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All Articles (135)

Sleep Apnea Diagnosis and Treatment: A Political Message

My grandmother, quoting Benjamin Franklin, used to tell us kids that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." As Barack Obama and his administration consider their health care priorities, I respectfully remind our President-elect of this old truism. Aggressive diagnosis and treatment of the estimated 30 million Americans with Sleep Apnea is the ounce… Continue

Added by Mike on December 16, 2008 at 2:00pm — 5 Comments

Mr. Sleep Apnea DME: "Tear Down This Wall !"

In past blogs, I have criticized the manufacturers of CPAP devices for not marketing their latest, greatest CPAP data monitoring software to end-users, the people like you and me who actually rely on the results from these machines to breathe every night. The majority of this software is marketed on a restricted basis to doctors, respiratory therapists and… Continue

Added by Mike on December 15, 2008 at 2:30pm — 1 Comment

U.S. Medical Professionals to CPAPers: "Do You Know Why You're Being Punished?"

The plot thickens. I learned from one of the comments on yesterday's blog that there is "a clash of wills between the medical profession & the rights of US CPAPers to actively get involved in our own monitoring & regulation." Moreover, in the U.S. it is against the law for manufacturers of CPAP devices to explain to people how to change the settings on their machine.

So the powers that be have decided that we CPAPers are too stupid and inept to analyze compliance… Continue

Added by Mike on December 14, 2008 at 1:30pm — 7 Comments

Getting the Runaround: Dan's Story

Entry: to give someone the run·around

Pronunciation: \ˈrə-nə-raund\

: to act in a way which makes it difficult for someone to do something, for example by refusing to tell them things they need to know.

My friend Dan knows he has obstructive sleep apnea and is trying to use CPAP properly to treat his condition… Continue

Added by Mike on December 13, 2008 at 3:53pm — 29 Comments

The Future of CPAP Technology

I am often humbled whenever I speak to a "CPAP old-timer" about the "bad old days" of treatment when CPAP machines were large and noisy, without any of the features of today's machines that make them easier to use, such as auto-adjustment, ramp, expiratory relief and so on. Having only been using a CPAP myself for a little over a year, and knowing full well how… Continue

Added by Mike on December 12, 2008 at 3:52pm — No Comments

CPAP, Surgery, Dental Device or.... "Positional Therapy"?

Even if you don't think you know what positional therapy is, you actually do. It's the push or shove to your side you get from your spouse when you snore; it's the fancy $150 pillow at Brookstone which is promoted as a cure for snoring; and it's the old-fashioned snoring remedy of pinning tennis balls to the back of your nightshirt. Nevertheless, the term was an… Continue

Added by Mike on December 11, 2008 at 2:36pm — 4 Comments

Outrageous Claims by Dentists???

I am responding to your post "Outrageous claims by dentists". You mention an unfortunate situation where a dentist placed an oral appliance in a patient's mouth without any diagnostic basis for doing so. There can be no justification for this behavior and no dentist who is trained in sleep medicine would do such a thing. It takes very little training and no understanding of sleep medicine to learn how to make a "snore appliance". It takes a great deal of training and a significant amount of… Continue

Added by David E. Lawler DDS D.ABDSM on December 11, 2008 at 8:47am — 1 Comment

Turf War: Dentists vs. CPAP

A turf war is afoot in the Sleep Industry for control over the heart, mind and airway of the Sleep Apnea patient. The turf war pits the field of Sleep medicine, very much in its early, formative stages, but showing a lot of promise, against the established specialists like dentists, ENTs, pulmonologists and others. And although some of these specialists do a… Continue

Added by Mike on December 10, 2008 at 4:00pm — 12 Comments

Fed to Audit Sleep Industry; DMEs, Industry Insiders Wet Pants

It didn't have to be this way. When the Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently unveiled its plans to audit the Sleep Industry as part of its Work Plan for fiscal year 2009, it sent a shudder of fear through the sleep community, with doctors, sleep labs and DMEs scrambling to put their best foot forward. With an economic crisis afoot and President-elect Obama… Continue

Added by Mike on December 9, 2008 at 5:00pm — 11 Comments

The CPAP Customer --- It's Not Who You Think

Quick: who is the CPAP customer? The one who spends each night hooked up to a hose and a machine to manage a serious health condition, right? Wrong. Or at least that is what the CEO of Philips Respironics would have us believe. In an email sent to clinicians and other industry insiders, the CEO, Donald Spence, comforted DMEs and clinicians worried that a… Continue

Added by Mike on December 8, 2008 at 1:21pm — 14 Comments

Why CPAP Is Getting an Estrogen Boost

The recent launch by ResMed Inc. of the Swift LT for Her, the first mask designed "by women and for women," is a bold move for the Sleep Apnea product maker. We at SleepGuide applaud ResMed for considering the needs of its end users, the people who actually use their products day after day. In an industry too often focused on how to please the doctor or the… Continue

Added by Mike on December 7, 2008 at 5:08pm — No Comments

The Sleep Apnea Money Trail: Surgery

A friend, I'll call him Jason, was diagnosed with a case of moderate obstructive sleep apnea. A tech came to his house, set him up with CPAP and wished him good luck. That was a year ago. Since then, nobody's reached out to him to check up on his treatment, and although he feels better using the CPAP, he has grown increasingly frustrated with being tethered to a… Continue

Added by Mike on December 6, 2008 at 6:00pm — 1 Comment

New Nasal Device Seeks to Give CPAP a Run For Its Money

It's no secret that a lot of people have trouble adjusting to CPAP, or other positive pressure therapies, to treat their sleep apnea. The conventional estimate is that about 50% of those who are prescribed CPAP have trouble with it, get frustrated and give up. Although I believe the vast majority of these… Continue

Added by Mike on December 5, 2008 at 4:00pm — 4 Comments

My CPAP Storage Center

As you can see, I haven't quite figured out the best place to store all the hoses, masks and tubing that go along with being a CPAP user, so I gave up finding the best place and just found someplace: the wall. It's kind of messy, and certainly ugly, but it keeps everything accessible for me, and also is a great place to dry out the tubing during the day while… Continue

Added by Mike on December 4, 2008 at 3:00pm — No Comments

What I Learned at Tonight's A.W.A.K.E. Group Meeting

I went to my second A.W.A.K.E. group meeting in my area tonight, and, like last time, I came away with some useful information from other CPAP users about solving common CPAP problems. I scribbled some notes while there so that I could share them with you. Here's the stuff that was new to me:

-- the oil on your face can cause mask cushions to degrade… Continue

Added by Mike on December 3, 2008 at 10:00pm — 4 Comments