Sports Bras: Wearable Diagnostics

It was unbelievable to see that a new sports bra (that counts heartbeats) is a HOT Holiday item. The bra, transmitter and monitor are available only online from www.NuMetrex.com and cost $115 to $145 as a set. The bra alone is $45. A T-shirt version for men is planned for next year.

No you will not likely find it at Victoria Secret, but you may end up seeing it at your local sporting goods store. The bra, contains a conductive fabric in the chest band, so when it's wet, it picks up the heart's electrical pulse and radios it to a digital readout wristwatch via a tiny transmitter in the bra.

Why I am talking about this bra on my blog it to let you know that although this may seem like revolutionary technology, we have seen it for a while. To date we see that a shirt, made by VivoMetrics of Ventura, Calif., currently is used to monitor patients with sleep apnea. Once Medicare approves home based sleep studies we will likely see these types of wearable diagnostics readily available. Thus you may still need to end up at a sleep lab, but you may be able to at the very least be diagnosed in the comfort of your own home.

Related Topics: Stress and Sleep, Snoring

Tags: apnea,biometrics,VivoMetrics

CPAP Replacement for Apnea?

Today I read an article on a new potential treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Apparently a medical innovations company, announced today that it has begun patient enrollment for a proof of mechanism clinical trial for BGC20-0166, a pharmaceutical (AKA a pill) designed to treat obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. This medication according to the manufacturer shows "great promise" and may make it through the rigorous clinical trials process (of the FDA) quickly since it is a combination of two previously approved medications. Results are expected in the second half of 2006.

This brings up some interesting discussion points. First that someone might be able to take a pill as opposed to wearing a CPAP mask, have a dental appliance, or some type of surgical correction, would be a marvel of modern medicine. However, I caution everyone from getting too excited, too quickly. True it would be great, and true with prior approved chemicals it could be faster to market than others, but this process its going to take an increasingly long time.

In addition, we see that side effect profiles for many drugs inthese types of categories can be worse than the original affliction itself. What interests me most are the ideas behind understanding the mechanisms of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (which effects up to 4% of the US population) and the potential for short circuiting it.

I will be keeping my eye on this research, but I do not expect we will be replacing the CPAP anytime soon.

Related Topics: Surgery Proves Effective for Sleep Apnea, FDA Approves New Sleep Apnea Implant

Tags: CPAP,apnea,sleep

Turkey and sleep - Myth or fact?

So what is all this about sleepiness after the big holiday meal about? Many people out there have attributed certain foods; namely, turkey to be the culprit of excess sleepiness during the holiday (link to www.epicurious.com) . IN fact turkey does have small amounts of tryptophan in it, but research shows that this basic amino acid (which helps eventually produce serotonin) must be taken on an empty stomach.

IN fact, you would likely need to eat a 40 lb. turkey to get enough tryptophan to really make a difference and as I said with 40 lbs of turkey in your belly it still would not be effective. Tryptophan by itself was a popular supplement until there was an outbreak in the early 90’s of eosinophilia-myalgia, a syndrome that causes muscle pain and even death. I think 27 people actually died from it so the FDA banned it, but it is still being sold in Canada.

A more likely explanation for holiday sleepiness is the beer or wine you ate with dinner or while watching football while the meal was being prepared. ( I was pleased to see my Atlanta Falcons did well this holiday season). Another possibility could be the increase in carbohydrates (stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc.) which is causing an increase in insulin and blood sugar to compensate for the increase in food. This increased production has been shown to cause increases in sleepiness.

Related Topics: Foods that Fight Winter Depression, Food for Moods

Tags: turkey sleep tryptophan

Beauty Sleep

A report of a recent study discounts the idea of "Beauty Sleep" as a purely perceptual issue. In this study they took 15 men and women (ages 18-45) and deprived them of sleep for 48 hours in a room together not allowing them to use any toiletry products. While an interesting attempt at investigating this issue, I seriously do not think this study could have been more poorly performed. My questions are simple:

1. Why both men and women?, With this small of a group, I would think it would be impossible to tell the differences between men and women.


2. Why such a small sample size? This is not enough people to get any real discernable results.


3. What was really measured? There was little mention of how they determined or defined dark circles, skin deterioration, etc.


4. Why was the perception of beauty downplayed as not being significant vs. objective physical identifiable characteristics?
   

Beauty is purely a perception. Look at magazine ads in different countries and you will see vastly different thoughts on what is beautiful and what is not? Look at the new Dove girls ad -- those women are very beautiful, yet in a very different way than Hollywood may think of beauty. My feelings are quite the opposite of the recent article and study, if those individuals thought that they had bad skin, and thought that their eyes looked worse, then guess what, they did. Furthermore, if they thought that they looked better after getting a good nights rest, then again guess what, they did.

Related Topics: Inner Beauty,Your Body Image

Tired Teachers

There was a recent study of teachers from K-12 showing that 85% of them feel that lack of sleep affects their teaching. 88% say they sometimes have difficulty falling or staying asleep. 81% of those surveyed say that if they got better sleep then they would be better teachers. It was actually surprising to me that 88% of teachers have occasional problems sleeping.

But then I think about an overcrowded classroom and an underpaid teacher and it all makes sense. Could it be that the busywork I was constantly given in grammar school was merely a ploy to allow the teacher in the back of the room to take a quick nap?

Advise for these people and others with stress getting in the way of sleep, is to try a few simple things before going to bed to help relax. Consider a warm bath, muscle relaxation, soothing music, or writing down your stressors to deal with them later.

Related Topics: What a Caring Teacher Can Do, Tips for a Good Night's Sleep

Asleep at the Wheel

An interesting article was posted on the National Sleep Federation website. It was amazing to me that someone who is smart enough to receive a Nobel prize is not smart enough to know either how to drive or when to drive.

John Schrieffer, (age 74) professor at Florida State University, was sentenced to felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence when driving over 100 miles an hour and he fell asleep and killed someone and injured 7. By the way he was driving on a suspended license.

This obviously brings up the topic of sleepiness and driving however this is not the best example since this 74 year old gentleman obviously has issues with speed. What I want to highlight here is that driving sleepy is quite dangerous and can have some serious consequences. In NJ there is now a law -- "Maggie's law"-- which allows for increased sentencing and punishment for killing someone when falling asleep while driving. Prior to the law a young woman (Maggie) was killed, by someone who had been awake for 36 hours and all he got was a $200 fine.

There are several hard questions to ask here:

How can we reliably measure sleepiness? Can we do it real time, to catch people in the act? Finally, are there degrees of sleepiness that are OK when driving?

Related Topics: WebMD Member Story: Asleep at the Wheel, Driving Dangerously by Driving Drowsy, Older Drivers: The Car Key Decision

Hangovers - Drinking and Sleep

Last night I went to a wine tasting party. It was quite fun, and I enjoyed sampling the wine. The theme was the new release of the wine spectators list of the top wines. I then went and checked out a wine blog to learn more. Upon awakening the quality of my sleep, even from the small amount of alcohol, was not all that great (AKA the Hangover). It reminded me that alcohol affects sleep in ways that we should all be aware of this holiday season.

We know from the research that alcohol tends to shorten the time it takes to fall asleep, increase the amounts of the early stages of sleep and reduce REM (sleep, not the band) in the first hours after ingestion. This is one reason many people may use alcohol to help them fall asleep.

Conversely, we see that alcohol affects your quality of sleep. There are several things that happen to the body once asleep after drinking:

• Alcohol inhibits glutamine, one of the body's natural stimulants. When the drinker stops drinking, the body tries to make up for lost time by producing more glutamine than it needs stimulating the brain.
• This brain stimulation will keep you in the light stages of sleep not the deep refreshing sleep, which likely causes the fatigue felt with a hangover. Severe glutamine rebound during a hangover also may be responsible for tremors, anxiety, restlessness and increased blood pressure.
• Alcohol is metabolized at the rate of approximately one glass of wine or one-half pint of beer per hour. Therefore, after four to five drinks in the hours before bedtime, alcohol concentrations in blood approach zero approximately halfway through the night.
• Withdrawal tends to occur in the last half of the night and produces shallow, disrupted sleep, increases REM sleep, increases dream or nightmare recall, and sympathetic arousal, including tachycardia and sweating.

A few other interesting facts:

1. Drinking during happy hour may disrupt sleep during the last half of the night
2. The sleep inducing effects of alcohol appear to be greater in those with sleep deprivation
3. There is no data yet to suggest whether or not a "nightcap" is helpful or harmful in those who drink every night, however the above evidence would lead one to believe it can't be a great thing.

Related Topics: Strategies for a Hangover-Free Holiday Season, Anatomy of a Hangover