A study conducted in Las Vegas has found that of the 106 patients on which the CPAP mask was tried since February, 70 percent benefited, with medical officials reporting that the patients did not have to go on a mechanical ventilator.

“CPAP was highly effective in the treatment of dyspnea (difficult or labored breathing) associated with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, and pneumonia,” states a preliminary report written by Bledsoe and Johnson to the Southern Nevada Health District.

Those conditions generally see a fluid buildup in the lungs. CPAP’s continuous positive pressure of air, pushing the fluid back into the soft tissue, allows gas exchange to flow better and simplifies a patient’s ability to take a breath.

If the preliminary results of the Las Vegas study stay about the same for about 300 patients, it’s expected that the health district will require the CPAP on all emergency medical service vehicles in Southern Nevada. Read the rest of this entry

Between 1960 and 2010, the average night’s sleep for adults in the United States dropped to six and a half hours from more than eight. Age can have a detrimental effect on sleep. In a 2005 national telephone survey of 1,003 adults ages 50 and older, the Gallup Organization found that a mere third of older adults got a good night’s sleep every day, fewer than half slept more than seven hours, and one-fifth slept less than six hours a night.

With advancing age, natural changes in sleep quality occur. Habits that ruin sleep often accompany aging: less physical activity, less time spent outdoors ,poorer attention to diet, taking medications that can disrupt sleep, caring for a chronically ill spouse, having a snoring partner who snores. Add to this list a host of sleep-robbing health issues, like painful arthritis, diabetes, depression, anxiety, sleep apnea, hot flashes in women and prostate enlargement in men. [  Read Complete Post By JANE E. BRODY At NewYork Times ...   ]

If you want to look more attractive, more healthy,and less tired then you must ensure a good, sound sleep over the night. Sleep deprived people are less healthy, less attractive, and more tired than after a normal night’s sleep. These facts are revealed of an experimental study conducted at the Sleep laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden.

The participants included 23 healthy, sleep deprived adults (age 18-31) who were photographed and 65 untrained observers (age 18-61) who rated the photographs.

Participants were photographed after a normal night’s sleep (eight hours) and after sleep deprivation (31 hours of wakefulness after a night of reduced sleep). The photographs were presented in a randomised order and rated by untrained observers. Read the rest of this entry

What Is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep. Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They often occur five to 30 times or more an hour. Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound.

Sleep apnea often goes undiagnosed. Doctors usually cannot detect the condition during routine office visits. Also, there are no blood tests for the condition. Most people who have sleep apnea do not know they have it because it only occurs during sleep. A family member or bed partner may first notice the signs of sleep apnea.

The most common type of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea. This most often means that the airway has collapsed or is blocked during sleep. The blockage may cause shallow breathing or breathing pauses.

When you try to breathe, any air that squeezes past the blockage can cause loud snoring. Obstructive sleep apnea is more common in people who are overweight, but it can affect anyone. Read the rest of this entry

If you are suffering from sleep apnea disorder then you’re not breathing properly while you sleep because your airflow is blocked repeatedly throughout the night.

Nearly one in four men and one in ten women suffer from the sleep apnea disorder . There are three specific types of sleep apnea disorder but Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common among them. Among all of the sleep disorders, OSA goes hand-in-hand with type 2 diabetes.

In a survey on the subject it was revealed that the obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has the strongest association with type 2 diabetes.” That’s even taking into account other risk factors, such as weight, sex and age. Read the rest of this entry

Older adults need about 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep, but for many reasons they may often be sleep deprived.  Sleep deprivation may be caused by day time napping, anxiety, sleep apnea, or movement disorders such as restless leg syndrome, medications, or dementia.

Risks of sleep deprivation include: a decreased ability to fight infection, heart disease (48% greater chance of developing or dying from heart disease), high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, an increase incidence of accidents, impairment of attention, judgment, and problem solving.  Lack of sleep contributes to depression, aging of the skin, anxiety, and weight gain. Sleep maybe the fountain of youth but unlike that elusive natural wonder, sleep can be found and embraced.

There are many ways to get better nights sleep.  Most important is to minimize sleep during the day. A short daytime nap may be beneficial but multiple naps or extended daytime sleeping affects the quality and quantity of the primary sleep period.  Developing habits around bedtime, the waking hour, regular exercise, and a relaxing bedtime routine, help to maximize sleep.  Caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and  large quantities of liquids and food should also be avoided close

Safe sleep is just as important and good sleep.  When getting up in the middle of the night from a sound sleep, disorientation, low blood pressure or generalized weakness may develop. Stay safe at night by keeping a phone with emergency phone numbers close to the bed, having a nightlight in the bathroom, removing area rugs and getting up slowly to make sure strength and balance are present before walking.  Falls are the leading cause of injury related visits to the emergency room, most of them happening at night.

A recent study with Harvard Medical School, including Dr. Atul Malhotra (Sleep Group Solutions leading Medical Advisor) and Shaquille O’Neal concluded in a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) for the Celtics Center.

The Greek word apnea literally means without breath.  Common in athletes,  their large statures make breathing more difficult during sleep.  With Shaq weighing in at 325 pounds and reaching over 7 feet in height, it’s no wonder this superstar athlete snores and fights for breath during sleep.  “It usually happens when he’s on his back.”  confesses girlfriend Nikki “Hoopz” Alexander on Shaqs snoring, and sleep apnea.  Hoopz went on to discuss the severity of Shaqs’ snoring and apnea, in an article published by Yahoo! Sports on May 21st.    Read the rest of this entry

Sleep disturbances occur with increased frequency in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) compared with the general population. These encompass sleep apnea syndromes, post-traumatic hypersomnia, insomnia, and related conditions. Poor sleep can have adverse impacts on cognition, attention, and judgment. In those with TBI, disrupted sleep has been shown to impair rehabilitation efforts and progression, and is associated with diminished quality of life measures. The current military conflicts in the Middle East have focused renewed attention on this topic, because many military veterans are affected by TBI. Given the youth of this demographic, management of TBI will be an ongoing challenge for the healthcare community for years to come. Read the rest of this entry

Snoring is one of the most common and debilitating problems, affecting one out of ever four people.  It can be a sign of sleep apnea, in which obstruction in the airway causes a person to temporarily stop breathing hundreds of times a night.  Sleep Apnea has been linked to high blood pressure, weight gain, memory problems, and even car accidents due to drowsy driving.

There are many approaches to snoring cessation.  The C-Pap mask forces extra oxygen into the lungs during sleep, and is often prescribed to those with severe sleep apnea. Read the rest of this entry

Canada, like many other nations around the world, has a tremendous growth in the number of obese people. Currently, 59 per cent of Canadians are either overweight or obese and that is a much too high percentage for our supposedly healthy society. What’s even worse is that we are letting many of our adolescent communities reach this point of being overweight, or even obese.

Currently, a whooping 26 per cent of Canadian children from the ages or 2 to 17 years old are either overweight or obese. The rate of these obese children has almost tripled in the past 25 years. This clearly shows that we are doing something wrong to help create a healthier and happier life for our future teenagers and adults. Read the rest of this entry

SleepApneaDisorder/[ Press Release ]/ SAN DIEGO, May 24, 2011 /- ResMed today released the ResMed Sleep Assessment app, a novel new app for iPhone that lets users record themselves during sleep. The app also includes a clinically validated questionnaire that assesses their risk and other helpful features to empower users to discuss their sleep health with their physician.

Excessive tiredness may be due to sleep apnea

Feeling excessively tired or fatigued is often the result of disrupted, unhealthy sleep. Numerous factors can lead to poor quality sleep, some of which have significant negative health effects. One possible cause of fatigue is sleep apnea, a common sleep disorder. People with sleep apnea report feeling like they’re living in a fog, and that no matter how much they sleep they still feel exhausted.

Sleep apnea is a serious health condition in which a person stops breathing temporarily during sleep. After several seconds, the brain triggers a wake-up response, causing the person to awaken gasping. These events may happen hundreds of times per night, though the sleeper usually won’t remember waking up. Often a spouse or partner will notice that the person snores loudly during sleep.

Sleep apnea affects approximately one in five U.S. adults, although it is estimated that as many as 80% of sleep apnea sufferers are undiagnosed and untreated. A known cause of hypertension, untreated sleep apnea has also been linked with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression and stroke. Read the rest of this entry

A study in the journal Heart Rhythm has found that patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators who had sleep-disordered breathing were at significantly higher risk for ventricular arrhythmias compared vs. those without sleep-disordered breathing.

The prospective study involved 45 patients with an ICD who were enrolled from August 2007 to March 2009. Twenty-six of these patients had sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), defined as an apnea-hypopnea index of morethan 10 events per hour as determined by an overnight sleep study. The current study’s primary endpoint was appropriate ICD therapy during a 1-year follow-up.

During this time, 62% of patients had one or more episodes of ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. Read the rest of this entry

Angelcare Monitor who currently manufactures the best rated movement baby monitors in the world is eagerly awaiting delivery of their most sought after baby monitor in years.

One of the first shipments of the Angelcare Video Monitor aka: Angelcare Monitor AC1100 was planned on arriving and become available to consumers via internet ecommerce sites and similar store outlets by June 1st, but is now re-scheduled for June 15th, 2011.  This was due in part to the Tsunami that recently hit the shores of Japan causing damage to the Toshiba factor which makes some of the internal parts to this baby monitor.

Angelcare’s only real competition in the movement baby monitors arena has been Babysense.  Although they both offer a sleep apnea monitor for infant and babies, Angelcare, unlike Babysense offers both a parent and nursery monitoring unit, which seems to cater better to both U.S. and Canadian consumers.  Thus, Angelcare has dominated this movement baby monitors niche in both U.S. and Canada and throughout much of Europe and is expected to gain even more market share once the new Angelcare Monitor AC1100 units arrive and become available to parents and consumers. Read the rest of this entry

The full year results for Fisher & Paykel Healthcare are due on Wednesday and those of Fisher & Paykel Appliances will be released on Friday.

Analysts will be closely watching Fisher and Paykel Healthcare’s sleep apnea range, and what impact the high New Zealand dollar could have on the business during the year ahead. The medical equipment manufacturer’s guidance for the full year is for a profit of between $60 and $63 million.

But Forsyth Barr senior analyst Guy Halwright says this may be pushed slightly higher due to the New Zealand dollar over the past six months.

He says the sleep apnea market has been slower than previously, but it’s unclear whether this is simply a lingering effect of the economic crisis and the slow American economy.He says the high New Zealand currency is the main problem facing Fisher & Paykel. Read the rest of this entry