Blog List – Classic
Retired NFL players are very aware of sleep apnea
I met Derek Kennard early in his process. He was really suffering with fatigue and it was affecting all aspects of his life. His snoring was a real problem of course and it was affecting his relationship with his wife. His real problem was the big dark circles under his eyes and his inability to stay awake. I noticed he was exhibiting all the classic symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. As it turned out his real battle was with the therapy. He had excellent therapists who really pulled ...Read More
Interdisciplinary cooperation is critical for Sleep Apnea Treatment
It is axiomatic in the treatment of sleep apnea that primary care physicians, dentists, therapists and sleep physicians work together for the benefit of the patient. In the article below that was previously presented by Dr Viviano in the online publication SleepScholar.com, Dr Viviano presents how the system can fail, from the point of view of an individual patient. I was really struck by the tenacity of the patient seeking treatment. He clearly understood he had a problem and was using every po...Read More
Cigarette Smoke and COPD Link Confirmed
Researchers from Brown University examined healthy patients’ and smoking patients’ lung samples in order to demonstrate that the expression of the pathways in immune responses is decreased in COPD patients. The researchers examined the relationship between NLRX1, the protein known to inhibit the MAVS/ RIG-1-like helicase pathway, in the clinical stage of current and former smokers with COPD. The team found that measured levels of the protein are a sign of cigarette induced emphysema, similar to ...Read More
Positional Apnea Therapy could make the difference
Many patients have difficulty with CPAP compliance. I have heard over the years many clinicians refer to an over reliance on CPAP therapy for obstructive sleep apnea. While CPAP fits nicely into the in lab sleep diagnostic setting, long term compliance rates tend to be low when this device is used in the home. It is a stretch in the minds of some to consider a therapy with only 50% adherence after 45 days, according to some studies, the gold standard. A major challenge in today’s medical r...Read More
Rem Flood and it’s relationship to sleep deprivation
How can you fall asleep while driving? What is REM sleep? What is Sleep Deprived? What is REM flood? How do you treat it? It’s so scary when this happens! You’re driving down the interstate at 75mph or you’re in heavy traffic. And almost without warning your heads falls down and pops back up because you just fell asleep! It’s happened to me too. Scariest part is the 1-2 seconds after you wake back up your still going 75 mph and your disoriented!!! And for some it ends tragically with an auto acc...Read More
COMPLIANCE AND EFFICACY OF TITRATABLE THERMOPLASTIC VERSUS CUSTOM MANDIBULAR ADVANCEMENT DEVICES
Friedman M, Hamilton C, Samuelson CG, Kelley K, Pearson-Chauhan K, Taylor D, Taylor R, Maley A, Hirsch MA. Source Advanced Center for Specialty Care, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Abstract Objective. To share our experiences treating patients with obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) with titratable thermoplastic (TPD) and custom-made mandibular advancement devices (MAD) and to compare these devices in terms of objective improvement and cure and t...Read More
Bacteria may be key to non smoking compliance
A bacterial enzyme may be a future candidate in smoking cessation, according to a new study led by researchers at The Scripps Institute. Findings from the study are published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Current smoking cessation aids have proven to be ineffective in at least 80–90% of smokers. This novel enzyme therapy would be to eliminate nicotine before it reaches the brain as to not trigger a smoker into relapse. The NicA2 enzyme is found in the, which is originally from...Read More