Medical News

Sleep apnea or sleep-disordered breathing is an ordinary disorder that can be serious. In this disorder, you’re breathing pauses a number of times while sleeping. Typically, there is a loud snort or a choking sound when normal breathing starts again. Patients with this disorder often snore so loud. On the other hand not all people who snore have this kind of sleeping disorder.

Usually, sleep apnea is a chronic (ongoing) condition that disturbs your sleep 3 or more nights every week. When breathing gaps happen during sleeping, deep sleep is shifted to shallow sleep. This will cause a poor quality sleep which will cause you less energy and makes you exhausted during the day. That is why people having problem have a high risk for accident such as car crashes, other work related accidents and other medical problems.

The most familiar type of sleeping disorder is the snoring or obstructive sleep apnea. In this, your airway has collapsed or blocked during sleep and you are not able to acquire sufficient amount of air. When that occurs, the oxygen in your blood may drop. Anyone can have obstructive sleep apnea. And people who are overweight are more often to have this disorder. Usually, this disorder is not diagnosed. Physicians often can’t detect the condition during normal clinic visits. There are no any blood tests for this condition. Sleep apnea occurs only during sleep. That is why most patients don’t usually know that they have the disorder.

When this condition has not given any medical attention it could result to increase risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, obesity, diabetes and stroke and gives a bigger chance of driving or work related accidents.

Patient with seep apnea is usually advised to sleep on a side lying position. This condition keeps the airway open, surgery, and may consider the use of breathing devices that can help for more successful treatment.

Bipolar disorder could cause mood swings that will range all the way from the lows of depression to the highs of mania. During the lows, an individual may feel sad or hopeless or perhaps lose interest in several activities. When mood shifts into the other way, an individual may feel enraptured and full of energy. The incidence of mood shifts might be as little as a couple of times a year to as much as a number of times a week. In a few cases, biploar mood disorder can cause evidence of both depression and mania at the same time.

Though not everyone may realize it, bipolar mood disorder is a real condition. It is a quite serious illness. Some folks have a combo of bipolar schizophrenia, which is even more tricky to govern and treat. There are 2 different versions of the bipolar disorder, leading to some different symptoms and the necessity for rather different treatments, though the two forms are identical in nature.

Generally bipolar treatments will need long-term treatment since it’s not a chronic, relapsing sickness. Medicine alone won’t entirely control all symptoms , however , so the best treatment strategy often involves a combination of medicine, care, lifestyle changes and social support. Diagnosing bipolar disorder can at times be tough, and that’s the reason why it’s important to work with a trained psychiatrist.

So far, there seem to be one or two different factors involved in causing and causing either a manic episode or bipolar depression. A number of these factors include, the environment where stress or significant loss can play a role in the disorder. And eventually, folk with bipolar disorder seem to have physical changes in their brains and researchers believe that understanding these changes can help identify the causes of the disorder.

Bipolar disorder is essentially split into several different sub-types, and each one has a different pattern of bipolar disorder symptoms. If somebody suffers from Biploar I disorder, the mood swings can cause significant problems in a job, relationship or college. Manic episodes can be serious and perilous. So far, there seem to be several different factors concerned in causing and triggering either a manic episode or bipolar depression. A few of these factors include, the environment where stress or serious loss can play a role in the disorder. It’s also far more commonly found in those who have a blood relative, such as a sibling or parent, with the disorder. And eventually, folk with bipolar disorder seem to have physical changes in their brains and analysts believe that understanding these changes can help pin down the reasons for the disorder.

While lying in bed at night is food your main focus as you’re trying to fall off to sleep? If you are getting up during the night and feel the need to eat, you may have an eating disorder described as Night Eating Syndrome (NES). The disorder is usually associated with depression, anxiety and stress. Sometimes this syndrome can be misunderstood if someone eats at night just for a simple snack for whatever reason. It may become evident if the behavior occurs for two consecutive months or more.

Researchers state late night eating affects approximately 1.5 percent of the general population with food usually being eaten after six o’clock in the evening. Additionally, they report that the emotional mood of people suffering from this disorder begins to be affected around four o’clock in the evening with the average number of wake up times to be about three occurrences during the night.

The main signs of this eating disorder are the person does not have an appetite for breakfast since they have consumed a large amount of their calorie intake during the night. Additionally, the food of choice is often carbohydrates, they have a difficult time of falling and staying asleep and because they actively work to hide their secret, they often feel tense, anxious or guilty.

Sometimes night eating disorder is confused with Nocturnal Sleep-Related Eating Disorder (NSRED), also known as  (SRED) or in laymen’s terms sleep eating. The person eats a large amount of food while sleep walking. In most cases, they are not aware of their actions until they wake up and see the dishes in the sink or see where they did not tidy up after eating.

Treatment for night eating begins with educating the person about the disorder. This will increase awareness of eating patterns and also help with identifying the triggers that can make someone want to eat large amounts of food late at night. Understanding the issue helps in recovery, being knowledgeable about the syndrome is the first choice of treating it. Additionally, as with other eating disorders, treatment also requires a combination of nutrition assessments, exercise physiology, stress management and an integration of therapies such as:

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): solves problems through a goal-oriented, systematic approach for the treatment of mood, anxiety, personality, eating, substance abuse, and psychotic disorders.
• Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): focuses on the role of thoughts, beliefs, behaviors and how people react to emotional stimulation. Clients are assisted in developing skills to assist them in coping with sudden intense surges of emotion.
• Interpersonal therapy (IPT): was developed for the treatment of depression. It emphasizes interpersonal interactions and their relationships to an individual’s mental health. It is also used in treating a number of other disorders, which includes substance abuse and eating disorders.

The US Department of Health and Human Services reports that 40 million people in the United States suffer from sleep problems. Sleep disorders affect a person’s overall quality of life and are related to difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, the quantity of sleep, quality of sleep, and level of alertness during the day. There are 81 official sleep disorders. The most common sleep disorders are sleep apnea, insomnia, narcolepsy, and restless leg syndrome (RLS). Most sleep disorders can be helped by changing personal habits and behaviors. Nightmares, sleepwalking, headbanging, bedwetting, and teeth grinding are just a few sleep problems called parasomnias. Parasomnias are disorders that disrupt sleep.

Sleep apnea is a disorder of breathing during sleep usually accompanied by loud snoring. People with sleep apnea do not get enough oxygen when they sleep and experience brief moments throughout the night where breathing stops. There are two types of sleep apnea; obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type and is caused by an obstruction in the airway during sleep. Central sleep apnea is caused by a delay in the signal from the brain to breath and is difficult to diagnose. In both types of apnea, a person wakes up briefly several times during the night to breathe, usually with no knowledge of doing so. Sleep apnea can be a life-threatening condition if it goes undiagnosed and untreated for a long period of time. The severity of the condition determines how it should be treated.

Mild sleep apnea can be treated with behavioral changes including losing weight and sleeping on your side. However, there are also devices that a person can wear during sleep to help keep the airway open. Moderate to severe sleep apnea is usually treated a machine called the CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) that blows air into your nose via a nose mask. The continuous air keeps the airway open and unobstructed. A Bi-level PAP(Bi-PAP) machine is used for more severe cases of apnea. The bi-level machine blows air at two different pressures; higher pressure when a person inhales and lower pressure when a person exhales. In cases where CPAP can not help or when a person has a facial deformity that causes sleep apnea, surgical procedures to increase the size of the airway are needed.

Insomnia is another sleep disorder involving difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, waking up too early, and sleep state misperception. At times, life events can cause insomnia but it is usually temporary. This is called transient or short-term insomnia. Chronic insomnia involves sleeping poorly most nights for a month or longer. There are usually a number of factors involved including physical and or mental disorders. Depression is the most common cause of chronic insomnia. However, chronic insomnia may also be due to the misuse of caffeine, alcohol and drugs. Chronic insomnia can also be caused by a disruption in the sleep/wake cycle, like shift work and other nighttime activities. Anxiety about sleep and/or chronic stress are other behaviors that can perpetuate insomnia. Medication and behavioral treatment can help with transient, short term and chronic insomnia.

Transient and short term insomnia may not need to be treated because the episodes only last a short period of time. For example, if insomnia is due to a disruption in the sleep cycle, usually a person’s biological clock will readjust to normal on its own. However, short-acting sleeping pills are available for those that experience impaired performance due to day time sleepiness from insomnia. The first step for treating chronic insomnia is diagnosing and treating the underlying medical or psychological problem causing the sleeplessness. This can be followed by identifying and stopping or reducing behaviors that may worsen insomnia. Finally, the use of sleeping pills prescribed at the lowest dose for the shortest duration needed can also be beneficial. Behavioral techniques such as relaxation therapy, sleep restriction therapy and reconditioning are also effective and safe.

Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep condition where a person continues to experience an irresistible need to sleep no matter how much sleep they get. It is mostly a hereditary condition but only prevalent in about 0.3% of the population. Symptoms include, excessive sleepiness, temporary decrease or loss of muscle control (especially when excited), vivid dream-like images when drifting off to sleep or waking up unable to move or talk for a brief time. Symptoms usually begin between the ages of 15 and 30 with a peak in the teenage years. There is no cure for narcolepsy, however, behavior and medical therapy can help control symptoms.

The excessive daytime sleepiness is usually treated with a stimulant drug. Muscle weakness and REM sleep symptoms are treated with antidepressants. The medications reduce symptoms but don’t alleviate them and some medications may have side effects. Maintaining a routine sleep schedule, a good diet, increased exercise and avoiding exciting situations are lifestyle adjustments that can help reduce excessive daytime sleepiness and muscle weakness. With proper medication and support from friends and family, most individuals with narcolepsy enjoy a nearly normal lifestyle.

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) is a discomfort or prickly/tingly feeling in the legs relieved by moving or stimulation the leg. The most unusual aspect of this condition is that relaxing or lying down tends to activate the symptoms. Therefore, most people with RLS have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. When undiagnosed and untreated RLS can cause daytime fatigue and extreme exhaustion. 80% of persons with RLS also experience periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD). PLMD is associated with involuntary leg twitching or jerking movements occurring every 10 to 60 seconds throughout the night. The causes of RLS and PLMD are unknown, however, they can be treated.

Mild to moderate cases of RLS can be treated with lifestyle adjustments including reduction of caffeine intake, alcohol consumption, and tobacco. Taking a hot bath, taking vitamin supplements, using a heating pad and maintaining a regular bedtime routine can also relieve some symptoms of RLS. Dopaminergics, benzodiazepines (central nervous system depressants), opioids, and anticonvulsants are the types of drugs physicians prescribe to treat the disorder since there is no one drug to help everyone with RLS. RLS is a lifelong condition that can be managed but usually gets worse with age.

If you experience lack of sleep, too much sleep, non-breathing spells during sleep, or exhaustion is interfering with your daily life, contact your health care provider for assistance.

A new therapy comes to people’s eyes, and it is the gospel to people all around the world. This modern technique is called Laser eye surgery, and it receives more and more people’s welcome.

Most of eye disorders are tired of wearing glasses all day long or are bothered with seeing nothing without glasses. They have to wear special glasses when doing sports and they are considered as being impolite for not saying hello to friends. These are all the troubles encountered by the eye disorders. Now these problems can all be settled with the appearance of Laser eye surgery. No matter how deep the degree of your glasses, you can do this surgery.

Laser eye surgery mainly has two types – LASIK and LASEK. The latter is more suitable for those with thin or flat corneas while the case of LASIK is the opposite.

Though the eye surgery is popular among the eye disorders, there is still something the surgery can’t deal with. So you must know the details about the surgery before going to do the operation.

The laser used in the surgery must have been strictly tested. Only those which can cut 0.25 microns of tissue per pulse can be applied to correcting eyesight. Furthermore, you should make sure which area of the cornea is fit for being reshaped.

Not everyone suits for the Laser eye surgery actually. Only the problems of myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism can be corrected well. So if you are in these cases, Laser eye surgery is the best choice, I promise.

You need not to worry about the food that you eat in daily life will affect the result of the surgery, so you can enjoy your food as usual. Ophthalmologist will drip some anesthetic on your eyes before operation, so you will certainly run out of being hurt. However, if you wear contact lenses, you should take them off a week before operation in case the cornea is misshaped. Moreover, people who have the problem of gas permeability need to take off contacts up to four weeks.

Laser eye surgery can be finished within half an hour, and it hardly hurts patient. Nevertheless, it’s not permitted that you drive home alone right after the surgery. So ask someone to company with you to take you home safely.