A Currently concluded research study based on the large health insurance database revealed that people who’d suffered sudden deafness were more probable to have a previous diagnosis of sleep apnea than a comparison group without hearing loss.

Taiwanese health insurance data analysis revealed that the absolute difference is actually small: 1.7 percent of those with hearing loss had sleep apnea in comparison to 1.2 percent without hearing trouble.

The health records of nearly one million Taiwanese evaluated by Dr. Jau-Jiuan Sheu, of Taipei Medical University Hospital. His team of researchers found that almost 3,200 had been diagnosed with sudden deafness between 2000 and 2008. Comparison was made with other five people of same age and sex without hearing loss. Out of those 19,000 people in total, 240 had been diagnosed with sleep apnea before the episode of sudden deafness occurred. Read the rest of this entry

Sleep affects a person’s waking hours more than a person realizes. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, about 60 million Americans suffer from insomnia or other sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, restless limb syndrome, narcolepsy, delayed or advanced sleep phase syndrome and parasomnias. 

The Alert, Well and Keeping Energy (AWAKE) sleep support group is part of the Piedmont Newnan Sleep Center’s efforts to help patients get the rest they need to lead normal, productive lives.

“People don’t realize the affect and power a good night’s sleep has on people,” says Jennifer Morrow, the Piedmont Newnan Hospital Sleep Center and AWAKE support group coordinator.

Some common symptoms of not getting enough rest include excessive sleepiness during daytime hours, loud snoring, pauses during breathing while asleep, morning headaches, restless legs during sleep and exhaustion despite having enough sleep hours. Read the rest of this entry

Snoring was once considered a simple annoyance for bed partners, but there is a growing awareness in the medical community that the grunts and snorts of noisy sleepers can also be a sign of sleep apnea.

Testing can be a lucrative business, and labs have popped up in free-standing clinics and hospitals across the country. Over the past decade, the number of accredited sleep labs that test for the disorder has quadrupled, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

At the same time, insurer spending on the procedure has skyrocketed. Medicare payments for sleep testing increased from $62 million in 2001 to $235 million in 2009, according to the Office of the Inspector General.

Dr. David Gross, medical director of the sleep lab at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., says more than three-quarters of the patients who come to his lab are diagnosed with sleep apnea. “We are spending more and more money on sleep testing and treatment,” he says.

It’s no secret that the sleep business can be lucrative for physicians. While many sleep centers offer comprehensive care for sleep disorders, others are largely focused on overnight sleep testing, according to Dr. Nancy Collop, president of the academy. “A lot of people have gotten into the sleep business specifically to do that procedure,” she says.

Another option is a home sleep test, which costs less than a fifth as much as a lab test, and is considered effective for most patients. Medicare began paying for home sleep tests in 2008, but the tests have had only modest growth.

Some insurers, including WellPoint, are changing the way they pay for sleep testing to curb the costs.  Those changes are now widespread among Massachusetts insurers and are having an effect on the sleep industry in the state. [ Read Complete Post ... ]

Children with sleep disordered breathing (SDB) may have a better  quality of life (QOL) and diminished cardiovascular (CV) disease risk  from the decreased endothelin 1 (ET-1) levels after adenotonsillectomy,  according to new research  published in the journal Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery.

SDB is an increasingly common indication for tonsillectomy and  adenoidectomy due to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Cardiovascular  disease frequently has been reported in patients with moderate to severe  OSA. Related abnormalities include: systematic hypertension, pulmonary  hypertension with cor pulmonale, left ventricular hypertrophy or  dysfunction, cardiac arrhythmias, atherosclerosis, and coronary artery  disease. Read the rest of this entry

The prevalence of obesity in children has tripled in last 30 years, leading to children developing adult medical problems, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and sleep apnea.

While the childhood obesity epidemic is severe, we are seeing a decline in certain populations. In the United States alone, more than 12 million children and adolescents are considered obese.

Children who are obese are also more likely to continue on to be obese as an adult. Read the rest of this entry

One of the most common health disorders among people around the world is “sleep apnea”. In its simplest sense ‘sleep apnea’ can be understood as one or more pauses in normal breathing. In many cases the shallow breathing during sleep is also termed as ‘sleep apnea’.

A pause in normal breathing during sleep may have an undefined duration. Meaning thereby, the pause could be for a few seconds only or it can even stretch up to few minutes.

Similarly, the rate of occurrence of such pauses during sleep may also vary up to great ranges. It could be five times per hour or even up to 30 times an hour. Normal breathing generally starts immediately after such a pause but this re-start could generate a snoring or choking sound as well.

Once a person is a victim of ‘sleep apnea’ this disorder converts in to a chronic disorder slowly over the years. In majority of the cases people never realize that the ‘sleep apnea disorder’ has crept in their lives. Read the rest of this entry

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

Almost one in four men and one in ten women suffer from sleep apnea. There are three different types of sleep apnea but obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most common. And it goes hand-in-hand with type 2 diabetes.

Among all of the sleep disorders, OSA has the strongest association with type 2 diabetes. That’s even taking into account other risk factors, such as weight, sex and age.

The main risk factor for OSA is obesity. Excess weight deposits extra fat around the thorax, reducing chest compliance and functional capacity, while increasing oxygen demand. Read the rest of this entry

Sleep apnea is a deadly sleep disorder and as soon as you spot out any symptoms of this deadly disorder it is always best to go to a sleep specialist and follow his instructions.

A good sleep specialist will probably recommend CPAP, surgery, or oral appliance therapy. This list is not necessarily an alternative to CPAP, surgery, or oral appliances, but rather supplementary methods that decrease the probability of airway collapse.

Usually these methods are not enough to entirely eliminate sleep apnea disorder however there are effective ways either. Here are six of such probable ways ;

1. Lose Your Extra Weight

Unless you are extremely overweight AND your sleep apnea is mild, usually weight loss is not enough to entirely eliminate it. But it can definitely help. Weight loss is thought to improve apnea by changing the shape of the airway which decreases the probability of airway collapse. Read the rest of this entry

You could be just one among the millions of people all across the globe who are suffering from a sleep disorder. Even more disturbing is the fact that majority of the persons suffering from sleep disorders are undiagnosed.

How can you be so sure that if you have a sleep disorder?

Here are some of the most commonly occurring health conditions and symptoms that you may be experiencing significant as a typical sleep problem that requires urgent professional evaluation.

1.You have trouble going to sleep at night

While this is a common complaint among the normal population, if the problem persists it may signal the presence of a sleep disorder.                        Read the rest of this entry

Children are busy these days with texting, talking on the phone, and video games and this could leave them heavily sleep deprived. Apart from all these gadgets and other activities there is another monster that’s robbing them of a good night’s rest.

Getting your kid to sleep like a baby is harder than ever these days. If you have a teen, you know exactly what is this all about.

Edward Grandi with the American Sleep Apnea Association says, “They go to bed and immediately they’re texting their friends, or they’re looking at movies.”

Or they’re on Facebook or Twitter or checking their email, it’s endless. Read the rest of this entry

Lee A. Surkin, MD is the first medical practice in the state of North Carolina to offer Provent Sleep Apnea Therapy, an innovative, non-invasive treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) to patients in Greenville and throughout North Carolina. Cleared by the US FDA in 2008, Provent Therapy is a simple and effective new treatment option for obstructive sleep apnea. Provent Therapy utilizes the patient’s own breathing to provide clinically proven results in the treatment of OSA.

CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) is currently the gold standard for treatment of OSA and is extremely effective at treating OSA when worn as directed. However, up to half of all patients are not compliant with CPAP therapy due to the cumbersome nature of the treatment. Provent Therapy was developed to help patients who cannot tolerate CPAP therapy and may benefit from the small non-invasive and effective technology Provent Therapy provides. Read the rest of this entry

Sleep disorders often remain undiagnosed. Untreated sleep disorders among police officers may adversely affect their health and safety and pose a risk to the public.

Researchers examined and evaluated associations between sleep disorder risk and self-reported health, safety, and performance outcomes in police officers.

Cross-sectional and prospective cohort study of North American police officers participating in either an online or an on-site screening (n=4957) and monthly follow-up surveys (n=3545 officers representing 15 735 person-months) between July 2005 and December 2007. A total of 3693 officers in the United States and Canada participated in the online screening survey, and 1264 officers from a municipal police department and a state police department participated in the on-site survey.             Read the rest of this entry

In an industry first, Celadon, a major Canadian trucking firm, acknowledged in a recent legal settlement that sleep apnea in one of their drivers most likely led to the death of John Lindsay in a May 2010 trucking collision.  Wanda Lindsay, founder of The John Lindsay Foundation, recently announced the $3,250,000 settlement of a lawsuit she and her 3 children filed against Celadon Trucking Company and its driver. The lawsuit arose out of the death of John Lindsay on May 9, 2010.

The Lindsay family was represented by Jim Cole and the Cole, Cole & Easley law firm in Victoria, Texas.

“This is the first case in which a trucking company has acknowledged a death resulting from a driver with sleep apnea,” Cole said.  “I believe this will have a national impact on the trucking industry.” Read the rest of this entry

For patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea, three months of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is associated with reduced blood pressure, and partial reversal of metabolic abnormalities, according to a study published in the Dec. 15 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Surendra K. Sharma, M.D., Ph.D., from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, and colleagues investigated the effects of CPAP treatment on metabolic syndrome in 86 patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Patients were assigned to real or sham CPAP for three months, followed by a washout period of one month, and then a crossover to the other intervention for three months. Anthropometric variables, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose levels and lipid profile, insulin resistance, glycated hemoglobin levels, carotid intima-media thickness, and visceral fat were measured before and after each intervention. Read the rest of this entry

The Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee and  the Medical Review Board of the FMCSA held a joint  public meeting in Alexandria, VA, to discuss guidance for medical examiners  to identify commercial drivers with a high pre-test probability of having  Obstructive Sleep Apnea, define conditional certification, and what constitutes  immediate disqualification. “These recommendations are a step in the right  direction,” commented Richard Thiel, Director of Making Sleep Work For You?, a  nationwide sleep disorder program, “both entities recognize how OSA is an issue  in the industry, and are taking steps to not only address it, but also give  clear guidelines to all stakeholders involved.”

Subcommittees of each group working together will meet in January to draft  more detailed recommendations to the FMCSA, and another joint meeting of these  entities will take place in February 2012 to finalize the detailed  recommendations. A public comment period will also be available before the FMCSA  issues these recommendations as final guidance. Read the rest of this entry