My name is Dr. Jonathan Greenburg, and I read your post with a great deal of interest.

As a health professional who treats sleep apnea, snoring and CPAP intolerance every day, I know how important it is to educate the public and get the word out about getting treatment.

Sleep Apnea is an incredibly under diagnosed and misdiagnosed condition. There are over 18 million people with some sort of sleep disorder, and millions more that do not even realize that they have may have a serious health condition that puts them at risk of stroke and heart attacks. They are walking time bombs, much like the famous football star Reggie White, who died from conditions related to untreated Sleep Apnea.

When you don't get the oxygen you need when you sleep, your heart works harder, your brain is starved and you actually risk an untimely death...

So, as you can see this is not a "light" topic, and I am passionate about what I do.

I also see very clearly that the healthcare industry does not do an effective job of raising awareness, properly diagnosing and effectively treating this serious life threatening health condition.

I am all about raising awareness and education, (I recently was interviewed during a live simulcast entitled Sleep Apnea -A Not So Silent Killer), however I cannot stress highly enough that if you are going to talk about Sleep Apnea, you should at least correctly define the term and not and minimize Sleep Apnea to a problem of "not getting enough sleep or feeling tired during the day" Those are just symptoms of Sleep Apnea.

Here's the definition of "Apnea"

Apnea: An apnea is a period of time during which breathing stops or is markedly reduced. There are two types of apneas, the more common obstructive sleep apnea and the less common central sleep apnea.

Apneas usually occur during sleep , and when they do occur, sleep is usually disrupted. Sometimes the person wakes up completely, but sometimes the person comes out of a deep level of sleep and into a more shallow level of sleep. Apneas are usually measured during sleep (preferably in all stages of sleep). An estimate of the severity of apnea is calculated by dividing the number of apneas by the number of hours of sleep, giving an apnea index (AI). The greater the apnea index, the more severe the apnea.

Given the proper definition of an apnea, especially "obstructive" sleep apnea, what I say next may be somewhat controversial given the fact that we are trying to build rapport with fellow health care professionals, however I do have an issue with having a drug company address Sleep Apnea.

How does any medication from any "pharma" company address the "obstruction" with a Sleep Apnea patient?

This is very critical if you want to have an educated discussion. To be blunt, if you don't address what is actually causing the obstruction you would be doing anyone who listens to your interview a huge disservice.

I could get into the vast amount of research that has shown that the culprit that needs to be addressed with a Sleep Apnea or Snoring patient is the tongue. If you don''t talk about a treatment that includes what you do with the tongue, then you are simple putting a band-aid on a huge gaping, untreated infected wound.

I hope my comments are not perceived as offensive, as my goal here is not to offend, but to add value to the discussion. I hope my schedule allows me to join you all on the call.

Best Regards,

Dr. Jonathan Greenburg DDS, FAGD
http://www.apnea-treatment.com

Dr. Greenburg,

Thank you for your comments, I couldn't agree with you more. We work with sleep apnea patients daily and use CPAP, BiPAP machines to help people work through sleep apnea. I think your comments are exactly on target. Sleep apnea is a huge issue and I am very happy that it is getting more attention. I think this webcast idea for Cephalon is good but they need to focus on sleep apnea, its causes and its effects. They need to focus on the facts and stay away from promoting their drug or it may backfire on them. If raising awareness of sleep apnea is truly their only purpose then it should work out well.

thank you,

Brett Flitton

Orbit Medical

Orbit Medical helps patients regain their indepence over physical limitations. Also check out the Orbit Medical blog

I think I might be suffering of sleep apnea myself. I always wake up feeling like I can't breath. One time I was even turning blue when my mom got me up and told me to breath. I don't have these problems while I'm awake. Now I'm afraid I'd might die in my sleep.

Many of us suffer of sleep apnea but few really realize this before it's too late. I know I have insomnia and I can barely catch 4 hours of sleep. I'm always tired but I don't wanna take sleeping pills. I don't wanna mess up my system.

I read somewhere that if you keep feeling like you didn't get any rest even though you sleep a lot that could be a symptom. But then I'm not sure if I'm just being paranoid...what's the easiest way to check?