Nutmeg “Nuggets”
brain controls) became inactive, quiescent, dormant. Being asleep and being in a coma share some outward appearances, but are two very different physiological states. With the advent of advancing technologies in biomedical research, "sleep" has been shown to be a very active process or rather many very specific processes in the reparative, healing, restorative, replenishing, growing and develop- ing of most physiological and anatomic structures of the brain and body at all ages. And research shows these specific functions occur during well-defined stages of sleep within very precise areas of the brain.
Snoring is a funny sounding word about which many jokes 5 Sign You Have Sleep Disordered Breathing I
f you have experienced any of the 5 signs below, you may have what physicians, dentists, and other health care professionals describe as being derived from "sleep disordered breathing".
#1: You have been told your snoring could wake up the dead.
#2: You feel drowsy during the day and need a power nap to make it through the day.
#3: You need a large cup of coffee to start your day.
#4: Your trousers seem to be shrinking and food cravings are increasing.
#5: You wake up feeling tired and unrefreshed, even though you were in bed all night.
Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is not a disease, but a con- stellation of several conditions including Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS) that can have potentially life threatening consequences including increased risk for heart attack, stroke, and certain cancers. And SDB is only one of many recognized sleep disorders including insomnia, restless leg syndrome, sleep walking, and narcolepsy to name a few.
Up until rather recently (less than 100 years), "sleep" was considered a passive process, that is, it was considered that when someone went to sleep, the brain (and all the functions that the
have been made, but it is really a noisy reminder that we are not breathing correctly. But snoring is only one symptom of a much more ominous and potentially life threatening condition: an im- paired or obstructed airway. The anatomy of the breathing pathways in an adult or child is broken into two major parts. An obstruction can occur at any or all parts of the breathing pathway, but Obstruc- tive Sleep Apnea usually means something is blocking the soft and somewhat flexible tissues in the upper airway.
Assessment of sleep disordered breathing can be done by a
trained physician or dentist, with the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea being made after appropriate objective testing and diagnostic procedures. Appropriate life-saving therapy can consist of the use of CPAP, oral appliance therapy, surgery, myofascial, or behavioral therapy alone or in combinations depending on the needs and com- pliance of the individual. Good quality and quantity of sleep are essential for optimal health and performance. So sleep well, breathe well, live well.
Dr Kevin Norige is a general dentist who has been serving the greater South Windsor area for more than 37 years. Influenced throughout his career by the attribution of his dental school dean referring to dentists as "physicians of the oral cavity", Dr Norige has always treated and managed oral disease as the local manifes- tation of systemic disease. Complete health through dentistry is the operational paradigm of Dr Norige's South Windsor Smiles dental practice with the oral cavity being the window to the health of the entire body. Screening for cavities, gum disease, jaw problems, and oral cancer is the norm not the exception. But also screening for high blood pressure and sleep disordered breathing puts his prac- tice on the front lines of health care not just dental health care. See ads on pages 3 and 23.
12 Natural Nutmeg - November/December 2018
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