Awake In America Replaces Equipment To Treat Sleep Apnea Lost In Hurricane Ike

There is an urgent need to help victims of Hurricane Ike replace lost and damaged CPAP units as a result of Hurricane Ike. The entire story can be found at Medical News Today. Please consider a donation.

Dr. Barsh
Snoring Isn't Sexy

Snoring Separately and ED

According to CNN - 23% of married couple sleep apart and requests for two master bedrooms in new homes are growing. Snoring, in addition to being causally related to stroke, destroys relationships. Many psychologists warn that sleeping apart can spell trouble in a relationship.

Snoring also can be a sign of sleep apnea. With many sleep apnea sufferers, erectile dysfunction (ED) can be a problem. Recent research indicates that ED can result from periods of oxygen deprivation associated with sleep apnea. Although the research was conducted on animals, there is a strong possibility that this relationship exists in humans as well.

It is, therefore, quite possible that ED is a sign of sleep apnea which has been linked to high blood pressure, cardiac problems, stroke, diabetes and depression. If you snore heavily, have been observed to stop breathing during sleep, have high blood pressure and feel sleepy during the day even after a night's rest, before you pop the little blue pill think about having a sleep study.

You could not only be saving your marriage but also saving your life.

Dr. Barsh
SnoringIsntSexy.com

Snoring, Diabetes and Physicians

DiabetesHealth.com released a statement today that said

Despite the fact that 94 percent of doctors are aware of the association between sleep apnea and diabetes, only 47 percent of them screen for the condition in their patients with diabetes. As a result, about 85 percent of sleep apnea cases among diabetics go undiagnosed.

Dentists are probably worse than physicians in this regard. If you are a patient with diabetes, ask your dentist why such an important relationship of diseases goes unnoticed in his/her office. For the most part, dentists see their patients more frequently than physicians see theirs and it would be a simple matter for a dentist to ask a few simple questions about sleep-breathing problems especially where dentistry can play such an active role in the management of these problems. Again from DiabetesHealth.com:

Dental Device (a.k.a. oral appliance, intraoral device, or mouthpiece):
Breathe through your nose. Now move your lower jaw forward. Does the back of your throat feel a bit more open, making it a little easier to breathe? A dentist or orthodontist can custom make a device for you to wear at night that will keep your lower jaw and/or tongue forward.

Help us get the word out about the relationship of sleep apnea and diabetes, ask about screening at your dentist's office.

Dr. Barsh

Snoring Isn't Sexy

Still think snoring is a joke?

Snoring has always been considered a joke. "Two snorers walk into a bar...." You can finish the rest of the story, I'm sure.

Television advertising promotes the ability to stop snoring by sticking things on the outside of your nose, sticking things in the inside of your nose, spraying stuff in your throat, and by taking a boil and bite mouth device to pull your jaw forward (by the way, it's illegal in the United States to sell these over the counter). And, in fact, most of these WILL stop the snoring but do you really want to?

Huh? you say - of course I want to stop the snoring, why shouldn't I? As it turns out there is a good reason not to do it yourself. A scientific article released in the Sept. 1 issue of the prestigious journal Sleep shows that snoring is indeed an independent risk factor for the development of hardening of the arteries in neck - known as carotid atherosclerosis - that can progress to a point where it is associated with a stroke.

We know that snoring can also be a warning sign of sleep apnea as well especially if one's bed partner notices cessation of breathing at intervals during sleep. Stopping the snoring eliminates the warning sign and creates what is know as a silent apneic. Sleep apnea is associated with heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, excessive daytime sleepiness, erectile dysfunction and even death during sleep from factors related to apnea.

So for a couple of reasons, stopping the snoring without medical or dental intervention can be a bad idea. It's your decision of course but before you decide, stop and take a few moments to think of the possible consequences - the point is not to just stop the sound of snoring, the point is to eliminate the obstruction that causes the snoring and to increase oxygen flow through the partially obstructed airway.

Dr. Barsh
Snoring Isn't Sexy

Driving on Labor Day Weekend

It's hard to believe but Labor Day is only one week away. Despite high gas prices, it's estimated that more than 30 million Americans will be driving this Labor Day weekend.

Most people are aware of the dangers of drinking and driving, but few are aware of the dangers of sleepiness and driving. The 2008 Sleep in America Poll found that

64 percent of drivers who work at least 30 hours per week report they have driven a
vehicle while feeling drowsy in the past year, and more than one-third, 36
percent, have actually fallen asleep at the wheel. Sleep-related crashes
are most common in young people, especially men, shift workers, commercial
drivers, and people with untreated sleep disorders. NHTSA conservatively
estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of
driver fatigue each year. This results in an estimated 1,550 deaths, 71,000
injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses each year.

Be sure to get adequate sleep before any road trip this coming weekend and if you have been told that you snore, have had your bed partnhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifer tell you that you stop breathing during sleep, know that you have high blood pressure and that you are tired despite sleeping 7 - 8 hours at night - get yourself checked out for sleep apnea. For more information, visit snoringisntsexy.com

Have a great weekend and drive safely.

Dr. Barsh

Want to Look Better and Live Longer? First, Stop Smoking

In the August 14 issue of the New York Times in the style section (where we all get our medical news apparently), there was an article that plastic surgeons are refusing to do face lifts for men and women who smoke. Hmmm... approaching a life endangering habit from a cosmetic point of view. Very much the same way we at Snoring Isn't Sexy.com approach snoring and sleep apnea.

While we are on the subject of smoking, two recent scientific articles point to the dangers of smoking and sleep apnea.

In February, 2008 an article was published in the Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society:

...obstructive sleep apnea is also being recognized as an independent risk factor for several clinical consequences, including systemic hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and abnormal glucose metabolism.
Factors that increase vulnerability for the disorder include age,male sex, obesity, family history, menopause, craniofacial abnormalities, and certain health behaviors such as cigarette smoking and alcohol use.

And in March in Sleep Medicine, Dr. Peretz Lavie published an article that stated that smoking interacts with sleep apnea to increase risk of heart disese:

There is a synergistic effect between cigarette smoking and sleep apnea on some of the biochemical cardiovascular risk markers. Patients with severe sleep apnea who smoke are at a greater cardiovascular risk than smokers with mild-moderate sleep apnea and patients who do not smoke.

We recommend quitting smoking at any age for any reason but if you smoke and have sleep apnea, you are at risk.

Quiet Now!

Dr. Barsh

New Website You might be Interested In

There's a new web site that features a video diary Dr. Jonathan Lown's experience of living with CPAP that may develop into a resource that you want to keep your eye on over the next few months. The site features the ability to use what they call a "Still Sleepy Tracker" that apparently you can download and develop your own diary of sleepiness. The site is at StillSleepy.com.

While the video diary is interesting, there are a couple of problems that I find with the site.

First, there is no way to contact the developer of the site. When you visit any medical site, it is imperative that you be able to contact the web developer. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, many sites that offer medical information where, in fact, developed with the sole purpose of attracting search engines and cashing in on the advertising in the side bar.

Second, the site is actually a commercial for a pharmaceutical called Provigel. While there is a cost associated with development and maintenance of a web site, there is a serious conflict of interest at the site.

Third, the "Still Sleepy Tracker" is nothing more than the Epworth Sleepiness scale without attribution. While being able to measure daytime sleepiness it is not diagnostic for sleep apnea. It measures only one factor - daytime sleepiness - which could be due to a variety of reasons.

Finally, the video diary contains a video of a Dr. Jonathan Lown but fails to provide any background information as to whether Dr. Lown is a physician or a PhD. When you visit a medical information site, you should always be able to be able to access information about the medical authority featured on the site.

Dr. Barsh
Snoring Isn't Sexy