Sleep Apnea, Sleep Disorders, CPAP, BiPAP - Help Me Breath

Interesting article over at WebMD

May 16, 2008—A cup of green tea may be just what the doctor ordered if you have learning and memory problems related to obstructive sleep apnea, the most common type of sleep-related breathing disorder.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) starves the body of oxygen during sleep. Persons with the condition experience pauses in breathing while sleeping. This condition can cause a drop in oxygen levels, which can affect organs of the body. OSA increases your risk for high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes, and affects cognitive function such as learning and memory.

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Being a major consumer of Ambien, sufferer of sleep apnea, and a worker with crappy insurance, I am more than well aware of how much money is being made on sleep disorders. This really validates what I have been complaining about, loudly, for some time now. Please read the entire article and start complaining yourself.
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[Excerpt] The days following Heath Ledger’s death have swirled with speculation, with tales of hard drugs and prescription pills, of anti-depressants and sleeping tablets. Amid all the mutterings about heroin abuse and cocaine addiction, it is the sleeping pills that seem most startling. Ledger, plagued by the chronic insomnia that often accompanies depression, had apparently come to rely on medication to get him to sleep. “I warned him to stop,” said Jack Nicholson. “I tell people about Ambien [sleeping pill]. Somebody said, ‘Take this, it’s mild.’ I almost drove off a cliff 50 yards from my house.”

[Excerpt] In 2006 Forbes magazine ran an article about what it termed “the sleep racket”, the $20-billion industry that bloomed around our pursuit of the perfect night’s sleep: money spent on herbal balms, mattresses, sleep clinics and, oh yes, sleeping pills.

Full Story Here

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