Sleep and Health Journal

I had not read the report "Expert Panel Recommendations Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Commercial Motor Vehicle Driver Safety" and have only read thru it briefly to this point. I do not know whether or not this report has been accepted by the Dept of Transportation and placed into written regulations.

An extremely interesting abstract can be foun in the Sleep Abstract Supplement "A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF NASAL EXPIRATORY RESISTANCE AS A TREATMENT FOR OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA" by Berry RB1, Massie C2, Kryger . In their article they talk about the urgent need for alternatives to CPAP because of the dismal compliance to CPAP.

Patients with fluctuating high blood pressure are at greater risk of stroke than patients with consistently high blood pressure. A frequent cause of elevated blood pressure (hypertension) is untreated sleep apnea. Patients with untreated sleep apnea frequently have wide swings in blood pressure at night and will often have high blood pressure in early morning readings.

Sleep apnea is a life threatening condition that can cause hear attacks, strokes, worsen diabetes,adversely affect short term memory loss and cognitive function and increase risks of motor vehicle accidents 600%. CPAP, or continuous positive air pressure is used to treat obstructive sleep apnea and is considered to be the gold standard of treatment.

SLEEP AND HEALTH JOURNAL IS PLEASED TO SUPPORT THE AMERICAN SLEEP APNEA ASSOCIATION FOR ITS NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE EFFECT OF SLEEP APNEA ON COMMERCIAL DRIVERS HEALTH AND SAFETY.

A new article in November 30 issue of The Journal of Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry ( 2009 Nov 30.)