TL:DR 50% reduction in AHI (apnea-hypoxia index) and a lowering of blood pressure (which may reduce risk of stroke and heart attack!)
Obstructive sleep apnea is one of the most common respiratory disorders worldwide. Persons with obstructive sleep apnea can have loud snoring that is detrimental to social relationships and have breathing problems that result in recurrent nocturnal awakenings, unrefreshing sleep, and excessive daytime sleepiness — effects that together can substantially impair quality of life.
The improvement in systolic blood pressure that was seen with tirzepatide was substantially larger than effects seen with CPAP therapy alone7 and indicate that tirzepatide may be an attractive option for those patients who seek to reduce their cardiovascular risk
The initial results from the SURMOUNT-OSA trial show the usefulness of tirzepatide as an adjunctive treatment to address coexisting obesity in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Weight loss resulting from tirzepatide treatment may be leveraged to expand the populations that may benefit from second-line treatments for obstructive sleep apnea.
People Are Hooked on Costco Hearing Aids, and This Is Why
“There’s nothing that comes close to the pricing you get at Costco,” says Bailey, a doctor of audiology. “It’s an unfair position for anyone trying to practice audiology, but have I recommended to friends and family that they go to Costco for hearing aids? Yes, I have.”
(The GLP1 drugs are favorites for Dr Varipapa, improving health in so many ways!)
A large trial showed that semaglutide, sold as Ozempic for diabetes and as Wegovy for obesity, was better than any current medications in alleviating symptoms.
(Dr Varipapa suspects Mounjaro and Zepbound to have similar if not better benefit as it is even better for treatment of obesity!)
The blockbuster drug semaglutide, sold as Ozempic for diabetes and as Wegovy for weight loss, now has a new proven benefit: It markedly soothed knee pain in people who are obese and have moderate to severe osteoarthritis, according to a large study.
The effect was so pronounced that some arthritis experts not involved with the clinical trial were taken aback.
“The magnitude of the improvement is of a scope we haven’t seen before with a drug,” said Dr. Bob Carter, deputy director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. “They had an almost 50 percent reduction in their knee pain. That’s huge.”
If you can’t touch your toes without majorly bending your knees, that’s a sure sign you could benefit from doing hamstring stretches. But even if you can touch your toes easily, you should still be stretching your hamstrings every day. According to personal trainers, daily hamstring stretches are something literally everyone can benefit from. That means whether you sit all day or you live a pretty active life, you should be doing them.
Not sure where to start?
7 Hamstring Stretches to Do At Home
Just like anything else when it comes to fitness (and health, and life in general, really), when it comes to hamstring stretches, Ofori-Atta says that consistency is key; if you don’t make it a regular habit, you’re not going to benefit all that much. He recommends spending 10 minutes every day moving through some hamstring stretches.
1. Active assisted hamstring stretch
When doing this stretch, Ofori-Atta says to make sure you aren’t rounding your back. This will ensure your hamstrings are doing all the work while preventing lower back pain.
1. Start by laying flat on your back. Lift one leg up and bend the knee to 90 degrees.
2. Hold the leg that is in the air and bent at the knee. Place your hands on your hamstring, gently pulling your leg toward your body.
3. Hold for 30 seconds. Switch legs and repeat.
2. Seated one leg hamstring stretch
Ofoti-Atta likes this stretch because it’s simple and can be done anytime, like when you’re watching TV or before bed. When doing it, he says to avoid rounding your shoulders.
1. Sit on the floor and sit up straight, extending one leg out in front of you.
2. Reach toward your toes grabbing as far down your leg as you can.
3. Hold for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Then, switch legs and repeat.
3. Standing hamstring stretch (forward fold)
“This is the most simple and accessible hamstring stretch to try,” Weber says. Besides stretching the hamstrings and calves, it also helps relieve shoulder and neck tension.
1. Start standing up with your feet together. Exhale and bend at the hips.
2. Let your head hang down and reach toward the floor as far as you can.
3. Hold for 30 seconds and then slowly stand back up.
4. Seated forward bend
This hamstring stretch is essentially the sitting version of the standing hamstring stretch. “It activates the entire back and depending on flexibility levels, you can incorporate a band to help with stability,” Weber says.
1. Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. Sit up as tall as you can.
2. As you exhale, reach toward your toes. If using a band, place the band around your feet and grab each side with your hands.
3. Hold for between 30 seconds and 1 minute before gently coming out of the stretch.
5. Kneeling hamstring stretch
Ofori-Atta says this is another great “anytime” stretch; you can do it when you’re watching TV, after a workout or before bed.
1. Start in a kneeling position, with both knees on the floor.
2. Extend one leg out straight in front of you.
3. Place your hands on the thigh of the extended leg. Tilt the torso forward while keeping your back straight. Hold for 30 seconds. Then, switch legs and repeat.
6. Straight Leg Monster Walk Dynamic Stretch
About to go on a run or work out? Here’s a dynamic hamstring stretch Kraft recommends. You will need a resistance band to do this stretch.
1. Wrap a resistance band around your ankles and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Squat down and place your hands on your hips.
3. Walk side to side for between 30 seconds and 1 minute.
7. Dynamic Hip Hinge
“This is one of my favorite hamstring stretches because it’s done wonders for my tight hips and hamstrings,” Kraft says, adding that he believes it’s improved his running times. He recommends doing it before running, lifting or any other athletic activity.
1. Start on your knees. Bring one leg straight out to the side, keeping the foot on the floor. Your back should be straight.
2. Hinge at the hip, keeping the chest up. Hold for five seconds. Then, come back to the starting position.
3. Repeat for between 30 seconds and 1 minute. Then, switch legs.
Other Ways To Relieve Hamstring Tightness
While all three trainers say that regular hamstring stretching is non-negotiable, there are other ways to relieve tightness. Ofori-Atta and Kraft are both big fans of foam rolling balls, placing it right under the hamstring and gently moving it around. “You should feel it, but it shouldn’t feel painful,” Ofori-Atta says.
Have you ever found yourself abruptly awake in the middle of the night, wondering why sleep eludes you? You’re not alone. Midnight awakenings are a common phenomenon that can disrupt our sleep patterns and leave us feeling fatigued the next day. But what causes these interruptions, and how can we tackle them effectively?
People wake up at night for various reasons. Some of the common ones include:
stress and anxiety
discomfort or pain
need to use the bathroom
environment disruptions such as noise, movement, feeling too hot or too cold
sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome
disruption of the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle
A Strategy for Returning to Sleep
Avoid time-reading: When you wake up in the middle of the night, avoid reaching for your phone or looking at the clock.
Stay in bed and relax: First see if you can fall back asleep. You can try techniques like progressive relaxation, breathing exercises, white noise machines, and other methods that may help you relax.
Get out of bed: If you can’t fall back asleep after an estimated 10-15 minutes, it’s time to get up. This is to disassociate the bed with activities other than sleep.
Low-Stimulation Activities: Engage in a quiet, low-stimulation activity such as reading a book or doing a calming activity until you feel sleepy again, then return to bed. If you don’t feel sleepy enough to go back to bed, just get up and start your day.
Delaware Department of Insurance Medicare Assistance Bureau
As Medicare Open Enrollment approaches, the Delaware Department of Insurance and its Medicare Assistance Bureau (DMAB) are sharing their annual consumer information update. From October 15 to December 7, consumers can join, switch, or drop a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan (Part D) or Medicare Advantage Plan. DMAB’s free, confidential, unbiased one-on-one assistance can help residents determine if making a coverage change is the right choice. In 2023, the team completed 5,207 counseling sessions, saving beneficiaries a combined $3.8 million.
When selecting 2025 coverage, there are important new options and changes to keep in mind. The Medicare Prescription Payment Plan is a new payment option that works with a beneficiary’s current drug coverage to help manage out of-pocket Medicare Part D drug costs by spreading them across the calendar year. Starting in 2025, anyone with a Medicare drug plan or Medicare health plan with drug coverage (like a Medicare Advantage Plan with drug coverage) can voluntarily use this payment option. If this payment option is selected, consumers will continue to pay their plan premium (if they have one) each month and will get a bill from the health or drug plan to pay for the prescription drugs instead of paying the pharmacy. There’s no cost to participate in the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan.
Additionally, in 2025 Part D enrollees’ out-of-pocket drug costs will be capped at $2,000. This amount will be indexed to rise each year after 2025 at the rate of growth in per capita Part D costs.
Screenable turns any iPhone or iPad into a starter phone that removes distractions, keeps you in the loop, and grows with your kid. Built for busy, modern parents.
Parenting has changed. Parental controls haven’t.
In the more than 30 years they’ve been around, parental controls have been blocking kids from doing things in apps and on devices. But they’re not working anymore – for parents or kids. And that’s a problem.
This fall marks the second year that we’ve had Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccines to offer older adults. Chances are you have received one, are eligible to receive one, or have older family/friends who qualify but are wondering what to do. I’ve been fielding lots of questions about the RSV vaccines from patients over the past several weeks… and this year we have more evidence-based answers than last year.
It’s quick and easy to set up sleep apnea detection. It is done from your iPhone.
• Open the Health app on your iPhone
• Go to Browse and search for “breathing disturbances”
• The first time you’ll see a button at the top that says “set up”
• Answer a couple qualifying questions and hit continue
• The app gives you a brief explainer, after which you can hit next
Viewing your sleep apnea results
As soon as your first night you’ll see your results reflected in the Health app. If it detects an elevated level of breathing disturbances, it will proactively send you an alert.
If you want to view the data for yourself, you can open the Health app once more and navigate back to breathing disturbances. It will show each night’s results on a graph on a scale from not elevated to elevated. You can view it for each night or over time. To be clear, if a positive detection is triggered, it’s not diagnosing you with anything. The data can be exported and shared with your health care provider where they can make a further diagnosis.
Scientists have found that human beings age at a molecular level in two accelerated bursts – first at the age of 44, and then again at 60.
In a study published in the journal Nature Aging, scientists at Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore followed 108 participants over several years to observe aging changes in their molecules — RNA, proteins and participants’ microbiomes.
The scientists found that human aging does not happen in a gradual, linear way. Rather, the majority of the molecules they studied showed accelerated, non-linear changes at the ages of 44 and 60.
CNMRI: Neurology, Sleep Medicine, MRI 