November is COPD Awareness Month

COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, is an umbrella term used to describe progressive lung diseases, encompassing emphysema, chronic bronchitis, refractory asthma, and severe bronchiectasis. This disease is characterized by increasing breathlessness. November is COPD awareness month. COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, is a generic term for a group of lung diseases including chronic bronchitis, refractory asthma, emphysema, and bronchiectasis...

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A Patient's Review of the Respironics ComfortGel Blue

Back in January, a customer named Bill called our website to ask about parts for the Respironics ComfortGel. At that time, I informed him that Respironics had upgraded the classic ComfortGel with a newer design and improvements and it was now called the ComfortGel Blue. He was skeptical and asked if we still had the "old" ComfortGel...

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World Diabetes Day - November 14th, 2010

Sunday November 14 marks “World Diabetes Day”. What an appropriate time to shed some light on the issues associated with sleep apnea and diabetes. We hear more and more about sleep apnea these days and rightfully so. It causes or is linked to some pretty serious health problems. It is associated with high blood pressure (hypertension), stroke, chronic fatigue, depression, GERD and diabetes...

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Sleep Apnea Study Can Help Identify Patients at Risk for Surgical Complications

At TheCPAPPeople.com, we try to stay informed of changes in diagnosis techniques and the rising levels of diagnosis of OSA.  The following information from Thomas Jefferson Institute is quite interesting.

As Americans get heavier and heavier, the incidence of obstructive sleep apnea increases, and results from two clinical studies presented at ANESTHESIOLOGY 2010 reinforce the need for physicians to screen for the disorder prior to surgery in order to appropriately manage the patient in the operating room.

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CPAP Reduces Risk of Motor Vehicle Crash

Researchers performed a systematic review of the literature concerning the impact of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on motor vehicle crash risk among drivers with OSA. The primary objective was to determine whether CPAP use could reduce the risk of motor vehicle crash among drivers with OSA. A secondary objective involved determining the time on treatment required for CPAP to improve driver safety...

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What is OSA?

OSA afflicts 20 million adult men and women in the United States. People who have OSA stop breathing repeatedly during sleep because the airway collapses. Airway collapse may be due to such factors as a large tongue, extra tissue in the airway, or decreased muscle tone holding the airway open. As a result, air is prevented from getting into the lungs. These pauses in breathing can happen 30 times or more per hour...

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What is CPAP?

What does CPAP stand for? CPAP is an acronym for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. CPAP therapy provides a consistent flow of air at a set pressure (measured in Centimeters of Water Pressure) into the airway of a patient to ensure that the airway stays open and unobstructed by a collapse or relaxing of the soft pallet through the night.