Children with Sleeping Problems may be Prone to Sleep Disorders Later, Study Suggests

A recent study indicates that one in 10 children under 3 years old has trouble sleeping at night and may be at increased risk for developing a sleep disorder such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with age.

The research focused on 359 children between 6 months and 3 years old over a three-year period and found that sleep problems were common, but that parents did not always recognize warning signs such as loud, chronic snoring. Regular snoring is one of the symptoms of OSA, a dangerous sleep disorder that can contribute to an increased risk for health problems including heart attack and stroke.

The study, which was published in January in the journal Pediatrics, suggested that children who had sleep problems at this early stage in life were three to five times more likely to have sleep problems later, which challenges the common belief that most children outgrow sleep disorders.

“The data indicate that sleep problems in children are not an isolated phenomenon,” said Dr. Kelly Byars, a co-author of the study and an associate professor at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “If you have it early and it’s not remedied, then it’s likely to continue over time.”

Over the course of the study, parents of the children were interviewed when the infants were 6 months old, and then again at 1, 2 and 3 years old. Research showed that about 35 percent of the children who had problems sleeping at the beginning of the study continued having problems more than two years later.

In addition to snoring, other indicators of potential sleep disorders included frequent waking interruptions of sleep in the middle of the night, regular nightmares and regularly taking longer than 20 minutes to fall asleep.

If you believe your child suffers from the symptoms of sleep apnea or another sleep disorder, a dentist who specializes in sleep disorder diagnosis and treatment may be able to help. Please contact us to locate a qualified dentist near you.

Exercise Alone Can Reduce Sleep Apnea

According to a recent study, exercise alone can make a significant positive impact on sleep apnea. Currently, behavioral therapy for sleep apnea approaches stress exercise along with diet and other behavioral changes as part of a combination therapy for treating obstructive sleep apnea.

The study showed that when patients began an exercise program that combined brisk walking with weight training, they cut their sleep apnea by 25%. They were assessed using a polysomnography. Study participants went from 32 apneic events per hour to 25 apneic events.

The population used for the study were 43 sedentary adults. Researchers noted that the increase in exercise and decline in sleep apnea events occurred without any corresponding weight loss, and that, typically, a 10% weight loss (e.g. 20 pounds in a 200-pound individual) would be necessary to achieve the same results.

The study showed that people who are suffering from sleep apnea can see positive benefit simply from starting an exercise program, independent of weight loss. However, researchers noted that people should not see a moderate exercise program as an alternative to other forms of sleep apnea treatment, such as CPAP or oral appliance therapy. Instead, people should talk to their doctors about an appropriate level of exercise at the same time they discuss their sleep apnea.

If you are suffering from sleep apnea and would like to learn more about your treatment alternatives, please contact a local sleep dentist today.

How Corticosteroids Treat Childhood OSA

Although the largest portion of obstructive sleep apnea sufferers are adult males age 50 or over, childhood obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a serious problem. Childhood sleep apnea can result in behavior problems, school difficulties, and serious health consequences for its victims. Unfortunately, treatment of the condition can be difficult, and the preferred first line of treatment, surgery, is not as effective as doctors would like. Some studies estimate the effectiveness of surgical treatment to be as low as 50%. When you add in the risk of surgical complications, it seems that a nonsurgical treatment option may be a better front-line treatment.

Fortunately, one alternative sleep apnea treatment is the use of nasal corticosteroids. The most commonly studied steroid is fluticasone, which has shown reasonable success. In one study, children receiving nasal steroids saw a reduction of arousals due to apneic events of 3.5/hr. In addition, less than half of children treated with nasal steroids went on to have surgery, compared to three-quarters of children treated with placebo.

In the most recent study, researchers looked at the mechanism that allows the corticosteroid to treat sleep apnea. They found that corticosteroids significantly decreased the amount of cytokine IL-6, which has been associated with cardiovascular risk and death. Although the study is brief and involved only a small number of children, it does point to an important treatment option for childhood OSA sufferers.

If your child is having trouble in school or suffers from behavior problems, you should consider the possibility of childhood obesity among other potential causes. To learn more about how to get the best treatment for childhood sleep apnea, please contact a local sleep dentist today.

Can Bananas Really Help Your Sleep Apnea?

One of the things you have to understand about sleep apnea information that's available on the Internet is that sometimes stories get passed around with little or no actual research. People are looking to fill up blogs with ideas they think will bring traffic, and may skim through pages and pages of search results in their quest for something to write about. Once one person finds something a little off the beaten path, other people will find it more easily and copy it, often without any critical consideration of the statement.

Consider, for example, the case of bananas and sleep apnea. In late march, one sleep apnea blog reported that bananas could help cure sleep apnea. The next day, another blog reported the same thing, using different words, but offering no additional information. Then in April a couple more blogs pop up touting the benefits of bananas for sleep apnea, and now that we're in May it seems that even more people are promoting this fruit for sleep apnea. It sounds good and rational: eat a banana to improve your sleep apnea. However, is it true?

The source of the story is a 2009 news report on the research of a professor at the University of New England in New South Wales. The research was being reported at a conference in Darwin, and the Northern Territory News outlet covered it. The professor's research showed that phospholipids in bananas could stick to the throat for up to six hours, and that they would reduce surface tension and may help to keep the throat open. In the words of researcher Dr. Tom van der Touw, "Our initial findings suggest that bananas may offer a relatively cheap and tasty alternative as part of the treatment for patients with obstructive sleep apnoea." Although the research was presented at the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, they do not seem to have panned out in any measurable way. Dr. Van der Touw has not published any further results from the study.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious, life-threatening condition, and it's important that you receive effective sleep apnea treatment to avoid an increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and other causes of premature death. Don't listen to folk methods and rumors. Instead, contact a local sleep dentist to learn about effective sleep apnea treatments.

New surgery to treat obstructive sleep apnea.

There is a new surgery designed to treat sleep apnea. Permanent sutures are placed to secure the tongu to the jaw preventing it from blocking the airway. The is a logic to this procedure and it may require more than 1 surgical procedure. There is no long term data. In general surgery has been ineffective for treating apnea unless major surgical prcedures are done. Soft palate surgery carried high risk of morbidity and poor results. Tongue reduction was more successful,especially base of the tongue reduction. A recent article showed similar rsults with base of tongue reduction and somnoplasty on the base of the tongue. The somnoplasty proceedure had lower risk and morbidity.

CPAP remains the "Gold Standard" for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea but the majority of patients do not tolerate CPAP or BiPAP. Oral appliances are the only other therapy considerd a first line treatment of mild to moderate sleep apnea. Oral Appliances are considered an alternative treatment for severe sleep apnea when patients do not tolerate CPAP. Even when sleep apnea is severe the majority of patients do not tolerate CPAP.

Bimaxillary advancement is the most successful surgical proceedure but is a major orthopedic procedure with significant risks of morbidity. The surgery works in a similar method to oral appliances. Prior to surgery a trial oral appliance can help determine the best position to place the jaws to prevent additional future surgeries.

Suturing the tongue to the jaw is a novel approach to treating sleep apnea. Hopefully it will be more successful and less painful that soft palate surgery has proven to be.