When a Virtue Becomes a Vice: Football Stars Turned Sleepless Stars
Football season is fast approaching, but all the spotlights will be on the young, active players making headlines. Most of those achy, old players trying to survive retirement with bad knees, backs, shoulders and hips won't get much attention. But they did get a nod this month when the NFL announced it was going to do a better job at taking care of these outdated sports stars.
As a sleep doctor, you could see how the article I read mentioning this news immediately caught me eye: "Aid on the Way for Retired NFL Players with OSA." "OSA" is short for "obstructive sleep apnea," which is a common sleep disorder whereby a person temporarily stops breathing during sleep. Chances of having OSA increase tremendously with weight and even thick necks (picture those meaty linebackers).
The original article detailed how NFL players with physical and mental ailments would soon receive financial help from the league in addressing their issues, which, as you can imagine, will have a lot do with assisting those battered and beat-up players pay for surgeries. Funds will also be set up to help cover heart and cardiovascular screening. I hear there has been a lot of noise lately from former football stars unhappy about how the NFL Players Association has been treating them. In fact, the legendary Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears allegedly boycotted the recent Hall of Fame ceremony until "they fix the system."
What truly surprised me, though, was reading that screening for sleep apnea would be among the top health concerns addressed. In addition to heart disease and cardiovascular-related problems, sleep apnea has been identified as one of the three major medical issues NFL players face once their careers end.
Of course, this comes as no surprise to me because sleep apnea is much more common in those carrying a wide girth. I don't know many slender, lanky football players. And let's be honest: most retired football stars have a tendency to either gain more weight or experience a "conversion" of muscle mass to fat mass.
I feel bad for all those great former football stars who, by virtue of their size, made for great (and entertaining) players. But now that "big" virtue is an even bigger vice. Now they contend with poor sleep, ailing bodies, and did I mention poor sleep? It's all a vicious cycle.
My hope is that with this announcement, more players - including those in other sports - will take heed the warning: size does matter. What's more, OSA can be serious. In 2006, sleep apnea was established as a contributing cause in the death of Reggie White, a Hall of Fame defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. He was only 43 years old.
I wonder how many sumo wrestlers, for example, who have notoriously short lives and even more notoriously large bodies, suffer from OSA
Hike!
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: sleep apnea, OSA, NFL, football, health and wellness
As a sleep doctor, you could see how the article I read mentioning this news immediately caught me eye: "Aid on the Way for Retired NFL Players with OSA." "OSA" is short for "obstructive sleep apnea," which is a common sleep disorder whereby a person temporarily stops breathing during sleep. Chances of having OSA increase tremendously with weight and even thick necks (picture those meaty linebackers).
The original article detailed how NFL players with physical and mental ailments would soon receive financial help from the league in addressing their issues, which, as you can imagine, will have a lot do with assisting those battered and beat-up players pay for surgeries. Funds will also be set up to help cover heart and cardiovascular screening. I hear there has been a lot of noise lately from former football stars unhappy about how the NFL Players Association has been treating them. In fact, the legendary Mike Ditka of the Chicago Bears allegedly boycotted the recent Hall of Fame ceremony until "they fix the system."
What truly surprised me, though, was reading that screening for sleep apnea would be among the top health concerns addressed. In addition to heart disease and cardiovascular-related problems, sleep apnea has been identified as one of the three major medical issues NFL players face once their careers end.
Of course, this comes as no surprise to me because sleep apnea is much more common in those carrying a wide girth. I don't know many slender, lanky football players. And let's be honest: most retired football stars have a tendency to either gain more weight or experience a "conversion" of muscle mass to fat mass.
I feel bad for all those great former football stars who, by virtue of their size, made for great (and entertaining) players. But now that "big" virtue is an even bigger vice. Now they contend with poor sleep, ailing bodies, and did I mention poor sleep? It's all a vicious cycle.
My hope is that with this announcement, more players - including those in other sports - will take heed the warning: size does matter. What's more, OSA can be serious. In 2006, sleep apnea was established as a contributing cause in the death of Reggie White, a Hall of Fame defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. He was only 43 years old.
I wonder how many sumo wrestlers, for example, who have notoriously short lives and even more notoriously large bodies, suffer from OSA
Hike!
Related Topics: Technorati Tags: sleep apnea, OSA, NFL, football, health and wellness
4 Comments:
My husband had surgery recently and the alarm kept going off whenever his breathing would slow down too much. His nurse said this could mean he has sleep apnea. He didn't believe her and has done nothing about it. If you look at him, you wouldn't think he was large. He is 6' tall and weighs 230lbs. However, his neck size is 17 and 1/2 and he has a huge head. I worry about him since he snores no matter what position he is sleeping in. I think the nurse may have been right. Do you have to be large all over to be considered large?
I have been looking for this information for a very long time. I have frequently been told that the only thing was the CPAP. Then came the dental. But, I have upper and lower dentures, strike out again.
I own my CPAP maching and I can not use it.
How can I find a M.D. that would take me as a patient? These many treatments seem to offer a chance to people like me. I do have very good health insurance as well as Medicare.
I don't drink, no tonsils, do not sleep on my back, don't smoke.
I need professional help that would have knowledge about all these different treatments.
I am not very computer literate. How do we get answers to our questions on these blogs. Maybe my email address will go along with this to the right people.
This is a very important issue, especially in light of a recent study that showed that 14% of NFL players and 34% of linemen have obstructive sleep apnea. I've suspected that thick neck muscles may compress the upper airway as well.
Unfortunately, the stereotypical features of sleep apnea (large neck, overweight, men) continues to perpetuate the notion in the sleep medicine and lay community that one has to meet these criteria to have obstructive sleep apnea. In fact, it's been shown that young thin women that don't snore can have significant obstructive sleep apnea.
So yes, if you are overweight, you are at risk, as enlarging fat tissues in your throat can narrow your upper airway, but there are many thin people that have naturally narrow anatomy that predisposes them to sleep-breathing problems. Many of these young thin people get treated for their insomnia, depression, sinus infections, chronic fatigue, without ever considering the fact that it could be a sleep-breathing problem. Later on in life, they tend to gain weight, as inefficient sleep promotes weight gain.
As for treatment options, CPAP is best, and mandibular advancement devices work for some people, but there are many people who can't tolerate either. Surgery has been downplayed as being ineffective, but that depends on who you read. There are many surgeons in this country (and in my own ENT practice experience), that by treating the appropriate areas of airway narrowing (in addition to the palate, such as the tongue base and nose), can provide success rates as high as 80%.
Skeptics may criticize surgical options because they tend to leave mild residual disease, even with "cures", but it's much better than not using CPAP at all. I see people's lives changed dramatically for the better after these procedures. In fact, surgery works better if you are relatively thin, as it's more of an anatomic issue. Most of the complications you hear about are historical and in good hands, the potential benefits may outweigh the risks.
For years I have wondered why every team doesn't require a sleep test for All their players AND coaches. It isn't a matter of finding a problem that would bump a player but a way of getting the optimum effort from each player. No different from treating a chronic back problem.
A lineman or reciever with OSA will perform better with a good night's sleep. The same with RLS and jet lag sleep effects. And I would take more care in road trip accomadations as to sleep environments.
A bit further, and farther off topic, I have wondered why teams don't require flu vaccines and other temporary prophylatic treatments for players and coaches.
Every year there are reports from play off bound teams of a player with the flu and "will he be able to play?".
I have CFIDS among other diseases, we tried several ant- virals back in the '80s, they didn't help, except I didn't get the flu or a cold while on them. I might use them as well once a team is play off bound.
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