“Goodall-Witcher Medical Center in Central Texas is very pleased to be able to offer sleep studies locally.  Previously patients would have to travel to Waco or other distant areas for these services,” commented Clarence Fields, Jr., FACHE, President/CEO.  “Not only will Goodall-Witcher Medical Center be able to serve patients locally for these tests, but it will also service patients referred by physicians and providers located in surrounding areas,” Fields added.

“It is amazing how many individuals I see on a regular basis with sleep disorders,” said Dr. Kenneth Lowrance, APRN, FNP-BC, Family Nurse Practitioner/Vice President at Goodall-Witcher.  “Once diagnosed with sleep apnea, treatment has resulted in almost miraculous changes in many patients’ lives.  One cannot underestimate the value and importance of high quality sleep in optimizing one’s ability to function and in improving their overall quality of life.”

“Graymark Healthcare is honored to create an alignment with Goodall-Witcher Medical Center and Henderson Community Hospitals to provide sleep diagnostic and treatment services,” said Stanton Nelson.  “The Graymark Healthcare Comprehensive Care Model for Sleep Disorders including obstructive sleep apnea complement the care offered by hospitals and medical centers and allow them to provide state-of-the-art sleep disorder services in a high quality, affordable manner,” Nelson continued.

The management agreement between these Medical Centers and Graymark Healthcare become effective in July; the sleep centers will begin seeing patients in August.

Graymark Healthcare, Inc. is a diversified medical holding company that owns and operates diagnostic sleep centers that treat a wide range of sleep disorders; independent pharmacies that serve the needs of local markets; and a medical equipment company that provides both disposable and durable medical equipment. Graymark plans to continue its growth both internally and through strategic acquisitions within the medical industry.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements which are based on the Company’s current expectations, forecasts and assumptions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations, forecasts and assumptions. These risks and uncertainties include risks and uncertainties not in the control of the Company, including, without limitation, the current economic climate and other risks and uncertainties, including those enumerated and described in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which filings are available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Unless otherwise required by law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Dr. Michael Twery, director of the National Sleep Center on Sleep Disorders Research at NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, OSA is caused by temporary obstructions in a person’s airway during sleep.

It is also linked to weight gain, because the airway becomes narrower among obese individuals.

When left undiagnosed and untreated, the condition can result in diabetes and heart complications. What’s worse is everyone is at risk, even children.

The most common treatment is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) mask. This device blows air inside the throat to prevent airway obstruction. There are also other available treatments at sleep centers.

If you are experiencing sleep problems, get yourself checked at your nearest sleep center. Diagnosis is of utmost importance when it comes to sleep disorder solutions.

Source: techcombo

The facility aims to help people who have sleep disorders.

Sleep disorders are characterized by many symptoms, including depression, short-term memory loss, obesity, high-blood pressure, and heart disease.

“Moses Lake really needed a sleep lab,” commented Kelly Kane, marketing coordinator for the center. “The need was here, the demographic was here.”

Kane says that the opening of the center has been well-received by physicians and facilities.

The center will offer sleep studies to diagnose the patient’s sleep problem.

Source: Columbia Basin Herald

The drug is restricted to treating narcolepsy because its risks outweigh the benefits of the medicine for other uses.

According to the European Medicines Agency, doctors and patients should not use medicines that contain modafinil—which is an active ingredient of Provigil—for treating sleep disorders other than narcolepsy.

Cephalon will request a re-examination from the regulator.

Cephalon representatives say that the restriction of Provigil’s application will have minimal impact on the company’s earnings.

Analysts say that Cephalon will still meet its forecast for the year.

Loud snoring not only is a major sign of sleep apnea but also disrupts the sleep of your partner. Do not foolishly ignore loud or disruptive snoring – it may be a warning sign of this serious and dangerous disorder that can cost you your health or even your life!

Learn more about the dangers of sleep apnea at http://www.ihatecpap.com/sleep_apnea_dangers.html.

Sleep apnea is defined by repetitive episodes where breathing stops causes an arousal from sleep and then the cycle starts again. It is common for patients with sleep apnea to deny they have a problem. This is often observed by the bed partner who sees pauses in breathing followed by gasping for breath.

CPAP, the standard medical treatment for sleep apnea, is one of the greatest success stories in medicine. It can be effective in treating almost every patient with obstructive sleep apnea, snoring, hypopnea and upper airway resistance.

CPAP is also one of the greatest failures in medicine not because it isn’t effective but because it is not used. The failure to utilize an effective medical treatment is called non-compliance. Non-compliance is the typical result when CPAP is prescribed. Medicare has recently taken a serious look at the costs of CPAP to the taxpayers and realized that there was a poor return on investment. It is for this reason that Medicare will no longer pay for CPAP that is not used at least four days a week for four hours a night. This is an incredibly low standard for usage but the savings to Medicare will be enormous.

Medicare is dead wrong! The real savings for Medicare comes from decreased medical expenses for strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, dementia and numerous other disorders that are improved when apnea is well treated. Even poor treatment is better than no treatment. Of course, treatment that is used all night every night is ideal and only one in four CPAP users achieve that goal. Oral appliances (http://www.ihatecpap.com/oral_appliance.html) are much better tolerated by patients who usually report using them all night long.

A recent study showed that 60% of patients abandon CPAP treatment completely. That means only 4 in 10 patients use their CPAP machines. Even patients who do use their CPAP machines average only 4-5 hours of nightly use, not the recommended 7 1/2 hours. One in four utilize it all night so the rest of patients have only minimal actual usage.

I believe that Medicare and patients with sleep apnea would be much better served if Medicare paid for CPAP based on the percentage of time it was actually used. 100% usage would be 7 hours a night, 7 days a week. The actual time CPAP was used in the first full year of treatment could then be used to determine Medicare payments – i.e. 50% usage would receive 50% payment.

The reason most patients give for not wearing their CPAP is that they “hate CPAP”. They hate the CPAP mask, they hate the noise, they hate the hose. I HATE CPAP! LLC and the website www.ihatecpap.com took its name from the passion of these patients. Why is such a successful treatment such a phenomenal failure? CPAP is not a failure but it does fail the majority of patients. It is still a $4 1/2 billion a year industry. Approximately 25% of patients love CPAP from the first time they use it and they use it faithfully forever. I HATE CPAP! was founded by Dr Ira L Shapira, a Chicago dentist and a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep (D, ABDSM). He is a charter member of the Sleep Disorder Dental Society (SDDS), which evolved into the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine (AADSM). He is a founding member of DOSA, The Dental Organization of Sleep Medicine and a member of the Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine.

Patients who love CPAP from the start are the exception. Studies have also shown that patients who do embrace CPAP treatment early on rarely become successful CPAP users in the future.

Oral appliances are very well accepted by patients who love both the comfort and convenience but are most pleased to not have to deal with masks, hoses compressors, humidifiers, noise air leaks and other annoyances associated with CPAP. 95% of patients offered a choice between CPAP and Oral Appliance Therapy chose the oral appliances. In countries like Sweden where the national health insurance offers patients their choice of treatment, oral appliances are the primary treatment modality. Only a small percentage of patients chose CPAP when offered a choice.

Oral appliances and CPAP are both considered first line approaches for treating sleep apnea by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine. CPAP is still considered the only first line therapy for severe obstructive sleep apnea but studies have shown that Oral Appliances can also treat many cases severe sleep apnea very successfully. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recognizes Oral Appliances as an alternative to CPAP for severe sleep apnea when patients do not tolerate CPAP.

The National Sleep Foundation has declared that “oral appliances are a therapy whose time has come”.

CPAP will probably always be the primary first line treatment for the morbidly obese patients and with patients who have obesity-hypoventilation syndrome.

The reason is based on the different ways the CPAP and oral appliances use to treat sleep apnea. First you must understand what actually happens during snoring and sleep apnea. The easiest way to understand this condition is to use Dr Shapira’s garden hose analogy. Normal breathing is like a garden hose where a lot of water passes with very little disruption. Simple snoring would be like placing your thumb over the hose to water your garden. There is now a lot of disruption to the flow but the total amount of water flowing is the same. When breathing this disruption would be loud snoring.

Obstructive apnea would be like kinking the hose so no air passes. Apnea could then be described as suffocation followed by awakening from sleep and then gasping for life-saving air. The apnea index is how many times you suffocate and then awaken to gasp for air per hour. This repetitive awakening and gasping for air is extremely stressful for the heart and creates an underlying stress disorder as it creates continual stimulation of a fight for your life scenario that creates stress hormone release.

Hypopnea is a partial apnea. It can be described as almost suffocation and there is at least a 4% drop in oxygen levels. It is more annoying to the bedmate as you can snore very loudly with hypopnea but it still leads to a gasp.

Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS) or Respiratory Effort Related Arousals are when it is hard to breathe and disturbs the patient’s sleep but the event does not meet the criteria definition of apnea or hypopnea.

CPAP works by stenting the airway with air pressure much the way some “buildings” are held up by blowing air. Oral appliances work by bringing the airway forward which increases the size of the airway. In severe obesity the large amount of fatty tissue surrounding the airway may not be stented or opened by an oral appliance but CPAP can be turned up to a very high pressure to blow past the obstruction. The actual airway collapse is not merely passive but rather inspiration creates a negative pressure or vacumn that causes the airway to suck closed. While oral appliances alone may not be successful in treating the morbidly obese they will allow CPAP to be successful at much lower pressures.

The TAP appliance (Thorton Adjustable Positioner) is leading the field of Dental Sleep Medicine in creating combination therapy that improves compliance and efficacy of CPAP by combining CPAP and integrated Oral Appliances. The TAP 1 appliance is one probable the most successful appliance in treating severe sleep apnea due to the handle that allows advancement of the jaw after the appliance is in the mouth. The TAP 3 appliance can now be fitted with a similar handle. The TAP 3 is also ideally suited for combination therapy with a TAP-PAP combination.

If patients are comfortable utilizing full face masks than any dental oral appliance can be used in combination with CPAP. The Somnodent Appliance by Somnomed is one of the most comfortable appliances available. The SUAD Appliance by Strong Dental is one of the most robust appliances for patients with severe bruxism. The Myerson EMA appliance is a very comfortable and compact appliance.

Dr Ira L Shapira has been treating patients with sleep apnea with oral appliances for over 28 years and stresses how important it is that practitioners be familiar with a wide variety of oral appliances. Many courses are taught by appliance manufacturers but patients may suffer if the doctor only has a single appliance he is familiar with using. Dr Shapira teaches an in depth course to small groups (six or less) dentists and their teams to insure that each doctor thoroughly understands the numerous intricacies of both sleep medicine and dental sleep medicine. To insure that his doctors provide the highest level of service and quality he works with each doctor on a monthly basis to solve problems and help interpret sleep studies. He limits his class to six new doctors to insure that learning is personalized and that there is sufficient time for follow-up consultations. Many of the doctors Dr Shapira have mentored have seen dental sleep medicine become a major percentage of their practice.

Dr Bill Blatchford is the leading dental practice management consultant in the United States and he regularly refers his clients to Dr Shapira because he has seen such positive changes in the practices of dentists who have had this training. Dr Shapira lectured on sleep apnea and dental sleep medicine at a “Purple Cow” seminar that Dr Blatchford presented several years ago. Hundreds and hundreds of dentists have viewed his lecture on DVD and become involved in the treatment of sleep apnea and snoring as a result.

The individual small group learning experience and long term follow-up is key to striving for excellence in Dental Sleep Medicine. In the 1990s Dr Shapira was a frequent lecturer at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) and a lecture he gave in 1998 on Anti-Aging Dentistry was printed as a chapter in a medical textbook on Anti-Aging Medicine.

Dr Shapira was one of the first dentists to lecture to physicians on the oral health connections of gum disease and overall health and on Dental Sleep Medicine. He also has a passion for the treatment, prevention and elimination of migraines and headaches utilizing Neuromuscular Dentistry. His research as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Rush Medical Schools Sleep Disorder Center in the 1980s showed hat there were numerous similarities between male sleep apnea patients and female patients with TMJ disorders, Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute later issued a report “The Cardiovascular and Sleep-Related Consequences of Temporomandibular (TMJ) Disorders”.

I Hate Headaches LLC is a new company created by Dr Shapira and Page 1 Solutions to expose the public to neuromuscular dentistry and the unique role it plays in treating and eliminating chronic headaches and migraines. The website http://www.ihatecpap.com is a leading resource for information on headaches and TMJ disorders and the value of neuromuscular dentistry in alleviating these problems and improving the quality of patients’ lives.

Patients that live in the Chicago or Milwaukee metropolitan areas or anywhere in Northern Illinois or Southern Wisconsin can contact Dr Shapira at his office.

Call Today: 1-8- NO-PAP-MASK or 1-800-TM-JOINT or contact Dr. Shapira through his websites:

http://www.delaneydentalcare.com

http://www.IHateCPAP.com

http://www.IHateHeadaches.org

Dr. Shapira is currently searching for a New York qualified sleep apnea dentists to join his I Hate CPAP program and neuromuscular dentists to join his I Hate Headaches program.

Dr Ira L Shapira is an author and section editor of Sleep and Health Journal, President of I HATE CPAP LLC, President Dato-TECH, and has a Dental Practice with his partner Dr Mark Amidei. He has recently formed Chicagoland Dental Sleep Medicine Associates. He is a Regent of ICCMO and its representative to the TMD Alliance. He was a founding and certified member of the Sleep Disorder Dental Society which became the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, a founding member of DOSA the Dental Organization for Sleep Apnea. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine, a Diplomat of the American Academy of Pain Management, a graduate of LVI. He is a former assistant professor at Rush Medical School’s Sleep Service where he worked with Dr Rosalind Cartwright who is a founder of Sleep Medicine and Dental Sleep Medicine. Dr Shapira is a consultant to numerous sleep centers and teaches courses in Dental Sleep Medicine in his office to doctors from around the U.S. He is the Founder of I Hate CPAP LLC and http://www.ihatecpap.com Dr Shapira also holds several patents on methods and devices for the prophylactic minimally invasive early removal of wisdom teeth and collection of bone marrow and stem cells. Dr Shapira is a licensed general dentist in Illinois and Wisconsin.

As companies are demanding more productivity, employees are subjected to heavier work quotas. This leads to excess stress and more health problems.

Around 20 percent of employees in industrialized economies work in shifts. As a result, theses sleep routines of these employees are disrupted.

Shift work sleep disorder disrupts your internal body clock, because your work shift is unnatural. You sleep when you’re body should be awake, and you’re awake when you’re supposed to be sleeping.

As a result, you struggle to stay awake during your night time shift and you have trouble sleeping during daytime. Cholesterol and blood pressure levels will rise and you will start to lose your appetite. If you have existing health conditions, like asthma and diabetes, they maybe aggravated. Plus, you will have a weakened immune system.

Apart from health, your ability to perform your daily functions will be affected as well. You will have difficulty concentrating, which will affect your productivity and driving skills.

While this may sound like a typical morning, they are also symptoms of a sleep disorder.

A good night’s sleep is essential for health and well-being. Most people underestimate the value of a 6-8 hour night’s sleep.

Some common sleep disorder symptoms include: loud snoring, gasping for breath while sleeping, sweating during night, morning headaches, and excessive drowsiness during daytime.

Here are the most common disorders in the list:

Sleep Apnea – This sleep disorder is characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep and loud snoring. It is often linked to high-blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and daytime drowsiness.

Narcolepsy – Uncontrollable daytime drowsiness. It is linked to uncontrollable muscle weakness whenever the sufferer is angry or scared.

Insomnia – This is indicated by difficulty in sleeping throughout the night. It is triggered by stress, depression, sleep apnea, neurological disorders, and other medical conditions.

If a sleep disorder is undiagnosed, the condition can worsen over time and lead to life-threatening problems.

If you are experiencing any of the mentioned symptoms, have yourself checked at your nearest sleep center.

The Polysomnographic Program was approved by Genesee’s Board of Trustees back in January of this year. Since then, the program has had a rigorous review by SUNY to ensure the program meets the high learning standards of the SUNY system, as well as the State Education Department. It is the first associate degree program for Polysomnographic Technology in the state.

The Polysomnographic Technology or sleep disorder study program prepares students to become technologists who work closely with physicians to diagnose sleep-related problems and provide support services to patients. They usually work in “sleep laboratories,” where patients with sleep problems spend one or more nights under intensive clinical observation. As modern medicine takes a closer look at the important role sleep plays in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, there is an increasing demand for technologists to monitor patients’ breathing, blood oxygen levels, brain waves, eye movements, muscle tone, and other clinical variables to assist in diagnosis. Technologists also counsel patients in the use of respiratory and sleep devices that aid in sleep hygiene.

Full-time students can complete the intensive 66-credit program in four semesters. The College expects to enroll 35 students in the program. Graduates will be eligible to sit for the national Registered Polysomnographic Technologist (RPSGT) examination. New York State is expected to soon require licensing of Polysomnographic technologists, and Genesee graduates will be eligible for licensure.

After an extensive search for the new director of Polysomnographic Technology, Marshann Y. Thomas of Rochester, NY has been selected to lead the new program. Ms. Thomas is a registered polysomnographic technologist and registered respiratory therapist at Unity Health System in Rochester. She has also served Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester and Gadsden Community Hospital in Florida. She will begin the new position on August 1, 2010.

“Most of us have trouble sleeping from time to time,” explained Dr. Kirk Watkins, a board-certified practitioner of Sleep Medicine. “But those with chronic sleep disorders are at risk for serious complications, including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, automobile and other types of accidents, trouble at work, and strained relationships. Sleep disorders don’t just affect the patient.”

Dr. Watkins says that there are many available treatments for these disorders.

“There are a number of different conditions that can cause chronic sleep disturbance,” explained Watkins. He highlighted restless leg syndrome, insomnia, and narcolepsy as the more popular conditions.

If you live in the Utah area, and you feel that there are troubles in your sleep health, you can make an appointment with Dr. Watkins by calling 251-3940.

Source: KCSG Television

Well, according to a new study, it does.

The study will be presented at SLEEP 2010—the 24th annual meeting of American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research. It suggests that day shifts allow workers to get more sleep than night shifts, which are defined as a shift that begins after midnight.

Apart from fewer sleep hours, the study also related the lack of sleep to poorer employee performance. Workers who were better rested were more able to perform their tasks compared to the night shift employees.

“Shifts of equal duration differ in how fatiguing they are depending on the time of day when they are scheduled,” explained Angela Bowen, lead author of the study and research assistant at the Sleep and Performance Research Center at Washington State University Spokane.

She continued: “The same limitation on the number of duty hours may be either overly restrictive if during the day or too liberal if during the night.”

Because of the glaring statistics, experts believe that new labor regulations should be established to guide employers about work hours. This will maximize an employee’s production, while protecting his/her health.

Source: CNN