Friday, February 5, 2010

Do You Snore?



Looking at the picture above, for sure you might encounter such situation before. Or perhaps, you are the one who does this to your spouse during your sleeping time? Snoring, indeed is a problematic act as far as sleeping is concerned.

Scientifically, snoring can be closely related to a syndrome which is known as Obstructive Sleep Apnea, or simply known as OSA. So what is OSA? OSA is normally characterized as a type of sleep disorder where the sufferer would experience pauses in breathing during sleeping period. Normally, an individual who has such symptom, holds on to such episodes of breathing patterns throughout the sleeping period.

OSA is not a normal phenomenon in every individual, though. Such sleep disorder, is known to have the potential to cause premature death. Especially when an individual is a loud snorer during the sleeping period, and doesn't feel rested enough during daytime, suffers from morning headache, dry mouth and/or sore throat as well as imparied concentration, his or her heart could be at risk.

Researchers often relate high blood pressure with OSA. The reason behind such postulation, is because based on careful observations, patients who require 3 or more medications to control their currently existed hypertension, would probably have an 80% chance of having OSA. Not only OSA seems to be a prevalent disorder in hypertension patients, the chances of its existence is also very high especially in individuals whom have heart failure (50% higher), trial fibrillation (50% higher), and coronary artery disease (40% higher). Researchers also mentioned that, if these individuals who also suffer from OSA, goes untreated, OSA could double the risk for death during the next 5 five, a phenomenon which is quite excruciating.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

New Trigger to Type 2 Diabetes



As you may have know it, the above picture is a a structural form of nicotinamide, or also known as the amide form of nicotinic acid (Vitamin B3 or also popularly known as niacin). Speaking of vitamins, many believe that vitamin is indeed very important elements. Though vitamins are important, we only need them in very scarce amount.

Any excessive amount could cause us hazards. For example, large dosage of vitamin C in our body could cause us problems such as indigestion and also iron poisoning. The same goes for the amide form of nicotinic acid. What could happen if nicotinamide overloads within our body? The consequence -- is none other than triggering the deadly "Type 2 Diabetes".

Based on a recent research article which was published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology, a close association between excessive intake of niacin and type 2 diabetes is linked. The theory behind such postulation, is because a diabetic patient takes a relatively much longer time to completely metabolize nicotinamide in our body. Due to this, high nicotinamide level in the body may increase reactive oxygen generation, in other words, this triggers oxygen stress as well as insulin resistance. When this happens, type 2 diabetes can invade anytime without a doubt.

The liver is an important organ in detoxifying nicotinamide. Hence, when an individual appear to experience liver injuries, many vital functions carried by the liver, including nicotinamide detoxification, will not be able to carry out. As a result, glucose intolerance could also occur.

Niacin can be found in variety of food sources, ranges from liver, chicken, beef, fish, cereal, legumes to dairies and eggs. Excess niacin in our body could poised to be a threat, but is there any other better way to dispose off the unnecessary niacin that we do not need in our body? Surprisingly, this piece of study interestingly demonstrated that sweating could be a very effective way in expelling excess nicotinamide from the body.