A new study has revealed that processed meat and animal-based products worsen OSA, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, according to Live Kindly.

According to the UK National Health Service (NHS) website, “[OSA] is a relatively common condition where the walls of the throat relax and narrow during sleep, interrupting normal breathing.” It adds, “this may lead to regularly interrupted sleep, which can have a big impact on quality of life and increases the risk of developing certain conditions.”

After monitoring the dietary habits of more than 100 OSA sufferers, researchers discovered that those who consumed high-fat diets, with high processed meatand dairy consumption, had far worse symptoms than those with low-fat diets, who consumed less processed meat and dairy.

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Patients with prediabetes who also have obstructive sleep apnea may improve their resting heart rate by using CPAP, reports News Medical.

People with prediabetes have blood sugar levels higher than normal but below Type 2 diabetes levels. People with OSA experience times during sleep when air is obstructed from flowing normally into the lungs. CPAP is considered the “gold standard” treatment for OSA.

According to Sushmita Pamidi, MD, lead study author and a sleep physician-scientist at McGill University, previous studies have found that OSA is associated with increased sympathetic activity, which activates our “fight or flight” response. This response, in turn, raises our heart rate.

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The researchers found that armodafinil did not improve the driving performance of those with OSA after six months of use, the study’s primary outcome, reports Medical Xpress.

Nor did those taking the drug report less daytime sleepiness than those receiving a placebo, as measured by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale and the Functional Outcomes of Sleep Questionnaire.

In the study, 113 participants (ages 18 to 70) were randomly assigned to either receive 150 mg of armodafinil daily or a placebo. Participants had moderate to severe OSA, were moderately obese and did not use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) or an oral appliance that advances their lower jaw. Both therapies treat OSA by preventing the pauses in breathing that occur in OSA when the back of the throat collapses.

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Devika Channaveerappa, a Clarkson University graduate student from Bangalore, India will travel to San Diego in June to present her work in the 66th American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) annual international conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics. Her travel will be supported by an ASMS travel award.

Channaveerappa is a PhD candidate who works in the biochemistry and proteomics group under the supervision of Costel Darie, an associate professor in chemistry and biomolecular sciences department.

She will present her project “Mass Spectrometry based Proteomics to Investigate the Molecular Changes in Rat Atria during Obstructive Sleep Apnea.” Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with atrial diseases, including atrial enlargement, fibrosis, and arrhythmias. The specific molecular mechanisms of OSA-induced cardiac changes are not known.

“By collaborating with Masonic Medical Research Laboratory in Utica, a novel OSA model was developed which closely recapitulates the occurrence of OSA in humans. Atria of the control rats and rats induced with OSA are excised and proteomics is conducted on the atrial tissues to identify differentially expressed proteins. Relative comparison of proteins and their associated

The VA blames staffing shortage for delayed sleep therapy orders, reports The Denver Channel.

In an emailed statement, the VA said, “ECHCS currently provides CPAP-related services to nearly 10,000 veterans, and we are working to order CPAPS for about 5.5 percent, or 552 of these Veterans.”

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People who snore may have extensive tissue damage in the nerves and muscles of the soft palate. This can in turn create problems with swallowing and contribute to development of sleep apnea, according to a new dissertation at Umeå University, Sweden, which also finds that treatment strategies aimed at early intervention to stop snoring might have beneficial effects in healing or preventing development of sleep apnea.

The reason why some develop sleep apnea is still unclear. Factors that are considered important are obesity, a small throat, neurological diseases, and hormonal disorders. But even those without that background have sleep apnea. The thesis shows that tissue damage in the soft palate also is an important factor that contributes to the development of sleep apnea and disturbances in swallowing function.

“The nerve and muscles injuries seem to contribute to the collapse of the upper airway during sleep. Most likely, the damage results from the recurrent snoring vibrations the tissues are exposed to,” says Farhan Shah, PhD student at the department of integrative medical biology at Umeå University, in a release.

In his