Tag: high blood pressure

How This Laser In Your Mouth Stops Snoring

It sounds like something out of a science-fiction movie. Probably a really bad movie from the 70’s at that. There are lasers everywhere in movies like that and they generally serve a few purposes. Most of them violent (looking at you, Star Wars). Aside from shooting lasers out of your mouth, having this treatment with a laser inside your mouth, or rather your throat, is actually helping people stop snoring. It sounds a little bit ridiculous, but once you read more about the purpose of the laser and what it does, it’s not that bad:

Snoring is causing millions of people a good night’s sleep.
Just ask Oceanside’s Fred Brick — or better yet, ask his wife. “She would say gosh I didn’t sleep at all last night. You were just snoring and snoring”, Brick says.
Brick is no longer sawing logs at night all because of a new, non-invasive procedure called “Nightlase”. The laser used in the procedure is a little larger than a permanent marker.
The tool points in to the patient’s open mouth, and zaps out snoring, much to the delight of Fred’s wife. “Now she says she sleeps better and she feels like she can sleep all night” Brick added.
Dr. Eugene Nowak of Nowak Aesthetics in Chula Vista says “Nightlase” tightens the skin around the throat. “It’s just heating the tissue. By heating that collagen, we’re going to get a tightening and a little bit of a plumping effect,” Nowak explained.
The tighter, plumper skin allows the air to move more freely in a person’s throat. Brick says the procedure is pain free. “Does not hurt at all. Just a gentle little heat”, Brick added.
Dr. Nowak says patients can expect 80% of snoring to dissipate after three treatments. Patient Bob Novinskey is seeing results after just one treatment.
“I’m hoping to reach that 80%. I’m guessing i’m 50% now. I’m hoping to get there.”
It’s an interesting use for beams of light and seems to go in the right direction. There are people who will be interested in the procedure, especially because of the low recovery time. It’s permanent, unlike using an anti snoring mouthpiece like the SnoreRX (https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/snorerx). It’s far less invasive than some other procedures that are out there. The major con with something like this is the cost. Since it’s relatively new technology it’s going to come at a premium. The article doesn’t exactly state how many treatments are needed to reach the snore-free goal, but chances are it’s not a one-zap type of deal. This is talking about changing the internal structure of the throat: tightening and plumping up skin. This can’t be something quickly done. Careful research and lots of questions should be the first thing you think about if you want to consider something like this. As with anything new, it’s a bit unknown. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means there aren’t a lot of people out there who can testify to it’s greatness just yet. Be sure to ask your healthcare professional about a treatment like this as well, as they will most likely know more about it.

Sleeping Before Dusk Can Cause Heart Danger

clockSurely you remember the prime of your youth: staying up until 3am working on that final paper for your course or playing video games until midnight. As we get older our bedtimes tend to creep ever forward. We have more stresses in our lives and therefore need more time to recuperate from the long days we sludge through. But having an early bedtime could be a massive warning sign, especially for men:

Men who want an early night could be showing a warning sign of heart problems, medics have warned.

A study of 2,400 adults found that among men, bed times were significantly earlier among those suffering from high blood pressure.

On average, those with the condition – one of the key risks for heart disease – retired for the night 18 minutes earlier than those without it.

And once they got to bed, those with high blood pressure were significantly more likely to spent the night tossing and turning, the Japanese study found. 

Researchers said the desire to turn in early could be a clue to health problems which might otherwise be missed.

While early nights were linked with higher blood pressure, getting more sleep was unlikely to do anything to help the condition, they cautioned. 

Despite going to bed earlier, those with high blood pressure managed no more sleep overall – and scored significantly worse in tools used to measure the quality of slumber. 

On average, those with high blood pressure – also called hypertension – scored 5.3 in assessments, where a score of five or more indicted poor sleep quality. 

Among those with normal blood pressure, the score was 4.7, according to the study findings, presented at the European Society of Cardiology, in Rome.

Lead researcher Dr Nobuo Sasaki, from Hiroshima University, said: “Early bed times were associated with hypertension independent of anything else.”

Via: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/31/early-bed-time-could-be-warning-sign-for-heart-problems-in-men/

It’s very important to listen to your body. Is it strained? Is it weak? Is it tired? If your body is trying to tell you something you might not be listening close enough. As we age, we start ignoring what our bodies try to tell us in favour of what our minds tell us we can and cannot do. There will come a point in your life where eating an entire large pepperoni pizza on your own is going to cause serious gastrointestinal problems. Sure, you might have been able to pack a whole pizza away in your twenties, but maybe now you’re in your forties and pizza is not your friend.

The same can be said for sleep. Are you really so tired that a 7pm bedtime is appealing? What kind of work do you do? If you don’t do anything overly physically taxing and your commute isn’t that long, wanting to hit the hay so soon after supper is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong.

Make an appointment with your medical professional about a sleep study. Remember, we’re supposed to have a full physical at least once a year, possibly more often if you have other health concerns. Sleep is a wonderful thing and lying around in bed every once in a while isn’t really a bad thing. But we’re not teenagers any more. Staying up late and sleeping in until lunch is only going to cause problems, not solve them.

Don’t put off what important concerns and make sure that you address them right away. Chances are if you want to sleep that early, and actually do, you might not be getting the restful sleep you want. This is only going to create more concerns. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee, my friends.