Word: apnea
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Mandatory Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) tests for commercial truck drivers could reduce the risk of truck crashes that kill and injure thousands a year, according to a recent study by Harvard researchers...
...studies on the long-term consequences of childhood obesity just don't exist yet. But doctors know enough from work on adults to be worried. Overweight people of any age are at risk of not only better-known ills like cardiac disease but also arthritis, joint damage and sleep apnea. Adults who were overweight as children have nearly twice the risk of dying from any cause in their 70s than are adults who were of normal weight as youngsters. Early evidence also suggests that heavier children are even 35% more likely to develop cancer in their later years...
...most non-medical people, the term "apnea" is most familiar when coupled with the word "sleep," and refers to a dangerous condition in which people inadvertently stop breathing while asleep. But the word literally means a temporary cessation of breathing and it is practiced (on purpose) around the world by an international community of extreme athletes - a brotherhood that now includes magician and stuntman David Blaine. On the set of The Oprah Winfrey Show on April 30, Blaine broke the world record by holding his breath for 17 minutes and 4 seconds - proving that just how temporary apnea...
...That of course, is down to months of rigorous training, including practicing a technique called glossopharyngeal insufflation, or lung packing. In order to maximize the amount of air taken into the lungs before apnea, Blaine, among other divers, inhaled until his lungs were filled to their physiological capacity, and then forced additional air into the lungs by swallowing, hard. Using this technique, Blaine was able to cram another quart's worth of air into his already full lungs, Potkin estimates. (He also fasted before before the actual record breaking act, in order to have more room for his lungs...
...With or without pure oxygen, holding your breath is a difficult and dangerous pastime even for elite athletes. When not done carefully, it can lead to drowning, or to potential tissue damage in the heart, brains or lungs. Preliminary results from Potkin's research into apnea's long-term effects show some abnormal brain scans among young, extreme free divers. There's still much to learn about the phenomenon; as a medical student, Potkin recalls, he was told that no one could hold his breath for more than five minutes without suffering brain damage. Now, he wants...