A study by scientists at the University of Birmingham has found that people that have type 2 diabetes and do not sleep well are at a higher risk of complaints such as eye disease, foot problems and amputation .
The research involved monitoring 231 type 2 diabetes patients, 149 of which had obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a sleep disorder resulting from disturbed breathing. They showed there were 48 per cent of those with eye damage in the obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) group, as compared with only 20 per cent in the group without obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Read the rest of this entry

According to research presented at the School of Medicine and the University of Navarra Hospital by Dr. Roberto Muñoz, a physician of the Neurology Service of the Hospital Complex of Navarra, those persons with serious cases of sleep apnea have more than twice the possibility of suffering an ischemic stroke. Specifically, 2.5 times more.

This was confirmed in an study undertaken for his doctoral dissertation among 394 subjects aged 70 or more. “After studying the quality of their sleep, we tracked the volunteers over the course of six years. After which, 20 of the study subjects had suffered a stroke”, explained this native Pamplonan. Furthermore, he confirmed that in addition to the fact that sleep apnea affects above all persons of middle and advanced age—it is estimated that 5% of all adults suffer from it—this prevalence may significantly increase with age. Read the rest of this entry

A recently concluded resaech study shows that patients in stroke rehabilitation treated for their co-existing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) recovered better from stroke than those whose obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) was not treated.

The study, published in the April edition of the journal Stroke, found “significant improvements” in functional and motor outcomes as well as mood of stroke rehabilitation patients who received continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a small mask placed over the patient’s nose during sleep that alleviates obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Read the rest of this entry

Just a month ago, the FDA approved the use of the Lap-Band® weight loss surgery procedure for patients with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or over that also suffered from obesity related diseases (comorbidities) such as type II diabetes, high cholesterol high blood pressure and sleep apnea. This loosening of the qualification guidelines for Lap-Band® surgery will have a profound effect on New Jersey residents who are seeking to undergo bariatric surgery in the future. Before this announcement, only patients with BMIs of 40 or more with no comorbidities or BMIs of 35 or more with one or more comorbidities could qualify.  A BMI of 30 or over qualifies a person as obese while 40 or over is considered severely obese.

The new regulations have opened up bariatric surgery as a weight loss option for thousands of New Jersey residents who would not have qualified for bariatric surgery under the old guidelines. According to the Centers for Disease Control 23.9% of New Jersey residents had a BMI greater than or equal to 30. As an example, while a typical 5’9” male with comorbidities needed to weight 237 lbs to qualify under the old criteria, they now only need to weigh 203 lbs. Read the rest of this entry

For some longtime headache sufferers, aging offers a benefit: milder headache symptoms and fewer headaches. The April issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter covers changes in headaches that adults may see as they reach their 50s and 60s.For older adults who have had migraines earlier in life, this type of headache often diminishes in number and intensity with age. The nature of migraines tends to change, too. Head pain may be more spread out rather than in one focused area. Nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and sound tend to occur less frequently with age. Older adults may experience new symptoms such as dry mouth during a migraine. Some older adults experience an aura, a painless visual change, without a headache.

New types of Headaches

With age, any new type of headache is increasingly likely to be related to an underlying medical condition,    ranging from sleep apnea to a stroke or brain tumor. Immediate medical care is warranted when a headache:

– Is sudden or severe

– Is accompanied by a fever, stiff neck, rash, confusion, seizure, double vision, weakness, numbness or difficulty speaking

– Begins quickly after strenuous exercise

– Develops after a head injury, fall or bump

Generally, adults over 50 should talk with their doctor about new headache symptoms.