From: Colin Hales (colin@versalog.com.au)
Date: Sat Jul 13 2002 - 00:38:27 MDT
Damien Broderick:
> Oz radio science show interview today with Dr Peter Farrell of ResMed
> (`Entrepreneur of 2001'), who claims that there's a marked correlation
> between poor sleeping patterns, snoring, sleep apnea and hypertension,
> leading to increased stroke, heart attack deaths, etc. He has
> a gadget that
> prevents these horrors. His company's stock is currently low.
>
>
http://www.ey.com/Global/gcr.nsf/Australia/Master_Entrepreneur_2001_-_Dr_Pet
er_Farrell
>
>http://www.talkaboutsleep.com/news/Apnea_Resmed_Awards.htm
>
>Might be worth the medically/biologically trained looking into.
> (His presentation was a masterpiece of confident, enthusiastic punny
> soundbites, rather irritatingly so.)
>
> Damien Broderick
Missed the science show today. Oops.
resmed products: http://www.resmed.com/row/1005093119546.html
I have been to a sleep clinic (Mitcham) and stayed the night massively wired
up to the machine that goes 'ping'. Facinating. It was monitored all night
(from a video stream in another room, thankfully) by a med student who had
to ensure the measurements were OK eg put the O2 gadget back on your finger
if you roll over etc. The clinic is set up as near as possible to a normal
suburban house. It was a bizarre experience in that i spent an awkward
pre-sleep mid evening period in the kitchen of the house watching TV with a
couple of other patients/strangers. In the morning you can get up and have
breakfast in the kitchen with them. So there you are, wondering....OK this
person doesn't sleep because......the premonitions of becoming an axe
murderer.....psychosis flavours X,Y,Z....revisiting having shot children in
Vietnam....
I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and have this dental contrivance to
wear at night. Awful thing. I could compete for Australia in Olympic
drooling! I have been seriously thinking of one of these mask gadgets.
Sleep apnea is an insidious thing. You are constantly almost re-woken and
you can sleep for hours and wake up tired. As you get older and the flesh in
the throat fattens and loosens it simply blocks the air off under the zero
neural stimulation of deep sleep. My particular version of the disorder is
not worth the surgery option, apparently. Even surgery does not guarantee
the removal of the disorder. Cumulative effects over decades of oxygen
starvation and poor sleep that do the damage. That and the bruising and
psychological scars from your angry bedpartner!
> (His presentation was a masterpiece of confident, enthusiastic punny
> soundbites, rather irritatingly so.)
I suppose the lesson is you have tailor presentions to the forum. On a peak
viewing current affairs show J. Snoring Public probably would be impressed.
You (and I), however, get mightily pissed off at the glossy brochure
presentation in a forum where we want to get into the detail. Horses for
courses I suppose.
To get the gadget or the shares or both? Hmmm.
I recommend that the breathing apparatus of the post human be subject to
early review! Maybe by eliminating breathing, although I would miss the odd
lungful of that bracing seaside south-westerly.
Any juicy logsaw tales to tell, Damien?
cheers
Colin Hales
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