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Researchers have found that continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can improve depression symptoms in patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases. Using data from the Sleep Apnea Cardiovascular Endpoints (SAVE) trial led by Flinders University, the new study has found a significant decrease in cases of depression after patients received CPAP treatment for their sleep apnea. This is by far the largest trial of its type and one of very few studies reporting such an effect, says Professor Doug McEvoy from Flinders University. From detailed analysis of the SAVE data, Flinders University experts and collaborators at...

A bad night's sleep may result in a spike in blood pressure that night and the following day, according to new research led by the University of Arizona. The study offers one possible explanation for why sleep problems have been shown to increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and even death from cardiovascular disease. Overall, those who had lower sleep efficiency showed an increase in blood pressure during that restless night. They also had higher systolic blood pressure—the top number in a patient's blood pressure reading—the next day. "Blood pressure is one of the best predictors of cardiovascular health,"...

Neanderthals are often depicted as having straight spines and poor posture. However, these prehistoric humans were more similar to us than many assume. University of Zurich researchers have shown that Neanderthals walked upright just like modern humans - thanks to a virtual reconstruction of the pelvis and spine of a very well-preserved Neanderthal skeleton found in France... Since the 1950s, scientists have known that the image of the Neanderthal as a hunched over caveman is not an accurate one. Their similarities to ourselves - both in evolutionary and behavioral terms - have also long been known, but in recent years...

Millions of sleep apnea patients rely on CPAP breathing machines to get a good night’s rest. Health insurers use a variety of tactics, including surveillance, to make patients bear the costs. Experts say it’s part of the insurance industry playbook. Last March, Tony Schmidt discovered something unsettling about the machine that helps him breathe at night. Without his knowledge, it was spying on him. From his bedside, the device was tracking when he was using it and sending the information not just to his doctor, but to the maker of the machine, to the medical supply company that provided it...

Systematic Review: Patients with Sleep Apnea Achieve Similar Outcomes When Receiving Care From Sleep Specialist or NonspecialistPatients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) can achieve similar outcomes with care from a sleep specialist or a non-sleep specialist. The findings of a systematic review are published in Annals of Internal Medicine. New treatment models have been proposed that would reduce reliance on sleep specialists by including providers not specifically trained as sleep specialists, such as nurses or primary care physicians. Researchers from the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System Evidence-based Synthesis Program and the University of Minnesota, School of Medicine reviewed 12...

- The nighttime breathing difficulties of obstructive sleep apnea have long been linked to an increase in cardiovascular risks. However, a new study throws confusion into that link. While treatment with CPAP did lower sleep apnea symptoms, it did nothing to lower users' long-term odds for heart attack, stroke or heart-related death. ... McEvoy believes that, for one thing, prior observational studies may have "overestimated" the link between sleep apnea and cardiovascular outcomes. If the link is weaker than was thought, then curbing sleep apnea might not bring about as big a heart benefit as hoped, he reasoned. Another factor...

There's no question that sleep is intricately tied to weight. How big a factor is it? Perpetual sleep deprivation can undermine weight loss efforts as significantly as adding a Big Mac to our regular daily diet. Research is so strong for the case for sufficient sleep as a weight loss aid that as a nutritionist I look at sleep as the third element in the trifecta of factors that impact our weight, right alongside diet and exercise. So it should be no surprise that sleep apnea – a condition where people stop breathing during sleep, as often as 30 times...

DALLAS (AP) -- A letter from the Supreme Court's doctor says Antonin Scalia suffered from coronary artery disease, obesity and diabetes, among other ailments that probably contributed to the justice's sudden death. Presidio County District Attorney Rod Ponton cited the letter Tuesday, when he told The Associated Press there was nothing suspicious about the Feb. 13 death of the 79-year-old jurist. He said the long list of health problems made an autopsy unnecessary.

The researchers had shown that fragmented sleep - which is sleep interrupted by frequent awakenings or arousals — was linked with an increased risk of dementia and cognitive decline, Lim told Live Science. "However, there were gaps in what we knew about underlying brain changes that may link sleep fragmentation with these neurological outcomes," he said. In the new study, the researchers looked at the brains of 315 people who underwent autopsies after they died. The people were 90 years old, on average, when they died, and 70 percent were women. At some point before they died, the people in...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A California hospital is unwilling to allow an outside doctor to fit a 13-year-old declared brain dead after tonsil surgery with the breathing and feeding tubes that would allow her to be safely transferred to another facility, its lawyer said Tuesday. Children's Hospital Oakland will not permit the procedures to be performed on its premises because Jahi McMath is legally dead in the view of doctors who have examined her, lawyer Douglas Straus wrote in a letter to the girl's family. "Performing medical procedures on the body of a deceased human being is simply not something...

Getting your beauty sleep can really improve your looks—and snoring can have the opposite effect, according to researchers. A study into sleep apnea—a condition marked by snoring and breathing interruptions—has shown that people with the condition appeared less attractive, youthful and alert than restful sleepers. Sufferers who were treated for the condition also appeared more attractive—with two thirds of the patients in the study being rated more highly in photos taken after treatment than before. …

<p>Two new studies indicate that people who suffer sleep apnea have a higher risk of developing cancer.</p> <p>Due to be presented in San Francisco this week at an American Thoracic Society conference, the findings have been touted as "striking" by researchers, the New York Times reported.</p>

About 28 million Americans have sleep apnea, which causes repeated awakenings and pauses in breathing during the night, sometimes resulting in loud snoring and gasps for air. For decades, the standard treatment has been “continuous positive airway pressure.” A mask worn at night pushes air into the nasal passages, enabling easier breathing. C.P.A.P. reduces and in some cases completely prevents episodes of apnea. But the mask is like something from a bad science fiction movie: big, bulky and obtrusive. Many patients simply refuse to wear it or rip it off while asleep. Studies show that about half of all people...

TAU researchers develop a vaccine that staves off stroke as wellOne in eight Americans will fall prey to Alzheimer's disease at some point in their life, current statistics say. Because Alzheimer's is associated with vascular damage in the brain, many of them will succumb through a painful and potentially fatal stroke. But researchers led by Dr. Dan Frenkel of Tel Aviv University's Department of Neurobiology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences are working on a nasally-delivered 2-in-1 vaccine that promises to protect against both Alzheimer's and stroke. The new vaccine repairs vascular damage in the brain by...

Mayo Clinic cardiologist Apoor Gami, M.D., the lead researcher on the study, presented his findings at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2008 in New Orleans. "Nighttime low oxygen saturation in the blood is an important complication of obstructive sleep apnea," according to Virend Somers, M.D., Ph.D., the study's principal investigator. "Our data showed that an average nighttime oxygen saturation of the blood of 93 percent and lowest nighttime saturation of 78 percent strongly predicted SCD, independent of other well-established risk factors, such as high cholesterol. These findings implicate OSA, a relatively common condition, as a novel risk factor for...

Oral surgery can reduce CPAP needs in patients with sleep apnea (Chicago, IL, October 24, 2007) — A procedure known as uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) may help some patients improve or even eliminate their obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), according to a new study. The research, presented at CHEST 2007, the 73rd annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), says the procedure, which removes excess tissue in the throat or mouth to widen the airway, can reduce the amount of treatment required by patients with OSA. In addition, researchers say UPPP also can eliminate OSA completely in some...

Does anyone have this problem? In my sleep, I bite my tongue. Hard. Bleeding hard. I have ruined many pillow cases with large areas of blood soaked pillow cases. My tongue looks like raw hamburger meat, at times. I tested positive for sleep apnea. I woke an average of 49 times per hour, from lack of oxygen, or unable to breath. I use a breathing machine with a chin strap to help my problem. It helps,but it isn't a 100%. I woke this morning at 3:30 AM and immediately took the pillow case off to soak the stain. I have ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Kept awake at night by a snoring partner? The answer to your woes could lie -- believe it or not -- with the Australian didgeridoo. Researchers in Switzerland examined 25 patients who suffered from snoring and moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, both common sleep disorders. Half the group were given daily lessons in playing the didgeridoo, a wind instrument about 1.5 meters (yards) long which originated in northern Australia and is traditionally made from the trunk of a tree hollowed out by termites. The study, published in the British Medical Journal's online edition on Friday, found that...

BOSTON (Reuters) - The common form of sleep apnea, in which the throat closes off throughout the night, at least doubles the risk of stroke or death, a study released on Wednesday showed. The researchers at Yale University also raised questions about whether existing apnea treatments reduced that risk, the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed. A separate Canadian study also published in the journal concluded that breathing machines used to treat a form of apnea common in people with heart failure do not prevent death or the need for a heart transplant. About 4 percent...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who die in their sleep may stop breathing because they have lost too many brain cells, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. Sleep apnea -- a condition in which people stop breathing for long stretches of time in their sleep -- may sometimes be caused by the destruction of cells in the brain stem, where autonomic functions such as breathing are controlled, they said. Tests on rats showed that the loss of key brain stem cells that die off with age caused such disrupted sleep that the animals eventually stopped breathing completely. The same thing may be...