Former NFL players help educate sleep apnea sufferers about

Sleep apnea is a different, indiscriminate killer. It doesn’t always prefer the heavy to the fit, be it man or woman, or the old to the young. Nor does it necessarily kill you itself. It hires others to do its dirty work. Its effects often are cumulative. Sneaky quiet. It gets you one way or the other.

In the case of sleep apnea, which is cessation of breathing while sleeping, it can lead to high blood pressure and heart failure, stroke, diabetes, sexual dysfunction; and because it promotes a dangerous lack of good sleep, it also is being blamed for many traffic fatalities in this country brought about by drowsy drivers.

Aaron Taylor, a big former Chargers offensive lineman, and Rolf Benirschke, a thin former Chargers kicker, both have suffered from sleep apnea. And both are doing something about it — through education, because the way to beat this thing is to go to bed wearing masks attached to positive airway pressure devices.

And, although there is no discomfort involved, not everyone wants to hit the hay looking like a cartoon character. But Benirschke, whose company, Legacy Health Strategies, helped develop the Wake Up To Sleep patient support program for ResMed, the local outfit that manufactures these high-end devices, and Taylor, now a CBS football analyst who is doing videos for the website

WakeUpToSleep.org, want people to forget about their boudoir appearance and live a lot longer by getting tested to see if they have it.

Athletes, especially heavier professional and collegiate football players, are at risk.

“All this came out of a screening the NFL did with older players,” Benirschke says. “Sixty-five percent of people with high blood pressure have sleep apnea. Their airways close, they stop breathing, and some of them have heart attacks.

“Reggie White (the great Hall of Fame defensive lineman) is the classic case. He had sleep apnea, and he died with the S.A. (CPAP) machine at his bedside, unused. Another big name just came out, Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal). JaMarcus Russell, too. They did a study in Texas five years ago and found that 40 percent of people in college have sleep apnea.”

Reports claim 42 million Americans have some form of sleep apnea and 80 percent of them are unaware of the problem, even though their spouses know they snore, which is one of the warning signs that the airway can collapse while sleeping, causing breathing to stop and start repeatedly.

“What happened to Reggie and a buddy of mine (dead at age 30), woke me up,” says Taylor, who resides with his family in Carmel Valley. “I was tested, and I found that, during sleep, I would stop breathing at 20 seconds a pop. I wasn’t breathing for 45 minutes a night.

“I’m on a CPAP machine, ResMed X9, and it’s played a significant role in the way I live. I was overly tired. The problem is, most of us aren’t born with masks on our faces, but there is support to see everything fits and works properly. I battled with it (the machine) for two or three months before I used it, but I’ve gotten support from those who have been there and done that.”

Maybe it’s a pain to go to a sleep clinic to be monitored, but it seems one more fretful night’s sleep is worth it in the long run for those who’d like to see a few more sunsets and high tides.

“In a society that pushes through the day, I used to say, ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead,’ ” says Taylor, who travels to New York weekly during football season and takes his machine along. “With all due respect to Reggie and my buddy, I don’t want to join them just yet.

“I call it the silent killer. I was dying. I was dying slowly. It’s not snoring. Snoring is an indicator. It’s when you stop breathing that the problem occurs. It’s as prevalent as asthma.”

The machine may not make it pretty or desirable, but it works. My father snored like nobody you can imagine. He died in his sleep. As far as we know, it could have been sleep apnea before anybody was aware of what sleep apnea was.

“We have to get into NFL locker rooms because of the high risk to athletes,” Taylor says. “NFL linemen are four times more likely to have sleep apnea than the average person on the street in their age group. Not only the NFL, but colleges desperately need to test their athletes. A breathing player is a better player. You know (Vikings receiver) Percy Harvin and his migraine problems? They found he has sleep apnea.

“So it involves me dealing with a machine and wearing a mask at night. I think about my kids, think about my wife, and I think about them being at my funeral and saying it’s too bad dad didn’t stick with it.”

So it isn’t fashionable. How many people judge you while you sleep? And it beats the alternative.


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011 ... s-at-risk/

Reggie White (the great Hall of Fame defensive lineman) is the classic case. He had sleep apnea, and he died with the S.A. (CPAP) machine at his bedside, unused.