[lou_lou]

Study: To sleep better, perchance to live longer

(AP) -- Shakespeare once called sleep the "balm of hurt minds." Bodies, too, apparently. People with the severe form of apnea, which interferes with sleep, are several times more likely to die from any cause than are folks without the disorder, researchers report in Friday's edition of the journal Sleep.


The findings in the 18-year study confirm smaller studies that have indicated an increased risk of death for people with apnea, also known as sleep-disordered breathing.

"This is not a condition that kills you acutely. It is a condition that erodes your health over time," Dr. Michael J. Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said in a telephone interview.

People with such disorders "have been sleep deprived for perhaps very long periods of time, they are struggling to sleep. If this is happening night after night, week after week, on top of all our other schedules, this is a dangerous recipe," said Twery, whose center is part of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

The institute estimates that 12 million to 18 million people in the U.S. have moderate to severe apnea. The condition is not always detected because the sufferer is asleep when the problem occurs and it cannot be diagnosed during a routine office visit with a doctor. Researchers tested the patients for sleep-disordered breathing in the laboratory and then followed them over several years.

For people with apnea, their upper airway becomes narrowed or blocked periodically during sleep. That keeps air from reaching the lungs. In some cases, breathing stops for seconds to a minute or so; the pauses in breathing disrupt sleep and prevent adequate amounts of oxygen from entering the bloodstream.

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On the Net:

Sleep: http://www.journalsleep.org

NIH: http://www.nih.gov

[ol'cs]

Worries me because irregular breathing must affect the blood oxygen levels. I have worked with people who are overweight and have sleep apnea. One of them went to an overnight clinic and found that their blood oxygen levels got alarmingly low. That is very bad, the brain is the one organ in the body that is most sensitive to low oxygen levels. The brain also uses the most oxygen of any organ in the body. This has truly significant effects on us. Low oxygenated blood could be responsible the death of highly active neurons.
"Oxymeters" can be purchased at the drugstore. They work by passing infrared light through a "clip" on the thumb. The reading gives you a % of oxygen in your blood. If you wake up and take a reading and it is consistently low, you may have a problem. People with asthma or COPD often track their "resting" oxygen levels as a measure of when to take medication.
Us pWP often have "breathing problems". This is a result of akinesia of the diaphragm and a host of "autonomic muscles" that control breathing. These are the last muscles to shut down in a dying PWP, but often are compromised for many years, before getting really bad (DON"T SMOKE!). I use an Albuterol puffer, when i get alarmed about feeling that i'm not breathing enough. It dilates the air passages in the lungs, and stimulates breathing. This subject has been broached before and is a good topic that new PWP should be made aware of. cs

[lou_lou]

I wake up because I cant get a breath, and I realize the sleep apnea
runs in my family, my brother Mark sleeps with an oxygen mask on -
not comfy at all... he isnt obese at all...

this is amazing - please read


Japanese man in mystery survival
A Japanese man has survived for 24 days in cold weather and without food and water by falling into a state of "hibernation", his doctor has said.
Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, 35, went missing on 7 October after going with friends to climb Mount Rokko in western Japan.

He had almost no pulse, his organs had shut down and his body temperature dropped to 22C (71F) when he was found.

Medics say they are still puzzled how he survived because his metabolism was apparently almost at a standstill.

Mr Uchikoshi is believed to have tripped and lost consciousness after leaving his party to descend from the mountain on his own.

"I lay down... in a grassy area, which felt good in the sunshine, and eventually I fell asleep," Mr Uchikoshi told reporters at a news conference at a hospital in Kobe, where he was treated.

"That's the last thing I remember," he said.

He was found by rescuers on 31 October.

"He fell into a hypothermic state at a very early stage, which is similar to hibernation," said Dr Shinichi Sato, who treated Mr Uchikoshi.

"Therefore, his brain functions were protected without being damaged and have now recovered 100%. This is what I believe happened," he said.

Mr Uchikoshi - who had been treated for severe hypothermia, multiple organ failure and blood loss - was released from hospital and returned home on Tuesday.

Professor Hirohito Shiomi, a hibernation expert at a university in Hiroshima, was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying the case was "revolutionary, if the patient truly survived at such a low body temperature over such a long period of time".

finish reading: link below


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ic/6197339.stm

Published: 2006/12/21 11:58:24 GMT