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Featured Article Previews
April 2004
Blood
Cholesterol: How Important is it to You?
Recent
studies have shown that relatively simple lifestyle
health changes can reduce the incidence of
cardiovascular (CV) disease in adults by as much as 80%.
The major CV risk factors include smoking, diabetes,
hypertension, obesity and cholesterol. Much popular
attention has been directed to cholesterol levels in the
blood stream as an indicator of the likelihood of
serious health outcomes.
The
easily measurable clinical outcomes influenced by blood
cholesterol levels include heart attack, cardiac death,
stroke and hospitalization. Such CV disease is the
leading cause of death in the USA, accounting for over a
million deaths per year. Importantly, individuals should
look globally at a larger group of several risk factors,
including cholesterol, to determine their actual CV
risk. No single risk factor necessarily means that
clinically identifiable CV disease will occur. The
influence of genetic predisposition and environmental
hazards are also influential.
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March
2004
Sleep
Apnea in Professional Football Players
Obstructive
sleep apnea is a common disorder characterized by loud
snoring, disordered breathing and chronic sleep
disruption. A worrisome potential consequence of sleep
apnea is an associated increased risk of heart disease,
hypertension and stroke. It has also been suggested that
obstructive sleep apnea may also be associated with
daytime sleepiness, decreased reflexes, diminished
alertness and impaired job performance.
A more in
depth medical study involving approximately 300 National
Football League (NFL) players in 2002 found that 14% of
them or four times higher than noted in similarly aged
adults in the general public, had sleep disordered
breathing. In fact, larger sized players, notably linemen,
had a 34% prevalence of sleep apnea. An earlier pilot
study in 1997 involving 16 New York Giants linemen had
suggested that such players might be at high-risk for the
sleep disorder.
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