Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Immigrants could cause a superbug apocalypse, scientists warn

• 

  Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria seen under a high-powered microscope.Bioquell

• 

  Two Bioquell Q-10 robots, recently tested at Johns Hopkins Hospital as superbug killing machines.Bioquell

Next Slide Previous Slide

Immigrants may import dangerous and potentially lethal superbug strains, a medical journal recently warned -- and robots may hold the answer.

Earlier this month, G8 countries and the World Health Organization were called upon to face the threat of a catastrophic superbug apocalypse. The prestigious medical journal Lancet warned that a rise in extensively drug resistant cases could produce an outbreak of an untreatable superstrain, in particular of tuberculosis (TB).

While TB can be cured with antibiotics, if untreated it can be fatal in half of cases. Stronger, drug-resistant strains can then develop from the bacteria in patients who fail to complete their six-month treatment cycle.

The report notes that Eastern European immigrants in particular pose a credible threat of importing these drug-resistant TB.

Just last week in Australia, a superbug known to have killed humans abroad breached an intensive care unit in Melbourne infecting ten patients – and this particularly nasty superbug spread is ability to resist drugs to entirely different bacteria.

Key Lines of Defense: Robots and Drugs
Both healthcare and the pharmaceutical industries must robustly act to preserve existing drugs, experts warn. They must also be encouraged to develop new antibiotics to make up for the gap created by the failure to do so for twenty years.

Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative, a new public private partnership, looks like it has potential to be replicated elsewhere to improve international defenses.

Better hygiene is another key measure -- and a recent report suggests deploying robot dynamic duos may be the answer.

Johns Hopkins Hospital infection control experts tested using robots as superbug killing machines.

Weighing in at about 60 pounds apiece, the two washing machine-sized robots worked together dispersing a bleaching agent into the air and then detoxifying the disinfecting chemical.

In the first head to head study of traditional hospital counter-superbug cleaning tactics versus next generation robots, the robots killed it – literally. The Bioquell made robots were extremely effective at preventing the spread of multiple-drug-resistant bacteria, the scientists said.

In fact, the robots reduced the patient’s chances of becoming colonized by the especially aggressive and difficult to treat bacterium, vancomycin-resistant enterococci by a whopping 80 percent.

Robots: What can’t they do?

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

Allison Barrie

Related Stories

94 percent of Java users vulnerable to exploits

Topping FBI's 'most wanted' list: UFO info

'Finding the Next Steve Jobs': Jobs' 1st boss talks

New space station crew to launch and dock today in cosmic first

View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Immigrants could cause a superbug apocalypse, scientists warn

• 

  Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria seen under a high-powered microscope.Bioquell

• 

  Two Bioquell Q-10 robots, recently tested at Johns Hopkins Hospital as superbug killing machines.Bioquell

Next Slide Previous Slide

Immigrants may import dangerous and potentially lethal superbug strains, a medical journal recently warned -- and robots may hold the answer.

Earlier this month, G8 countries and the World Health Organization were called upon to face the threat of a catastrophic superbug apocalypse. The prestigious medical journal Lancet warned that a rise in extensively drug resistant cases could produce an outbreak of an untreatable superstrain, in particular of tuberculosis (TB).

While TB can be cured with antibiotics, if untreated it can be fatal in half of cases. Stronger, drug-resistant strains can then develop from the bacteria in patients who fail to complete their six-month treatment cycle.

The report notes that Eastern European immigrants in particular pose a credible threat of importing these drug-resistant TB.

Just last week in Australia, a superbug known to have killed humans abroad breached an intensive care unit in Melbourne infecting ten patients – and this particularly nasty superbug spread is ability to resist drugs to entirely different bacteria.

Key Lines of Defense: Robots and Drugs
Both healthcare and the pharmaceutical industries must robustly act to preserve existing drugs, experts warn. They must also be encouraged to develop new antibiotics to make up for the gap created by the failure to do so for twenty years.

Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative, a new public private partnership, looks like it has potential to be replicated elsewhere to improve international defenses.

Better hygiene is another key measure -- and a recent report suggests deploying robot dynamic duos may be the answer.

Johns Hopkins Hospital infection control experts tested using robots as superbug killing machines.

Weighing in at about 60 pounds apiece, the two washing machine-sized robots worked together dispersing a bleaching agent into the air and then detoxifying the disinfecting chemical.

In the first head to head study of traditional hospital counter-superbug cleaning tactics versus next generation robots, the robots killed it – literally. The Bioquell made robots were extremely effective at preventing the spread of multiple-drug-resistant bacteria, the scientists said.

In fact, the robots reduced the patient’s chances of becoming colonized by the especially aggressive and difficult to treat bacterium, vancomycin-resistant enterococci by a whopping 80 percent.

Robots: What can’t they do?

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

Allison Barrie

Related Stories

94 percent of Java users vulnerable to exploits

Topping FBI's 'most wanted' list: UFO info

'Finding the Next Steve Jobs': Jobs' 1st boss talks

New space station crew to launch and dock today in cosmic first

View the original article here

Immigrants could cause a superbug apocalypse, scientists warn

• 

  Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria seen under a high-powered microscope.Bioquell

• 

  Two Bioquell Q-10 robots, recently tested at Johns Hopkins Hospital as superbug killing machines.Bioquell

Next Slide Previous Slide

Immigrants may import dangerous and potentially lethal superbug strains, a medical journal recently warned -- and robots may hold the answer.

Earlier this month, G8 countries and the World Health Organization were called upon to face the threat of a catastrophic superbug apocalypse. The prestigious medical journal Lancet warned that a rise in extensively drug resistant cases could produce an outbreak of an untreatable superstrain, in particular of tuberculosis (TB).

While TB can be cured with antibiotics, if untreated it can be fatal in half of cases. Stronger, drug-resistant strains can then develop from the bacteria in patients who fail to complete their six-month treatment cycle.

The report notes that Eastern European immigrants in particular pose a credible threat of importing these drug-resistant TB.

Just last week in Australia, a superbug known to have killed humans abroad breached an intensive care unit in Melbourne infecting ten patients – and this particularly nasty superbug spread is ability to resist drugs to entirely different bacteria.

Key Lines of Defense: Robots and Drugs
Both healthcare and the pharmaceutical industries must robustly act to preserve existing drugs, experts warn. They must also be encouraged to develop new antibiotics to make up for the gap created by the failure to do so for twenty years.

Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative, a new public private partnership, looks like it has potential to be replicated elsewhere to improve international defenses.

Better hygiene is another key measure -- and a recent report suggests deploying robot dynamic duos may be the answer.

Johns Hopkins Hospital infection control experts tested using robots as superbug killing machines.

Weighing in at about 60 pounds apiece, the two washing machine-sized robots worked together dispersing a bleaching agent into the air and then detoxifying the disinfecting chemical.

In the first head to head study of traditional hospital counter-superbug cleaning tactics versus next generation robots, the robots killed it – literally. The Bioquell made robots were extremely effective at preventing the spread of multiple-drug-resistant bacteria, the scientists said.

In fact, the robots reduced the patient’s chances of becoming colonized by the especially aggressive and difficult to treat bacterium, vancomycin-resistant enterococci by a whopping 80 percent.

Robots: What can’t they do?

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

Allison Barrie

Related Stories

94 percent of Java users vulnerable to exploits

Topping FBI's 'most wanted' list: UFO info

'Finding the Next Steve Jobs': Jobs' 1st boss talks

New space station crew to launch and dock today in cosmic first

View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Immigrants could cause a superbug apocalypse, scientists warn

• 

  Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria seen under a high-powered microscope.Bioquell

• 

  Two Bioquell Q-10 robots, recently tested at Johns Hopkins Hospital as superbug killing machines.Bioquell

Next Slide Previous Slide

Immigrants may import dangerous and potentially lethal superbug strains, a medical journal recently warned -- and robots may hold the answer.

Earlier this month, G8 countries and the World Health Organization were called upon to face the threat of a catastrophic superbug apocalypse. The prestigious medical journal Lancet warned that a rise in extensively drug resistant cases could produce an outbreak of an untreatable superstrain, in particular of tuberculosis (TB).

While TB can be cured with antibiotics, if untreated it can be fatal in half of cases. Stronger, drug-resistant strains can then develop from the bacteria in patients who fail to complete their six-month treatment cycle.

The report notes that Eastern European immigrants in particular pose a credible threat of importing these drug-resistant TB.

Just last week in Australia, a superbug known to have killed humans abroad breached an intensive care unit in Melbourne infecting ten patients – and this particularly nasty superbug spread is ability to resist drugs to entirely different bacteria.

Key Lines of Defense: Robots and Drugs
Both healthcare and the pharmaceutical industries must robustly act to preserve existing drugs, experts warn. They must also be encouraged to develop new antibiotics to make up for the gap created by the failure to do so for twenty years.

Europe’s Innovative Medicines Initiative, a new public private partnership, looks like it has potential to be replicated elsewhere to improve international defenses.

Better hygiene is another key measure -- and a recent report suggests deploying robot dynamic duos may be the answer.

Johns Hopkins Hospital infection control experts tested using robots as superbug killing machines.

Weighing in at about 60 pounds apiece, the two washing machine-sized robots worked together dispersing a bleaching agent into the air and then detoxifying the disinfecting chemical.

In the first head to head study of traditional hospital counter-superbug cleaning tactics versus next generation robots, the robots killed it – literally. The Bioquell made robots were extremely effective at preventing the spread of multiple-drug-resistant bacteria, the scientists said.

In fact, the robots reduced the patient’s chances of becoming colonized by the especially aggressive and difficult to treat bacterium, vancomycin-resistant enterococci by a whopping 80 percent.

Robots: What can’t they do?

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

Allison Barrie

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View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Did sleep apnea cause Rick Perry's gaffes?

Published September 25, 2012

Life's Little Mysteries

• 

During a 2011 debate, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry failed to remember one of the government departments he would eliminate if elected president, the epitaph he chose for his drawn-out mental lapse was "Oops." 

Turns out, that syllable may have signaled a brain struggling under the effects of sleep apnea, which scientists say could cause daytime fatigue and even long-term cognitive damage.

According to "Oops," Texas Tribune correspondent Jay Root's new diary of his time covering the Perry campaign, the famous error came after weeks of poor sleep caused by an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea.

Referring to another debate malfunction in Orlando, Fla., in which Perry made a nearly unintelligible attack on Mitt Romney for being duplicitous, Root wrote:

"Perry had kept in touch with his medical team, and by early October, days after the Florida fiasco, the campaign had urgently consulted sleep specialists, bringing them in to investigate.

"After conducting overnight tests on Perry, they produced a rather startling diagnosis: He had sleep apnea, and it had gone undetected for years, probably decades."

Obstructive sleep apnea, the most common form of the sleep disorder, occurs when the throat muscles relax during sleep and intermittently block a sufferer's airway, according to the National Institutes of Health. This condition, often signaled by loud, fitful snoring, can interrupt a sleeper's oxygen supply for periods ranging from seconds to minutes.

By repeatedly rousing a sufferer into lighter states of sleep in order to restart breathing, sleep apnea often causes poor sleep and chronic daytime fatigue, but it may also result in long-lasting cognitive impairment, research has suggested. [Sleep Apnea: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment]

According to a 2008 study from the University of California, Los Angeles, sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory.

The study, detailed in the journal Neuroscience Letters, scanned the brains of 43 sleep-apnea sufferers and determined that the mammillary bodies, a pair of brain structures known to play a role in memory, were nearly 20 percent smaller in sleep-apnea sufferers than in a control group.

"Our findings demonstrate that impaired breathing during sleep can lead to a serious brain injury that disrupts memory and thinking," principal investigator Ronald Harper, a professor of neurobiology at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, toldThe New York Times.

So science suggests that some of Perry's blunders may have been exacerbated by sleep apnea, and though the governor can't take back his debate performances, there are still plenty of reasons for him and other sleep-apnea sufferers to seek treatment, which is available. The disorder has also been linked to strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

 

• Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders
• 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep
• Brain Chemicals That Cause Sleep Paralysis Discovered

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here