Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/U077ZmTUQiE Stocky, young athletes often experience disordered sleep snd breathing patterns that could predispose them to heart attack and sudden death.  Exercise scientists from Japan’s Showa University explored this situation by studying 42 male rugby players 18-19 years of age. After formal sleep studies were completed, 43% of the players experienced significant sleep disordered breathing with snoring, dangerous pauses in their breathing, higher than normal heart rates, and lower than normal oxygen levels.  Further studies of these athletes’ hearts revealed rhythm abnormalities suggesting they had potentially lethal cardiac damage already. If you have a teen or a spouse, male or female,  “sawing wood at night,” don’t ignore it.  Push for a formal sleep study to determine if the noisy breathing is accompanied by dangerous oxygen level dips and heart rate abnormalities. #Snoring #apnea #hypoxia #sleepdisorderedbreathing #teens #athletes Yoshitaka Iso, Hitomi Kitai, Etsushi Kyuno, Fu