Team Blackstone | Blackstone Medical Services

27 Oct

Are Naps Beneficial?

Many people, mostly children and the elderly, are caught needing a nap or two throughout their days. Humans are thought to be one of few mammalian species that are monophasic with their sleeping – meaning each day is split into a time for sleep and a separate time for being awake. Are naps something we should take more serious? shutterstock_376181395

It is not fully clear or proven that people need to maintain a monophasic sleep schedule. Humans often feel the need to take a nap throughout their day.

Which kinds of naps can people benefit from?

The best kinds of napping often tend to be short, quick intervals of sleep that are either planned or immediately following one’s feelings of being suddenly tired. The scheduled naps will allow your body to maintain its proper sleep cycle and the immediate napping is great to help reduce major feelings of fatigue. 20 – 30 minutes is great for napping intervals to produce short-term increases in alertness and energy.

Napping has been proven to increase a person’s sense of awareness, general mood, and both mental and physical performance.

Improve Sleeping

Napping is great, but the real work is done when you sleep at night. There are always things you can do to help your main sleeping at night, like adjusting the room temperature to be slightly cool, removing electronic usage before bed, and other things of the same nature. What most people do not realize, though, is taking naps late in the day can sometimes hurt your ability to fall asleep on time. You can improve your sleeping by moving these naps to earlier times in the day, or simply power through and maintain your overall sleep schedule.

Other Reasons for Tiredness

Napping is one way to reduce drowsiness and overall tiredness of your body and mind, but there may be another reason why you are feeling tired each morning, or throughout your day. 1 in 5 people are affected by sleep apnea. This means you have a big risk of succumbing to this breath-taking disease.

Sleep apnea is a disease that causes you to stop breathing for a few seconds up to a minute when you are sleeping. This is quite scary to deal with if you do not have a proper treatment plan in place. It is recommended that you go see your doctor and be hooked up to many tests, or to order your own sleep test kit at home (one can be found HERE).

Sleep is an essential part of human life. It helps the body to rebuild, cleanse itself, and gather is energy for the next day to come. Get some sleep!

25 Oct

Not Getting Enough Sleep Hurts You

Chances are, you have probably woken up one morning after only five hours of sleep and felt like you could have used another five. Not getting the amount of sleep your body needs can actually have some harmful effects – even if you cannot physically see them. shutterstock_387245272

Not enough sleep has been linked to a lack in efficiency of your memory, ability to learn, your ability to focus and be productive, and more. This can even affect your body in such a way that your organs have trouble performing their best and your metabolism can slow down. For those people trying to lose weight, you need to make sure you are sleeping enough!

Especially with older people, not having enough sleep can be a risk factor for things like depression when the person has a form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Heal Your Body

“Forty-five percent of Americans say that poor or insufficient sleep affected their daily activities at least once in the past seven days, according to the National Sleep Foundation’s inaugural Sleep Health Index™.” – LackOfSleepFoundation

A lack of sleep clearly has more than enough negative effects on our bodies. Being that it is so important to have a healthy sleep each night, there are things you need to do to help regulate your patterns:

Set a schedule each day on when you are waking up and going to bed to help your body’s natural sleep cycle to kick in during times it is needed. Also, putting your body through a routine before bed can help trigger your mind into recognizing that sleep is soon to come. Even if you are tired, try to stay awake when it is later in the day so your body can effectively start its sleep cycle at night.

If you want to drink coffee, do so earlier in the day so your body has a chance to come down to normal levels for its nighttime cycle of sleep. Also, when trying to fall asleep in bed it is important to remove distractions that may cause you to wake your body up: Pets, cell phones, light pollution, etc.

Not getting enough sleep is sometimes not our fault. We may have experienced an event, or person, waking us up for some reason through the night, or we may even have a disease that prevents us from getting our full 8 hours.

Sleep apnea affects 1 in 5 people and this interferes with their ability to breathe when they sleep. There are machines and processes you can use to alleviate sleep apnea, but to make sure you even have it you should get tested first. There are two choices for this: Go to the doctor and get hooked up to many different tests, or click HERE and get your own sleep test kit to use in your home.

Sleep is something that people often overlook because it is a common thing we all experience. A lack of sleep is something that needs to be fixed before your health sees terrible effects! Go catch some quality Zs!

21 Oct

Sleep Apnea Affects 1 in 5 People – Get Tested!

Sleep apnea has been affecting large numbers of people for a while now. An increase in obesity has helped it grow into a bigger problem, but being overweight is not always a reason it shows up. sleep-apnea

What is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes you to have a single, or multiple pauses in breathing while sleep. These can be short pauses, or they can be lengthy minutes of restrained breaths. Sometimes short pauses do not affect the body too much, but a lot of the time the extra stress it puts on your body can have serious health effects.

How is Sleep Apnea started?

There can be many different causes which makes this important for you to see a doctor or get tested in your own home (click HERE for more information). Often, though, sleep apnea can be triggered by collapsing tissues near the back side of your throat’s airways. By closing and restricting the amount of air you can take in while sleeping, your body responds by snoring, a lack of breath, or even waking up consistently throughout the night.

What to do if you think you have Sleep Apnea?

Sleep Apnea can increase stress amounts on your body and can lead to higher blood pressures, heart disease, and an increase occurrence of strokes, increased chances for pre-diabetes and diabetes, and forms of depression. How do you treat this before these symptoms appear?

You can see your doctor and get tested through a complicated, lengthy process to find out if your sleeping issues are caused by sleep apnea. Also, you can go to Blackstone Medical Services and we can help guide you to doing a simple and quick in-home test to see if you need to be treated. Once we have determined you need treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, we can then walk you through an easy process of fixing this unneeded intrusive disease so you can get normal nights of rest.

Sleep Apnea affects 1 in 5 people so do not feel worried if you happen to be one of them. There is a way to handle it – you just have to reach out and ask for help.

19 Oct

Get Better Sleep to Improve Your Quality of Life – How To

A good night’s rest is vital to maintaining a healthy body and mind, but how can you make sure your sleep is at its best?

shutterstock_338717978 Your life will improve greatly, in term
s of quality, when you get enough sleep. There are different things you can do to help you fall asleep faster, maintain deeper sleep, and more.

The Power of Routines

Falling asleep and waking up at similar times each day will put your body’s sleep schedule in more of a routine. When your routine is a bigger part of your sleep cycle, your body will automatically start to get tired at the same times each day. You need to make sure you do this on weekends as well so your biological clock recognizes the routine!

To help put your body and mind into the properly relaxed mindset, every night before you go to sleep you should incorporate a series of things you do to prepare. This series of routine actions will help trigger your body and mind to start preparing itself to sleep. An example of this could be to read a book for 30 minutes, wash your face with a warm towel, brush your teeth and then head to bed without any use of electronics during the whole process.

Assist your body and mind to get into a more relaxed and sleep-ready state, you can make your resting room more peaceful and restful. Often, people prefer to sleep in rooms with no light, no sound, and a slightly cool temperature. This can vary from person to person, but if you are not sure what your body prefers yet, you can start with this basic environment.

What if your quality of sleep does not improve?

If you are not using electronics at all during, or after your nightly routine, you will have a greater chance to have exceptional sleep. If you get enough quality sleep but still feel tired, there may be other things that are affecting your body – like sleep apnea, or a reduction, or interruption of breathing during sleep. It is best to talk to your doctor if this is the case because if something like sleep apnea is left untreated, there may be some serious negative effects on your body.

If you want to understand obstructive sleep apnea more, or even get tested in your own home, go HERE. There is no reason you should not have someone helping you through something like sleep apnea.

Get more sleep

Getting more quality sleep has a number of benefits like more energy, more recovery for our body’s muscles and joints, and less illness. Just remember to make sure you create a routine to put your body and mind into the right state and your quality of life will improve greatly.

25 Aug

Stop Snoring!

What if you snore and found out you do not have sleep apnea? What do you do?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that sleep physicians prescribe oral appliances rather than no therapy for adult patients who request treatment for primary snoring when they do not have obstructive sleep apnea. What are some of the benefits?

Advantages of Oral Appliances that Reduce Snoring

Oral appliances reduce the frequency and intensity of snoring, improve sleep quality for the patients who snore and their bed partners, and improve quality of life measures.

Insufficient evidence exists to conclude the treatment of primary snoring and prove other health-related outcomes or to compare objective sleep quality during the use of oral appliances versus other treatments. Nonetheless, it will help you with your snoring.

Therefore, oral appliances should be recommended for patients who snore and fail conservative measures such as losing weight, positional therapy, avoiding alcohol, and request further treatment.

Diagnosed primary snoring should be rendered by sleep physicians like ours at Blackstone Medical because snoring is frequently accompanied by OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea). When it is misdiagnosed, there can be serious implications for the patient. If you need more information please contact us at our website BlackstoneMedicalServices.com because we are the preferred choice in home sleep testing.

There is a very high chance that you know someone who snores in their sleep, or you may be that person! This often can be harmless, but it may be a nuisance to other people around. It can be harmless, but it also can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea. Make sure you and your loved ones are rightfully informed with the correct information so you can live your lives to the fullest!

22 Aug

The Link between Blood Pressure and Apnea

Often we are affected by disorders that we do not choose to have to live with. It is highly-likely that you are either affected personally with sleep apnea or high blood pressure, or you know someone who is. These can be a deadly combination and can be related in some senses so it is best you have all the right information to help manage and control your life.

I want to provide you with the latest information about your health so you are more educated and can help yourself and other people that suffer from these issues. This will be something that is very important for you if you are, or know of, someone who is affected by one of these two disorders.

The Relationship between Blood Pressure and Sleep Apnea

There is a wealth of research that suggests sleep apnea and high blood pressure are a very dangerous pair. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when breathing is briefly and repeatedly interrupted during sleep and this has been known to increase the risk for high blood pressure.

Research also shows that high blood pressure, often referred to as the “Silent Killer,” can cause sleep apnea or it can worsen breathing in patients who are already affected by sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea and high blood pressure have both been linked to significantly increased risk of serious complications like strokes and heart attacks. Research suggests that anywhere from 30% – 50% of patients with high blood pressure have sleep apnea.

However, sleep apnea is much more common in patients with resistant hypertension who have tried a variety of blood pressure treatments but can’t get their condition under control. Resistant hypertension is a major public health issue because uncontrolled, high blood pressure can lead to serious complications.

Treatments

The good news is that treatment for obstructive sleep apnea can aid in lowering blood pressure levels. A simple, mass-therapy called “CPAP,” helps promote normal breathing during sleep and shows to have reduced blood pressure levels. CPAP is especially effective as a potential treatment for these high-risk patients.

It is very important that you know how to handle and manage high blood pressure and sleep apnea because your overall health can be greatly affected by these two. Please reach out to us for more information at BlackstoneMedicalServices.com.

We are the preferred choice for home sleep medical testing for a reason!

18 Aug

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Increases Risk of Stroke

The chances are high that you are, or know of someone who is, affected by obstructive sleep apnea. While this may appear as a minor disorder, it can actually be a common cause for major complications.

Obstructive sleep apnea more than doubles the risk of stroke in men and increases the chance of having a stroke in women according to new research. The founding comes from a major study that tested 5,400 people of the age 40 and older, who had no history of a stroke.

The Effects for Men

Researchers say that an increased risk of having a stroke appeared in men with mild sleep apnea and rose greatly with the higher severity of their apnea. Men with moderate-to-severe sleep apnea were about three times more likely to have a stroke than men with mild, or no sleep apnea.

The Effects for Women

The increased risk of having a stroke in women with obstructive sleep apnea was significant only in cases of severe apnea according to the study published by the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Researchers say more than 50 million strokes occur worldwide every year and about one-third of them are fatal. Increased risk of stroke in people with sleep apnea exists even without other risk factors such as weight, blood pressure, race, diabetes, and smoking.

How to Protect You and Your Loved Ones

If you feel you might be at risk, visit our website for more information at BlackstoneMedicalServices.com and you will see why there is a reason Blackstone Medical Services is the preferred choice in home sleep testing.

We want to make sure you and your loved ones are properly informed and taken care of because obstructive sleep apnea can have severely harmful effects on the people with the disorder and surrounding friends and family. There are ways to make your life better and reduce your risk of stroke from obstructive sleep apnea and we are sure we can help you.

15 Aug

The Fastest and Easiest Way to Send in Your ERX

Through many years around the medical field I noticed that ordering a home sleep test system is inefficient and often takes people like you away from bigger tasks you need to focus on. Efficiently using your time is a top priority and I am excited let you know that we have changed the complicated process for you to order these tests from your office in a fast and easy way.

We designed the system to cater to you whether you are a physician, dentist, or even if you are new to us and you have never used us before. The process is simple, easy to complete, and you never have to wait near the fax machine, worry if the fax was sent, or worry about keeping the paper copy – our system eliminates all the headache!

As mentioned in the video, here are the three steps of the quick process to set up your own account and start today:

1) Go to our website at BlackstoneMedicalServices.com and at the top of the page you will see a blue button that says, “Online Order Form.” Once you click on that button you will be taken to the sign-up page.

2) Simply follow the step-by-step process of adding a practitioner to the system and then it will guide you to add an e-signature, or you can upload one that you may already be using.

3) Once you set up your practitioner, you are all set and ready to go! You can click on your practitioner, fill out the online ERX, and hit the submit button.

When you do that, our system creates a PDF of the completed ERX in a pop-up window and you will also get an email of the ERX in PDF format for your records. If you have an EMR, you can save the PDF in the patient’s chart.

That’s all you have to do and we will process the order in the same way as if you had faxed us the prescription. It is that simple! I hope you love the system and find that it saves you money and time like it has already for many. I thank you for trusting us with your patients because Blackstone Medical Services is the preferred choice in home sleep testing for a reason!

Time is your most important asset – go get it.

Author Archives: Team Blackstone