Amy Poehler (5 feet, 2 inches tall) and Shaquille O’Neal (7 feet, 1 inch tall) see eye to eye on one thing: Sleep apnea can ruin your life if you don’t manage it correctly. Both use a CPAP device at night to maintain steady breathing and uninterrupted sleep. Amy says the therapy “helps you win at life,” and Shaq reports that it helps him get seven to nine hours of sleep nightly -- improving his energy and letting him manage his weight better.
What they may not know is that taking care of their sleep apnea also protects their brains. A study, slated to be presented virtually at the American Academy of Neurology’s 73rd annual meeting this April, has found that over half of its 67 participants, average age 73, who had cognitive problems also had SA -- often undiagnosed -- and 60% of those folks scored worse on cognitive tests than participants without SA.
If your bed partner says that you have loud snoring or you stop breathing or gasp for air while sleeping, you wake up frequently, awaken with a dry mouth, have a morning headache or are fatigued, irritable and unfocused during the day, you should get checked for SA. Untreated, it can lead to cardiovascular disorders, stroke and heart failure, as well as memory problems. For more info, search for “sleep apnea” at ClevelandClinic.org. And go to sleepeducation.org/find-a-facility to locate a sleep clinic where you can go for evaluation.
P.S. A new study shows Shaq is right. Folks who manage their SA have more energy -- and spontaneously do 20% more exercise -- once it’s controlled.
Added fructose is far worse for you than you know
“We City Folk can pretend that we prefer the rotgut from Starcorps with skim milk and Splenda, but who are we kidding? Maxwell House with French vanilla corn syrup cannot be beat.” Tina Fey in her book “Bossypants” summed up America’s self-destructive love affair with added fructose -- especially high-fructose corn syrup -- pretty accurately. The most recent stats show that the average American consumed just over 22 pounds of HFCS in 2018, and that was in addition to more than 40 pounds of refined cane and beet sugars.
The obesity-promoting, diabetes-encouraging, liver-damaging abilities of this sweetener, which shows up in sodas and teas, packaged baked goods, and even yogurt, applesauce and ketchup, have long been known. But now researchers have published a breakthrough study in Nature Communications that shows it also damages your immune system. Seems eating a steady diet of added fructose and HFCS reprograms part of your metabolism, causing your immune system’s cells to produce chronic inflammation throughout your body, and that falsely evoked immune response damages your internal organs.
Avoiding added fructose (fructose in fresh fruit is no worry) is easy if you ditch packaged baked goods, many salad dressings, sweetened yogurts, frozen pizzas and dinners, many condiments (read the labels), and sweetened sodas, teas and energy and sports drinks. The rewards are more energy, smoother skin, a better sex life, less risk of chronic disease and a longer life. For more info, check out “The Sugar Wars” on DoctorOz.com, and try the body-lovin’ recipes in Dr. Mike’s “What to Eat When Cookbook.”
