Reduce Snoring by Singing?

 

Are you - or your partner - a chronic snorer? Joining a choir or taking singing lessons could help. A UK study found that a program of vocal exercises designed by a singing teacher helped reduce snoring.  The clinical trial, by Exeter University and the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, showed that the singing exercises, which strengthen certain throat muscles, also alleviated symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which people stop breathing during deep sleep.  Snoring and obstructive sleep apnea can result from weak muscles in the soft palate and upper throat (the pharyngeal muscles). Serious singers improve the tone and strength of these muscles by practicing certain vocal exercises.

The study came about because singing teacher Alise Ojay contacted Malcolm Hilton, consultant otolaryngologist at the Exeter hospital and sub dean of the University of Exeter Medical School.

Dr. Hilton explains:

"Alise told me that one of her pupils had said that, since starting to sing, his snoring had become greatly reduced.

So, she devised a singing exercise program to strengthen the throat muscles. I then set up this trial and the results have been really interesting."

Hilton explains that snoring and obstructive sleep apnea affect millions of people. Snoring may not be a life-threatening condition, but it disrupts lives and sufferers often seek medical advice.  Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), on the other hand, is potentially much more serious. It can cause people to stop breathing during deep sleep, and severely diminish sleep quality.

A recent study found that moderate obstructive sleep apnea may reduce sudden cardiac death. 

Dr. Hilton: "It is also believed that OSA may contribute to road accidents and hypertension."

For the trial, the team recruited 60 chronic snorers and 60 people with mild-to-moderate sleep apnea.

• The participants from each group were randomly assigned to either follow a program of singing exercises for three months, or no intervention.
• The self-guided exercise program was provided on a box-set of three audio CDs, and could be completed in around 20 minutes each day.

At the end of the trial, the results showed that the daily singing exercises reduced the severity, frequency and loudness of snoring, and improved sleep quality. There were no such changes in the participants who were not asked to do the exercises.

Hilton says the exercises were not difficult, and two thirds of the participants asked to do them managed this on most days over the three-month trial.

He adds that the findings open up a "whole new avenue" of possible treatments without the need for surgery, which is good news for snorers:  "I was open-minded about it. I had no expectations but it was an interesting concept.  There is not already a quick-fix treatment for snoring. It is a condition where, if you could find a non-invasive treatment, that would be very beneficial."

But Hilton suggests for best results, the exercises should be accompanied by lifestyle changes such as losing weight. Being overweight is the single biggest contributor to snoring.

medicalnewstoday.com

Why Do Sleepy Brains Crave Doughnuts?

We’re more likely to have an appetite for junk food when we’re sleep deprived and brain scans may help explain why.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers scanned the brains of 23 healthy young adults, first after a normal night’s sleep and then after a sleepless night. They found impaired activity in the sleep-deprived brain’s frontal lobe, which governs complex decision-making, but increased activity in deeper brain centers that respond to rewards.  When they were sleep-deprived, participants favored unhealthy snacks and junk food. 

“What we have discovered is that high-level brain regions required for complex judgments and decisions become blunted by a lack of sleep, while more primal brain structures that control motivation and desire are amplified,” said Matthew Walker, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley. “High-calorie foods also became significantly more desirable when participants were sleep-deprived. This combination of altered brain activity and decision-making may help explain why people who sleep less also tend to be overweight or obese.

dentistrytoday.com

Are You Grinding Your Teeth?

Bruxism (BRUK-siz-um) is a condition in which you grind, gnash or clench your teeth. If you have bruxism, you may unconsciously clench your teeth together during the day or grind them at night which is called sleep bruxism. 

Bruxism may be mild and may not even require treatment. However, it can be frequent and severe enough to lead to jaw disorders, headaches, damaged teeth and other problems. Because you may have sleep bruxism and be unaware of it until complications develop, it's important to know the signs and symptoms of bruxism and to seek regular dental care.

Signs and symptoms of bruxism may include: 

• Teeth grinding or clenching, which may be loud enough to awaken your sleep partner
• Teeth that are worn down, flattened, fractured or chipped
• Worn tooth enamel, exposing deeper layers of your tooth
• Increased tooth sensitivity
• Jaw pain or tightness in your jaw muscles
• Tired jaw muscles
• Earache — because of severe jaw muscle contractions, not a problem with your ear
• Headache
• Chronic facial pain
• Damage from chewing on the inside of your cheek
• Indentations on your tongue

mayoclinic.com

Tailor-Made Teeth for Dental Patients in the Future?

Stem cells derived from urine can be used to generate tooth-like structures, reports a study published this week in the open access Cell Regeneration Journal. It's thought the technique might one day help researchers grow new, tailor-made teeth for dental patients.

That stem cells can be generated from urine is not new; previous studies have shown that cells discarded in human urine can be coaxed to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which themselves can generate many different cell types, including neurons and heart muscle cells. But researchers had yet to generate solid organs or tissues from iPSCs -- until now.

Duanqing Pei and colleagues have developed a novel chimeric tissue culture system to coax human urine-derived iPSCs into tiny structures that resemble teeth. The system mimics normal tooth development, which results from an interaction between two different cell types; epithelial cells, which give rise to enamel, and mesenchymal cells, which give rise to the other three main components of teeth (dentin, cementum and pulp).

First, the team used chemicals to coax the cultured iPSCs into flat sheets of epithelial cells. They then mixed these cells with mouse embryonic mesenchymal cells, and transplanted them into mice. Three weeks later, tooth-like structures had grown.

The primitive teeth-like organs are structurally and physically similar to human teeth. They are of roughly the same elasticity, and contain pulp, dentin and enamel-forming cells. But the method has its limitations -- it involves mouse cells, has a success rate of around 30% and the structures were about one-third of the hardness of human teeth.

To resolve these issues, human mesenchymal stem cells could be substituted for mouse ones and the tissue culture conditions tweaked. The revised method could, in theory, be used to create a bioengineered tooth bud that could be cultured in vitro then transplanted into the jawbone of a needy patient to form a fully functional tooth.

iPSCs are of interest over embryonic stem cells because their derivation avoids the controversial use of embryos. iPSCs have previously been derived from cultured skin and blood cells, but urine represents an more readily accessible source. Cells generated by this method would not be rejected by the host recipient, as they would be derived from the host's own cellular material. iPSCs remain a great source of hope for regenerative medicine.