Lose Weight = No Snoring.

Our top three snoring misconceptions for this series:

1. Snoring doesn’t affect me, it just bothers my bedmate.
2. I don’t think a “simple fix” will actually work. And I don’t want to change my lifestyle or undergo a painful surgery.
3. All I need to do is lose some weight and then I’ll stop snoring.

It’s true that for some, excess body weight is one factor that can contribute to snoring. Fatty tissue in your airways vibrates as you breathe. It may surprise you to learn, however, that snoring can be a complex problem, with many contributing factors. These factors may include obstruction of nasal passages, enlarged uvula or tonsils, lifestyle and diet, or any combination of the above.

While losing some pounds could help make your snoring problem better, it is rarely the case that losing weight will make your snoring go away. At Sereno, we’ve treated patients at the pinnacle of good health–tri-athletes, marathoners, and cyclists with little or no excess body fat--who were plagued by snoring. Despite a regimen of proper diet, regular exercise and generally healthy activity, many people snore, and live with the consequences of snoring on a daily basis.

You can meet some of these people in our patient testimonial videos at www.serenocenter.com.

Further, studies indicate that snoring is problem that needs to be addressed. Lack of sleep doesn’t just cause nighttime disturbances for you and your bed partner. Most of the ill effects of snoring occur while you are awake. According to a study just completed in 2010 by the National Sleep Foundation, 65-70% of the ill effects of snoring occur while you are awake. These ill effects can include decrease in productivity, headaches, constant fatigue, lack of energy and irritability for both you and your bed partner. These issues won’t go away unless you fix your snoring.

Most commonly, snoring tends to be a multi-faceted problem. The best way to identify your snoring issue, and to realize the optimal result, begins with a simple examination by a board certified Otolaryngologist which will help you understand what causes your snoring, and how it can be fixed or improved.

The bottom line is that sometimes otherwise healthy people snore. So if you’ve lost some weight and still are not getting restful sleep, don’t be discouraged. Sereno can help. Call us today.

Simple Fixes

Continuing from our Snoring Misconceptions from last week, this week we have:

I don’t think a “simple fix” will actually work. And I don’t want to change my lifestyle or undergo a painful surgery.

There’s a big difference between a snorer who just snores and one who also suffers from a serious health condition like severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) (I’m talking about apnea worse than a mild to moderate case).

Both scenarios have consequences for your health. But distinguishing between the two is important because different problems can compel different treatments. Chances are that the invasive, life-altering therapies you’re strongly adverse to are actually designed to treat the latter more severe case. Simpler, less invasive options exist for people who just snore and/or have mild to moderate OSA.

Medical technology has come a long way in recent years. Advances like the Pillar Procedure have made it easy for patients to have their snoring treated in a single office visit and leave with little to no discomfort.

And the size of this group of potential candidates is not insignificant. In 80% of cases, the primary contributor of snoring is the soft palate, which is an area in the mouth that the Pillar Procedure is specifically designed to treat. That’s why more than 40,000 people have been successfully treated with the Pillar Procedure and the results speak for themselves.

So don’t let a healthy dose of skepticism prevent you from actually learning about the minimally invasive treatments that could be right for you.

Snoring Misconceptions

I’ve seen a lot of patients in the past 10 years and heard just about every misconception about snoring that can make people reluctant to seek treatment. I plan to cover a variety of misconceptions and the truth behind them. One of them might strike a chord with you and make you rethink that it's possible to solve your snoring problem (or someone you love).

This week:
Snoring doesn’t affect me, it just bothers my bedmate.

Another way to say to say this is you personally don’t care enough about your snoring to fix it. The short answer is – you should. Snoring is a leading cause of resentment in marriages. This isn’t all that surprising when you learn that people who share a bed with a snorer lose about an hour of sleep per night. Ultimately, 23% of couples sleep in separate rooms on a regular or even daily basis . . . not a great solution to a problem that can often be easily treated.

If consideration for your bed partner isn’t enough to motivate you to seek treatment, do it for your own health. And I’m not referring to a few sore ribs from the nightly elbow jabs. Hormone imbalance, weight gain, Type II diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease have all been linked to unrestful sleep. So don’t take it lightly. It’s in your best interest to find out your treatment options.

Next week we look at "Simple Fixes" and if they actually work.