Sleep Center in Kenai at the MediCenter!
We are excited to offer, along with Dr. Paul Raymond and his staff of certified sleep technologists, quality sleep studies.
I have been wanting to do this for some time for many reasons:
Sleep apnea, like many of the chronic diseases has been increasing dramatically over the last 20 years.Since sleep apnea slows down metabolic rate, it perpetuates the main cause of sleep apnea: Obesity. Therefore, it causes a vicious cycle of weight gain and more apnea, and thus more weight gain.
Sleep apnea is a significant risk factor for coronary artery disease. One of my family members had his first heart attack at age 40, and his only risk factor for heart disease was sleep apnea. There is not another disease more satisfying to diagnose to treat because most people feel so much better after they get treatment.
In sleep apnea, we starve our body of oxygen. As I am looking for reasons for depression, and fatigue, and heart disease, and immune system problems, and diabetes, I look for problems in cellular and body system function. Our bodies need protein, and healthy fats and oils; it needs vitamins and minerals; and it needs healthy carbohydrates in order for the cells and the different organs in the body to work well. More important than any of these nutrients, however, is oxygen. Without oxygen, all systems would shut down within minutes. in sleep apnea, within 10 seconds of not breathing, especially if episodes occur in tandem (repeatedly), we are essentially starving our body of the most important nutrient: oxygen.
Our bodies are not unlike the cars that we drive in the way we need oxygen to run. My Dad, Doyle Carlson, taught auto shop in Kenai Central High School for many years. He said that for a gas engine to run, it needs three things: fuel, a spark, and oxygen. Of course we need the spark to ignite the fuel at the right time. We also need the right amount of quality fuel (the gasoline, for instance) injected into the cylinders at the right time. We also need enough oxygen injected into the cylinder to completely burn the fuel.
If there is not enough oxygen go through the carburator into the cylinders for the amount of fuel, there will be black smoke billowing out the exhaust, and carbon will build up in the cylinders and on the spark plug. The same type of process happens in our arteries and veins when we don’t have enough oxygen -we build up plaques inside our blood vessels, which can then cause heart attacks. The stress of not enough oxygen alters other body functions and is a major cause of the chronic diseases mentioned earlier: corononary artery disease, depression, diabetes, hypertension, immunologic problems among others.
As we developed our sleep lab, and established our prices, I wanted to do everything we could to make the studies more affordable. Just as the cost of glucometer strips is a limiting factor in people gaining good control of their blood sugar, expensive sleep studies have kept many people from discovering that they have this serious health problem.
Our sleep studies are substantially less expensive than the going rate for sleep studies. We also have the option of in-home studies that are lower quality, but much less expensive. If you or a family member snores, and also has afternoon drowsiness, let us brainstorm about how you might afford this important test.
Sincerely,
R. Lynn Carlson, M.D.