Sleep Apnea Leads To Increased Risk Of Death

A major study conducted over a decade has concluded that sleep apnea raises the risk of premature death in middle-aged and older men...

A new study has concluded that middle-aged and elderly man with sleep apnea, are at almost double the risk of dying from chronic diseases. Even patients with a moderate sleep apnea face a 17 percent increased risk of premature death, when compared with those who do not have sleep disordered breathing problems.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Naresh Punjabi, an associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, said:

“The primary finding of our study is that sleep apnea can increase the risk of death by about 40 percent, even after other factors have been accounted for…

“Our study also shows that it is the decrease in oxygen levels during sleep from sleep apnea that explains the increased risk of death,”

The decade-long U.S. study found that men with sleep apnea between the ages of 40 and 70 are particularly at risk of death from many ailments, especially cardiovascular disease.

Sleep apnea is a common, chronic condition that affects around one in four men and about one in 10 women. If left untreated, it can lead to excessive sleepiness and difficulties with alertness, this often leads to an increased risk for driving accidents and other activities.

For their study, the research team at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center focused on more than 6,400 men and women between 40 and 70 years old. Each participant had mild to severe sleep apnea, and many described themselves as snorers – a prime symptom of sleep apnea.

The team then collected almost 10,000 in-depth reports on the participants breathing patterns, heart rhythms and brain activity during sleep. After determining that about half the patients had moderate to severe sleep apnea, the researchers went on to track the incidence of sickness or death from high blood pressure, heart disease and/or stroke.

Over the full course of the study, 587 men and 460 women died. Comparing the deaths against the sleep pattern recordings, the team found that just 11 minutes of severe sleep apnea – during which blood oxygen levels dipped to below 90 percent of normal – appeared to roughly double the risk of death among men.

The small number of women with severe sleep apnea who died during the study ruled out similar conclusions about women.

Nonetheless, Punjabi and his colleagues stressed that the findings were alarming enough to warrant diligent physician attention to patient sleeping habits, in order to quickly intervene:

“With such mounting evidence indicating the range of clinical effects of sleep apnea, awareness amongst health care professionals and the general community needs to increase,”

Losing weight sometimes reduces sleep apnea, but for severe sleep disorders, patients must use a device that utilizes ‘continuous positive airway pressure’ (CPAP) – a technique in which are is forced into the nasal passageways, via a face mask, in order to stop the airways collapsing.

People with clinical symptoms of sleep apnea, which include loud snoring, sleepiness during the day and fatigue, should discuss their symptoms with a physician, Punjabi advised:

“Effective therapy for sleep apnea can improve such symptoms and lead to a better quality of life,”

Jim Cappuccino, a 49-year-old sleep apnea patient living in the Baltimore suburbs who was part of Punjabi’s study, agreed.

Cappuccino, the owner of a surgical equipment and medical device sales company, knew he had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes before enrolling in the study.

Although he can trace the onset of sleep apnea difficulties, such as disruptive snoring and breathing pauses, back to his mid-30′s, it was only when he enrolled in
the study that he was finally diagnosed with sleep apnea, he said:

“When you’re in that career mode, and you’re on the go-go-go, you put your health issues on the back burner…

“But as I got older, I realized that this is probably something that I should have addressed years ago. I was shocked by the correlation between sleep apnea and heart disease and diabetes, and actually even death, but getting tested and diagnosed and treated has made all the difference. It’s actually allowed me to wake up not feeling tired, which hasn’t been the norm for me for a few years…

“So the only thing I can say, is people who feel that they are having trouble should get tested, because sleep apnea is going to deteriorate your system and lead to many other health problems.”

Sony Subtitle Glasses

Sony want to help the deaf and hard of hearing enjoy more trips to the movie theaters…

When it comes to watching movies, nothing beats the traditional cinema experience, but for the deaf and hard of hearing, and outing to movie theater is nothing but awkward. Although many movie theaters do show films with subtitles, they often come days, sometimes weeks after the official release of the movie, and when they do hit the theaters, the films are often shown at unsociable hours.

Considering 1 in six people suffer from some kind of hearing disability, that’s a rather substantial amount of the public who are missing out.

Sony Subtitle Glasses

Sony aims to solve that problem with its subtitle glasses. The glasses – which look a whole lot more comfortable than the standard 3D glasses issued by most movie theaters – superimpose the closed captions (or subtitles) on the lenses, in a way that makes it appear as though they were actually being projected on the big screen.

No word on when the glasses will hit the States, but Sony says it hopes to have the glasses in UK cinemas sometime next year.

New Breakthrough Lung Cancer Treatment

New surgical treatment for lung cancer shows promise…

French doctors have pioneered a new treatment for lung cancer that does not require the removal of a patient’s lung. The new procedure, developed by a medical team at the Bobigny Hospital, Paris, involves removing the growth, then implanting an artificial bronchus – supported by a metal scaffold – to aid the patient’s breathing.

The bronchus is constructed from the patient’s aorta – the largest artery in the body – eliminating the need for the patient to take anti-rejection drugs, which are known to react with cancer treatments.

French doctors pioneer new lung cancer treatment

Image Credit: BBC, 2011.

The life-saving surgery to remove a serious tumor in the center of the patient’s lung was performed in October , and while a third of all patients suffering from the later stages on lung cancer typically died within a year, 78 year-old Parisian is said to be doing well 16 months after the treatment.

Although the treatment has been under developmemt for the last ten years, doctors waited until now to release their findings to see how their first patient reacted and recovered.

The medical team says that the procedure allows for a greater margin of safety and hopes the success of its technique will lead to more life-saving operations.

E-Cigarettes To Be Regulated As Tobacco Products

FDA decides not appeal Federal Courts decisions to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco, not medical products…

A Federal Court suit has ruled that electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, will not be regulated by the same strict rules that apply to medical products; instead the nicotine dispensing devices will be overseen by the same rules as tobacco products.

The FDA, an agency that wants e-cigarettes to regulated as medical devices, has announce that it will not appeal the decision – a move that spells victory for the manufacturers and distributors of electronic cigarettes.

The court ruling at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, concluded that e-cigarettes “are not drugs or devices” can could be treated as normal tobacco products as long as they are not marketed as a therapeutic device, or a way to quit smoking.

E-Cigarettes To Be Regulated As TObacco Products

Image Credit: TheSmokersAngel, 2011.

E-Cigarettes are powered by a battery and use a heating element to vaporize liquid nicotine that is inhaled by the user. The device is designed to look like a cigarette, with the tip glowing red when in use. This design gimmick, along with the skeptical marketing that claims the e-cigarettes are safer than cigarettes, has lead to activists and health groups such as the FDA to call for stricter regulations on the sales of the device.

In September 2010, the FDA said released a letter to e-cigarette distributors saying that their products were being marketed illegally and should be subject to the same regulations governing drugs and medical devices.

However Sottera Inc., an e-cigarette manufacturer based in Scottsdale, Ariz., quickly responded using the federal court to back up its claim that because the device vaporizes nicotine, it is a tobacco product and not a medical device.

Following the ruling in favor of Sottera Inc, in December 2010, the FDA issued a letter to the public and stakeholders announcing its decision not to appeal. Nevertheless the agency said it would take steps to ensure that appropriate regulations are in place for all “tobacco products”.

Experts worry that the FDA’s acceptance court ruling could lead to the misuse of tobacco in other products. Matthew L. Myers, president of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said:

“[Manufacturers can now] add nicotine to a wide range of products without the stringent regulation traditionally applied to smoking cessation medications and other non-tobacco products to which nicotine has been added.”

Myers did say in a letter posted on the group’s website that the FDA “has taken appropriate action to protect public health by announcing that it intends to assert authority over other tobacco products that meet the statutory definition of ‘tobacco products’” under federal law.