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4A – Daily News – Monday, March 21, 2011 Vitality & health DETROIT (MCT) — Peter Manschot woke up in a hotel room and found his wife, Emily, sleeping in the bathroom. "I felt really bad," says Manschot, 63, of Novi, Mich. "She was curled up with blankets and whatever pillows she could scrounge, trying to make a bed out of the bath tub." It was the only place she could sleep because he was snoring so loudly. Enhancing sex with food? (MCT) — Leave it to Men's Health magazine to conflate sex and nutrition. But what the heck, let's do a quickie quiz on foods that pur- portedly enhance the sexual experience. 1. According to the journal Human Repro- duction, men who are low on what nutrient may have 20 percent more unhealthy sperm than those with higher levels of that nutrient? a) riboflavin b) folate c) pyridoxine 2. Which food will not help bulk up your flagging folate levels? a) avocado b) spinach c) grapes 3. According to Men's Health, the ancient Aztecs referred to avocados as what? a) "Sex Salad" b) "Testicle Trees" c) "Virility Vines" 4. Zinc is said to be a "libido enhancer" by increasing what? a) a man's eyesight b) a man's testos- terone levels c) a man's mood 5. An amino acid called L-Arginine serves as a natural Via- gra for men in the bed- room, according to Mar- rena Lindberg, author of "The Orgasmic Diet." It apparently increas- es nitric oxide to help relax blood vessels and allow more blood flow to, well, you know. Which of the following foods is not high in L- Arginine? a) walnuts b) seafood c) strawberries Manschot's snoring was a symptom of a much big- ger problem. He is among the estimated 18 million Americans with obstructive sleep apnea, a chronic con- dition in which the airway is blocked during sleep. It prevented Manschot from breathing and caused him to snore. "Basically, I was waking up 30 or 40 times an hour," Manschot says. Doctors evaluated him, and "they said on a scale of 1 to 10, I was a 12. They could hear me down the hall with the doors closed." The prevalence of sleep apnea is expected to grow with the rise in obesity and the aging population, because age and weight are two factors that increase the chances of developing the chronic condition in which the back of the throat relax- es and the airway becomes blocked. For some, surgery can alleviate the problem. For others, the use of a continu- ous positive airway pres- sure (CPAP) machine MCT photo Thomas Norgie shows off his BIPAP machine he used to help him sleep while at his home in Walled Lake, Mich. Norgiel suffers from sleep apnea and has tried many remedies to get a good night's rest. opens up the airways and allows for more normal breathing during sleep. Manschot was pre- scribed a CPAP machine _ the most common treat- ment for sleep apnea. The machine pumps air through a hose and into a mask that fits over a person's mouth and nose, or just over the nose. The machine gently blows air into the throat, artificially holding the air- way open. "Now, I'm sleeping through the night and have been for years," Manschot says. "I think it's immense- ly benefited me." Emily Maschot is thrilled that her husband is now sleeping through the night _ it means, she is, too. "I think it has saved our marriage," she says, "and maybe even saved his life." Untreated sleep apnea can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, obesity and dia- betes. Neither the CPAP machine nor surgery helped Tom Norgiel, 50, of Walled Lake, Mich. For years, he'd searched for a way to get a good night's rest. He was diagnosed about eight years ago with moder- ate obstructive sleep apnea. Doctors tried to treat the problem with a CPAP machine, but he didn't like using it. Some people find the masks uncomfortable and the machines too loud. About five years ago, Norgiel had surgery to try to improve his breathing at night. Surgery usually involves shrinking, stiffen- ing or removing excess tis- sue in the mouth and throat or resetting the lower jaw, according to the National Institutes of Health. "I had implants put into my mouth," Norgiel says. "It supposedly makes your soft palate more rigid." But it didn't help. Then, Norgiel visited Dr. Bruce Luria, a Dear- born dentist who makes a dental device that looks like a mouth guard. The appli- ance forces Norgiel's jaw forward slightly, pulling his tongue from the back of his throat and opening up the blocked airway. "When I have that thing on, I don't snore a bit," Norgiel says. "It's like night and day. "It's made a huge improvement for me. I sleep a lot longer." The use of dental devices to treat sleep apnea is growing in popularity, according to Sheri Katz, the president of the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, a national orga- nization that provides train- ing and resources for den- tists and orthodontists who treat sleep apnea. And that popularity is expected to surge even more. Beginning this year, Medicare is going to con- sider coverage for custom- fabricated dental devices to treat mild and moderate cases of sleep apnea _ although a pay structure has fitness Sleep apnea no fun for sufferers or their kin yet to be determined. Many insurance compa- nies also cover at least some of the cost of these devices. "If a patient is covered for CPAP, most insurance companies will cover oral appliance therapy under the right protocol," Katz says. "It's also covered for people who have severe sleep apnea and have failed to use CPAP." For people who have no trouble with the CPAP treatment, the trend is mov- ing toward smaller masks, lighter equipment and smaller machines. Different machines have different comfort features. "One decreases the pres- sure as you exhale, or they might have heated tubing. " Lucas says some women have apprehension about wearing the CPAP mask. "Maybe it's a little hard- er for women because it's not very attractive," Lucas says. "It just kind of gets in the way of things." As an alternative to CPAP, dental devices can be 90 percent effective for mild to moderate cases of sleep apnea, Katz says, but there can be a downside. "In more than half the cases, teeth can shift," she says. And when that hap- pens, the devices need to be altered or patients may need braces. Luria makes dental devices only for patients who can't use a CPAP machine. "If you can wear the mask, wear the mask," Luria says. "CPAP machines work phenome- nally. But not everyone can wear the masks. That's how dentistry got involved in this." Luria says the dental appliances cost anywhere from $1,200 to $2,500. But all of them do the same thing: They move the jaw forward, pulling the tongue out of the back of the throat. "It's not like your tongue is hanging out of your mouth," he says. "It's just that the back of your throat remains open." Risks Sleep apnea is a chronic condition that requires long-term management. If left untreated, it can lead to increased risk of: • High blood pressure, stroke, obesity and diabetes • Heart failure, heart attack and irregular heart- beats • Having work-related or driving accidents Source: National Insti- tutes of Health Asian Massage $ 30 min. massage reg. $40 GRAND OPENING 5.00 off 1 hr. massage reg. $60 $10.00 off Offer good thru April 30th 333 S. Main St. Suite G Red Bluff • 530-710-5940 Red Bluff Patient Service 1054 S. 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