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News Archives
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December 10: Bedside tech devices cause 'junk sleep' that leaves kids in a funk, experts say, Orlando Sentinel
Linda Shrieves | Sentinel Staff Writer
If you're thinking about buying your teenager a cell phone this Christmas, you might want to hold that call.
Some sleep researchers think today's teens are loading up on "junk sleep" -- the sleep equivalent of junk food -- because they sleep with so many distracting devices: cell phones tucked under their pillows, hand-held computer games on the bedside table, TVs or music playing in the background.
"We have an epidemic of obesity, and we have an epidemic of junk sleep," said Dr. Morris Bird, head of Florida Hospital's Center for Sleep Disorders. "With our 24-hour days, the availability of all these things -- all of these things are like a big apple pie that is sitting in front of them -- and they can't resist."
At a time when parents are trolling store aisles for the latest electronics for their kids, it appears that American teens are getting more gadgets and less quality sleep.
Natasha Parish, 17, loves to keep her cell phone on her bedside table, just in case a friend calls or text-messages her in the middle of the night. Sometimes she receives calls or texts as late (or early) as 3 a.m. If she's awake, or if the call wakes her up, Natasha texts right back.
"I don't like not being able to respond right away," said Natasha, a senior at Winter Park High School. Likewise, she keeps her laptop computer powered up until bedtime, just to catch any e-mails that friends send her.
"It's probably one of my biggest distractions and one of the reasons I don't go to bed earlier," Natasha said.
Almost everyone does it
In a 2006 poll by the National Sleep Foundation, 97 percent of teens said they have at least one electronic item, such as a television, computer, phone or music device, in their bedroom. On average, sixth-graders reported having more than two electronic gadgets in their room, while high-school seniors said they have four.
In the survey, teens with four or more electronic devices in their bedrooms were much more likely than their peers to get an insufficient amount of sleep.
"These devices keep you awake. They are in competition with sleep," said Dr. Mary Carskadon, a Brown University psychiatry professor who specializes in the sleep-wake pattern of children and adolescents. "The message we're trying to send is: Sure, you can have these gadgets, but do you have to have them in the bedroom?"
The problem, said Carskadon, is twofold. Not only do teens tend to stay up later, playing video games or surfing the Internet in their bedrooms while their parents have already gone to sleep, but many kids leave the TV or iPod or telephone on all night. And the noise from those gadgets can wake them up repeatedly during the night.
Making matters worse, any gadget with lights -- such as a computer monitor left on all night -- can trick the brain into thinking it's daytime.
Sleepy, moody and irritable
Researchers haven't yet studied the effect of sleeping with a cell phone tucked under your pillow, but studies suggest televisions disrupt sleep.
"After two hours of sleep, the child wakes up, the TV's on and there's something on that they want to watch. So they wake up and watch," said Carskadon. "Two things have happened: First, their sleep is disrupted. And second, now they're getting light, which can impact their sleep rhythm."
So what's happening to a generation growing up on junk sleep? It's becoming a generation of sleepy, sometimes moody and irritable teens who doze off in school.
"What parents probably experience most is the difficulty waking the teen up in the morning," said Carskadon. "The teachers will see it more. They'll see what I call the 'slack-jawed droolers,' the kids who are not with it in the morning."
9 hours a night? Ha!
The National Sleep Foundation says school-age children and adolescents need at least nine hours of sleep a night, but in a national survey conducted in 2006, only 20 percent of American teens said they get nine hours a night. Nearly half sleep less than eight hours on school nights, and 28 percent of high-school students reported falling asleep in school at least once a week.
But teens have become accustomed to gadgets -- and to cutting corners on sleep.
Monica Risley, a senior at Winter Park High School, sleeps between five and six hours a night. Like many of her friends, she falls asleep each night with her cell phone next to her pillow. She watches TV to help drift off to sleep but sets a sleep timer to turn off the TV after 30 minutes.
Yet Monica, a student in the school's International Baccalaureate program, blames homework, not her cell phone and TV, for her sleep deficit.
"Depending on my homework, I go to bed at 11 on a good night, but many times 12 or 1 o'clock," she said. She then gets up each morning at 5:30 a.m. to go to the gym before school.
"Very rarely do I get enough sleep."
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December 10: Artists sound off on hearing loss, The Gazette
Bernard Perusse, The Gazette
Roll over, Beethoven. You're not the only famous musician with a hearing loss.
The rock 'n' roll generation has provided an army of them.
Here are just a few of the household names who have had to, in the words of hard-of-hearing drummer Mick Fleetwood, "pay the reaper."
Eric Clapton: "My hearing is ruined as a result (of playing loud onstage). I've got whistling all the time," he said in the Classic Artists DVD biography of Cream.
Pete Townshend: Among the first to go public about his hearing problems, the heart and soul of the Who has been quoted as warning the iPod generation that "there's terrible trouble ahead."
Huey Lewis: The pop-rocker became a spokesperson for (and user of) Oticon Delta hearing aids last year.
Jeff Beck: "Why is (tinnitus) such a horrible sound?" the 1960s guitar legend said to Guitar Magazine in 1993. "Well, you can say why is a guy scratching at a window with his nails such a horrible sound? I couldn't put up with that! This is worse!"
Neil Young: He fried his ears while mixing the live album Weld. "That's why I really regret it," he is quoted as saying in Jimmy McDonough's biography, Shakey. "I hurt my ears and they'll never be the same again."
Pat Benatar: "Unfortunately, many of my peers are in denial," the rock vocalist said in her capacity as spokesperson for the Energizer EZ Change, a hearing-aid battery dispenser.
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December 10: Sticking with sleep apnea treatment cuts blood pressure, Reuters
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research suggests that people who suffer from the nighttime breathing disorder, obstructive sleep apnea, who also have high blood pressure could benefit from good compliance with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment.
Obstructive sleep apnea, which is linked to high blood pressure and other heart conditions, is a common problem in which people stop breathing for short periods during sleep. It occurs when soft tissues in the back of the throat collapses, temporarily block the airway.
With CPAP, a special face mask is worn that continuously blows air into the throat, preventing the tissues from collapsing.
In a study reported in the journal Chest, doctors from Spain monitored changes in blood pressure in 55 patients who were treated with CPAP and followed for 24 months. On average, CPAP was used for 5.3 hours each day.
Dr. Francisco Campos-Rodriguez and colleagues, from Valme University Hospital in Sevilla found that while long-term CPAP therapy reduced blood pressure modestly in the whole group, patients who initially had higher blood pressure and good CPAP compliance achieved significant reductions in blood pressure.
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December 11: Long Route to a Clear Head, The Washington Post
Nothing Helped His Sinus Pain -- Until He Tried the Knife
By Seth Hamblin
Washington Post Staff Writer
My brother told me lots of gruesome stories about med school, but the one about assisting a sinus surgeon hit home.
"He scooped all this gunk out like peanut butter,"my brother said, tensing up his forearm as though he was struggling to get a spoonful out of a jar and then flicking it into some imaginary vessel.
After that, I couldn't look at a container of Skippy without worrying about my nasal passages.
But it was a long time before a surgeon suggested that I have my sinuses scooped. Instead, doctor after doctor kept me going back to the medicine aisle. Sprays, rinses, mucus-thinners and a collection of antibiotics of all shapes and sizes -- I dutifully used them all. But none of them made any long-lasting difference.
I'm not alone in my frustrations. Sinusitis was diagnosed in about 13 percent of American adults in 2005, the most recent government estimate. Usually, it clears up on its own. But for a minority of sufferers like me, the problem can become chronic.
Eventually I found a surgeon who knew how bad sinusitis can get. In fact, he told me another gruesome story -- about a patient who had so much gunk built up that her eyes bulged out of their sockets.
That convinced me it was time to scoop out my jar.
The Emergency Room
More than five years ago, my first sinus infection landed me in the ER at 6 a.m., next in line to a garbage truck worker who had gashed his hand on the job. While I waited on the plastic bench, a mysterious pain shot from behind my eyes, through my upper jaws and into my teeth.
After I was admitted, the doctor peered and prodded while I described the pain.
He dismissed suggestions of tumors or implants: An acute bacterial sinus infection was the cause. Codeine for the pain, a 10-day course of antibiotics for the infection, decongestants, and I was out the door.
Within days, the drugs worked their wonders, and I assumed that was the last of it.
More Drugs
But within a couple of years, I came down with at least two more infections -- and I began to notice a yeasty smell from my nasal passages.
I went to a doctor. He gave me antibiotics. The pain and smell went away.
But before long, the odor returned. And although I didn't have a fever, my energy level sank.
I went to an urgent care clinic, where the doctor dismissed the malady as a common cold and discharged me to Rite Aid for some extra-strength decongestants.
Irrigation. And More Drugs.
Springtime in Washington, and each puff of wind sent the pollen count soaring. With so many colleagues wheezing and whining around me, I decided to follow the pack to an allergist.
A scratch test puffed up my skin in reaction to trees, grass, cats and roaches. But the biggest, reddest lump appeared under the needle holding essence of dust mite.
The allergist gave me a pamphlet that read like a Crate and Barrel catalogue for hypochondriacs. From it, I ordered synthetic liners to foil the mites' attempts to colonize my mattress and pillows, as well as a basterlike device to plunge my sinuses twice a day with salt water.
Her theory was that dust mites were causing inflammation, which trapped mucus in the cavities and allowed bacteria to colonize. By reducing inflammation, I could cut down the number of infections.
She also prescribed a 10-day course of antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory steroid nasal spray and pseudoephedrine.
None of it worked for long. We used several courses of antibiotics to play hide-and-seek with the bacteria until, finally, the doctor became frustrated from continually losing the game.
No more pills for you, she ultimately said. I had to tough it out.
CT Scans and . . . More Drugs
My first date with her replacement went well. In addition to the standard scratch test, the new allergist ordered a CT scan. It yielded a series of skull cutaways showing that the sinuses beneath my cheeks were blocked with dead tissue and hardened mucus -- key ingredients of the "peanut butter" my brother had told me about.
The first step was a longer, stronger course of pills and sprays. If that didn't work, it was time to scoop.
Surgery
After the medicines failed, the allergist put me in touch with a quick, confident surgeon who seemed excited about removing my goop with computer-assisted tools. He also promised to cut out the inflamed, infected tissue, enlarge the passageways and remove bumps and bulges so I wouldn't get clogged up again.
Within a month, I rested on a gurney with an IV in my arm, waiting for the anesthesiologist to turn on the drip.
I can't recall going under, but regaining consciousness remains vivid.
Remarkably, after a lot of cutting and corking, I breathed deep, satisfying gusts into both nostrils.
By the fifth day, I was back to work.
It has been several months now since the surgery. I have passed two seasons with nary a sniffle -- and can pass by an aisle of peanut butter without anxiety.
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December 12: Partial Face Transplant Patient Doing Well, HealthDay News
French doctors report woman is eating, drinking and smiling 18 months later
By Amanda Gardner
A 38-year-old French woman who underwent a partial face transplant after being mauled by her dog is eating, drinking and even smiling 18 months after the landmark surgery.
The surgery was the first ever partial face transplantation and, as such, continues to break new ground, both medically and ethically. In the Dec. 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the surgeons who performed the operation report on the woman's progress.
"There's a whole new technology of being able to transplant or transfer composite tissue, and that's one of the exciting new things, and whenever you're talking about pioneering efforts, you're talking about where does somebody go over the line," said Dr. Seth Thaller, chairman of plastic surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "It's crossing frontiers, and only time will tell."
The patient, Isabelle Dinoire, was attacked by her dog in May of 2005, resulting in the amputation of part of her nose, both upper and lower lips, her chin and parts of both cheeks.
Controversy had already surrounded the surgery when it was first reported at the end of 2005.
There were allegations that the woman had attempted suicide by overdosing on pills the night her dog mauled her.
And the lead doctor, Jean Michel Dubernard, was reported to lead a double life as a politician, a former deputy mayor of Lyon, and one of the most powerful members of the French National Assembly. Dubernard, a chain smoker, gained notoriety after he transplanted a new hand to patient Clint Hallam in 1998. It was later revealed that Hallam had lost his hand while serving time in prison.
Dubernard and his team grafted a nose, lips and chin onto the woman's face on Nov. 27, 2005, in Amiens, France. The donor was a brain-dead, 46-year-old woman with the same blood type as the patient.
Although a face transplant is not technically a lifesaving procedure, recipients still need to take immunosuppressant drugs to prevent rejection, as this woman did.
Forty-eight hours after surgery, the patient started physical therapy involving facial exercises focusing on lip movement and closing her mouth. She also received psychological support.
By the end of the first week post-surgery, the woman was able to eat and drink almost normally, her doctors reported. There was some initial leakage from her mouth but this was resolved by the end of the year.
The woman also regained sensitivity to light touch and to heat and cold.
Recovery of motor functions was slower, but, by the end of the 12th week following surgery, the woman could partially move her upper lip. She regained the ability to move her lower lip after the fourth month. And she was able to completely close her mouth 10 months after surgery, improving her ability to pronounce words and letters.
The woman's smile remained lopsided up to the 10th month after surgery but was normal at 18 months.
The patient did experience two rejection episodes, both of which were successfully reversed. There were also two infectious complications, both of them were also resolved.
According to the NEJM report, by the end of the fourth month after surgery, "the patient was capable of facing the outside world and gradually resumed a normal social life. . . At present, the patient says she is not afraid of walking in the street or meeting people at a party, and she is very satisfied with the aesthetic and functional results."
"My sense is that she's at a lot higher risk for having more trouble later on [for example, skin cancer]," said Dr. David Arnold, an assistant professor of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "Do you get immunosuppressed and [undergo several procedures] and potentially shorten your life for a cosmetic outcome. That's the glaring angle of all this. Technically, it's an amazing accomplishment."
The paper did not address the issue of identity after receiving what essentially amounts to a new face.
According to the study author, two other face grafts have been performed (one in China in 2006 and one in France in 2007), but information is not available on those.
The Cleveland Clinic has permission to perform a full face transplant, but, according to Dr. Maria Siemionow, head of plastic surgery research, "We still are screening patients, working in the laboratory on anti-rejection therapies and searching for a donor."
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December 14: Study Finds Cholesterol Fine-Tunes Hearing, US News & World Reports
Research in rodents shows amount in outer hair cell membranes affects sound
The amount of cholesterol in the outer hair cell membranes of the inner ear can affect hearing, a new U.S. study concludes.
"We've known for a long time that cholesterol is lower in the outer hair cell membranes than in the other cells of the body. What we didn't know was the relationship it had to hearing," senior author Dr. William Brownell, a professor of otolaryngology at Baylor College of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
In the study, published Dec. 14 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers manipulated cholesterol levels in the outer hair cells of the inner ears of mice and then measured the rodents' hearing ability.
"Depleting the cholesterol resulted in a hearing loss. Adding cholesterol initially increased hearing but later resulted in a hearing loss. So, you can change an animal's hearing just by adding or subtracting cholesterol," Brownell said.
The fine-tuning of cholesterol in these cells happens naturally during development and doesn't change much after birth. That's different than cholesterol levels in the blood, which can vary with eating habits.
"Will our hearing be affected if we continually eat greasy meals? Right now, we don't see a connection between the two," Brownell said. "The results of the study help us understand the cellular mechanisms for regulating hearing and give us another way to potentially help those with hearing loss."
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December 18: Dick Vitale to miss at least a month following vocal cord surgery, AP
Dick Vitale, the voice of college basketball for almost three decades, had vocal cord surgery Tuesday and is expected to be off the air until at least February.
The 68-year-old Vitale said on his Web site that he'll still give his take on college basketball through postings on ESPN.com and dickvitaleonline.com while he recuperates. He expects to return to the air in early February.
The surgery to treat ulcers on his left vocal cord was performed by Dr. Steven Zeitels at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
"College basketball fans will miss Dick's enthusiasm in the coming weeks. But we are delighted to learn his surgery was a success, and we all wish him a speedy recovery," ESPN president George Bodenheimer said.
Vitale had never missed an assignment in his 28-plus seasons at ESPN.
"The past six weeks have been very emotional (for) me and for my family as we've visited some of the most outstanding throat specialists," Vitale said in a letter posted on ESPN.com. "Visiting college campuses and interacting with the fans has kept me so young and energized. I can't wait to get back out there, having a blast with all of you, who are so vital to our game."
Vitale, who coached at the University of Detroit and for less than a season with the NBA's Detroit Pistons, was a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 2004, 2006 and 2007.
Hired at ESPN in 1979, Vitale, his trademark catchphrases and his almost fanatical zeal for the sport have become part of the sports lexicon.
In addition to his broadcasting career, Vitale has become an avid fundraiser and is personally responsible for raising millions of dollars for the V Foundation, a cancer research foundation named for his close friend, Jim Valvano.
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December 18: Brain Patch that Could Help to Silence Tinnitus, Daily Mail
By ROGER DOBSON
A patch placed under the scalp could be a new treatment for severe tinnitus.
The small patch provides electrical stimulation to the brain and is designed to reduce the ringing in the ears felt by the sufferer.
Researchers say it may have a lasting effect on symptoms.
Although tinnitus can be triggered by underlying problems, from earwax to high blood pressure, in most cases the cause is unknown.
It's estimated that up to a third of all adults experience tinnitus at some time, and that seven per cent of men and women will visit their GP with the problem. It can have a severe impact on quality of life.
Although there have been many treatments suggested and tried, including various herbs, distracting devices, anti-depressants and behaviour therapy, no cure has been found.
The treatment, which has just completed a pilot study in Minnesota in America, stimulates the area of the brain involved in sound, known as the auditory cortex, using low levels of electrical stimulation.
A stimulator device about the size of a pack of cards is implanted in a pocket created by the surgeon in the upper chest area. The electrical impulses it generates travel through a lead tunnelled under the skin to an electrode patch that has been surgically placed over the dura, the protective membrane that covers the brain's surface.
A handheld remote control device allows doctors and patients to turn the device on and off and adjust stimulation levels.
Results from the study with eight patients showed that all improved at the end of 12 weeks. Two patients experienced sustained reduction of tinnitus and six patients had short periods of total tinnitus suppression.
Two of the patients suffered from moderate to severe depression as a result of their condition; both improved to mild or minimal depression following the cortical stimulation. Most of the patients had periods where their tinnitus was alleviated, despite having had constant tinnitus for many years.
How it works is not clear and further studies are being planned, but other research shows that the same kind of stimulation above other areas of the brain can reduce the symptoms of depression. One theory is that the stimulation interferes with signals travelling between nerve cells in the auditory cortex.
"Many sufferers become frustrated by the lack of treatment options and are often told nothing can be done," says Dr Alan Levy, chief executive of device developers Northstar Neuroscience. "Electrical stimulation of the cortex may offer additional hope."
When the treatment could become more widely available is not yet known. Current treatments for tinnitus include:
AMPLIFICATION: Hearing aids may provide some tinnitus sufferers with relief or easing of symptoms by amplifying speech and other sounds, taking the focus away from the tinnitus.
MASKERS: These produce a masking sound more acceptable than the tinnitus.
DRUG THERAPY: Medications that have provided relief for some patients include anti convulsants, anti-anxiety medications, tranquillisers and antihistamines.
TINNITUS RETRAINING THERAPY: TRT is designed as a way to retrain the brain to ignore the tinnitus. It takes around a year or longer but has successfully provided relief to many sufferers.
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December 19: Neural Insights Could Bring Better Cochlear Implants, Washington Post
A team at Rutgers University in New Jersey say they are working on a better cochlear implant.
Cochlear implants are used to provide at least some degree of hearing for deaf people. The implants are surgically inserted into a structure called the cochlea, located in the inner ear. The results vary from patient to patient. Some are able to hear only loud noises, such as thunder or traffic, while others can hear voices and understand speech.
"The significance of our work lies in the fact that we can change an element in a very peripheral part of the sensory system that can have an impact all the way into the brain," team leader and neuroscientist Robin Davis said in a prepared statement.
"Our studies have revealed that sprial ganglion auditory neurons possess a rich complexity that is only now beginning to be understood," Davis explained.
In this latest research with mouse cochlear tissue cultured in the laboratory, Davis and colleagues found that two neurotrophin proteins in the cochlea -- brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) -- play an important role in the relay of sound messages to the brain.
It may be possible to load such neurotrophins into a specially-designed cochlear implant, which would then release the neurotrophins and improve the transfer of sound messages to the brain.
The findings are published in the Dec. 19 issue ofThe Journal of Neuroscience.
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December 28: Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep, Wired
In what sounds like a dream for millions of tired coffee drinkers, Darpa-funded scientists might have found a drug that will eliminate sleepiness.
A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy.
The treatment is "a totally new route for increasing arousal, and the new study shows it to be relatively benign," said Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and a co-author of the paper. "It reduces sleepiness without causing edginess."
Orexin A is a promising candidate to become a "sleep replacement" drug. For decades, stimulants have been used to combat sleepiness, but they can be addictive and often have side effects, including raising blood pressure or causing mood swings. The military, for example, administers amphetamines to pilots flying long distances, and has funded research into new drugs like the stimulant modafinil (.pdf) and orexin A in an effort to help troops stay awake with the fewest side effects.
The monkeys were deprived of sleep for 30 to 36 hours and then given either orexin A or a saline placebo before taking standard cognitive tests. The monkeys given orexin A in a nasal spray scored about the same as alert monkeys, while the saline-control group was severely impaired.
The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys' cognitive abilities but made their brains look "awake" in PET scans.
Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is "specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness" without other impacts on the brain.
Such a product could be widely desired by the more than 70 percent of Americans who the National Sleep Foundation estimates get less than the generally recommended eight hours of sleep per night (.pdf).
The research follows the discovery by Siegel that the absence of orexin A appears to cause narcolepsy. That finding pointed to a major role for the peptide's absence in causing sleepiness. It stood to reason that if the deficit of orexin A makes people sleepy, adding it back into the brain would reduce the effects, said Siegel.
"What we've been doing so far is increasing arousal without dealing with the underlying problem," he said. "If the underlying deficit is a loss of orexin, and it clearly is, then the best treatment would be orexin."
Dr. Michael Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said that while research into drugs for sleepiness is "very interesting," he cautioned that the long-term consequences of not sleeping were not well-known.
Both Twery and Siegel noted that it is unclear whether or not treating the brain chemistry behind sleepiness would alleviate the other problems associated with sleep deprivation.
"New research indicates that not getting enough sleep is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders," said Twery.
Still, Siegel said that Americans already recognize that sleepiness is a problem and have long treated it with a variety of stimulants.
"We have to realize that we are already living in a society where we are already self-medicating with caffeine," he said.
He also said that modafinil, which is marketed as Provigil by Cephalon and Alertec in Canada, has become widely used by healthy individuals for managing sleepiness.
"We have these other precedents, and it's not clear that you can't use orexin A temporarily to reduce sleep," said Siegel. "On the other hand, you'd have to be a fool to advocate taking this and reducing sleep as much as possible."
Sleep advocates probably won't have to worry about orexin A reaching drugstore shelves for many years. Any commercial treatment using the substance would need approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which can take more than a decade.
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