Thank you so much for joining me on today’s episode of Simple Health Radio. Today’s question comes to us from Terry Fletcher, who is aHealthcare Coding and Reimbursement Consultant. She is the host of the Code Cast Podcast and you can visit her websitewww.terryfletcher.net She sent us a great question about foot problems. Let’s have a listen. First off, let me thank Terry for sending in a great question. She has sent us with questions before and she’s always been a great supporter of our show through social media. In order to answer the question about this patient who is having a foot procedure and possible diabetes, we have to first understand the relationship between blood sugar and the human body. Blood sugar is also called glucose. Glucose is used by the brain as a fuel source and also used by the rest of the body as a source of energy. Most of the glucose that we use in our body comes from the foods that we eat. A lot of foods have different types of sugar in them. For example, fruits, bread, and pasta all have different types of carbohydrates which can be broken down into sugar. However, it’s interesting that the body can actually create its own sugar as well. The medical term for that is called gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis occurs primarily in the liver. Why would we need to make our own sugar? There’s a couple of reasons that happens. When somebody goes to sleep after having dinner, the body will digest and absorb all the carbohydrates, sugar, protein, and other vitamins. That process takes a few hours. What happens early in the morning before you wake up. That’s when your blood sugar is the lowest it’s going to be. You can’t wake up to eat at that point. It might be 3 in the morning. The brain still needs glucose to function in the body still needs sugar as an energy source even though you’re sleeping. So at that point, the liver will actually create sugar. That’s called gluconeogenesis. The trouble is that people who are diabetic have high blood sugar, to begin with, they eat certain foods that increase the blood sugar even more, and the liver is also producing blood sugar at night. So some of the medications that we use to target diabetes are actually based on gluconeogenesis. One of the most common is called metformin. Metformin turns the switch off at the liver so that it doesn’t produce extra sugar. For many people, that’s all they need and that can go a long way to helping to control her diabetes. Now, what happens if people are taking their diabetes medications and the blood sugar still remains high especially for months or years. We have to think of sugar as a very sweet poison. While it is an energy source, it’s toxic to a lot of organs in the body. There are 4 major organs that I think of what I see somebody who is a very poorly controlled diabetic. We’ll go through them one by one. Diabetes causes blindness. The blood sugar damages the eyes and the nerves. It causes blood vessels to form abnormal growths in the eyes and it’s 1 of the leading causes of blindness worldwide. Diabetes causes heart attacks. Excess blood sugar is very thick and causes blood clots to form throughout the body, but especially around the heart. Having diabetes is considered an equivalent of coronary artery disease which means high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Diabetes damages the kidneys.

Do home oxygen tanks really explode? One of our fellow podcasters sent in a question for us to answer. Her name is Terel Jackson and she is the host of the “Health Science (for the Rest of Us!)” podcast. You can visit their website http://www.healthscienceforeveryone.com and follow her on social media. Let’s take a listen to her question: First, let me thank Terel for sending in a great question. She sent us a question before and we love to hear from her. Do home oxygen tanks really explode? I tried to find specific statistics from our medical journals about how many oxygen tanks explode each year. All I could find were case reports. That means there are 1 or 2 cases that are unique enough to report to the journals. However, that means there’s not that many oxygen tanks exploding in homes. What I did find was that oxygen fires are extremely common for different reasons. While the answer may be obvious, I wanted to be sure that I researched it properly so that I had accurate data. I looked at some of the statistics from the National Fire Protection Association. In the United States, over 350,000 fires occur in homes each year. That is about 1000 house fires a day across the country. The #1 cause of house fires was cooking equipment. The #2 cause of house fires was smoking. Regular air is about 20% oxygen. Oxygen tanks carry 100% oxygen. Oxygen causes fires to burn hotter and more rapidly. It does that for a couple of reasons. If someone is using oxygen properly, it will flow into a mask or a nasal cannula which are the prongs they go into the nose. However, if the mask moves or the nasal cannula leaks air out to the side of the face, then the entire room will fill up with oxygen. In this situation, if you light a cigarette, a match, or sparks from a heater because that room has so much oxygen, it can ignite a fire. Even after the oxygen tank is turned off, the oxygen will linger around the hair, skin, and even clothing. There are hundreds of ER visits every year from people who are on oxygen and they light up a cigarette as soon as they turn it off. This will cause a flash fire which can burn the eyebrows, lips, and face because that’s where most of the oxygen will pool. Oxygen tanks are dangerous. They have to be supported in an upright position. If anything should strike the valve or cause it to tip over, the pressure that comes from the oxygen being released rapidly will create the equivalent of a rocket. The oxygen moves in one direction and tank move in the opposite direction. That has been known to cause injuries and if you combine that with smoking or any type of a spark, it looks like an explosion even though the tank itself did not burst apart. Oxygen tanks will not always explode, but they can do cause severe damage to people and property. There are some unusual situations that can arise. Some people like to apply Vaseline, Vicks, or other lotions around the face because they get very dry from the oxygen that blows into the nose. Anything that has oil or petroleum products is highly flammable. When you mix oxygen with those topical lotions, it can also start a flash fire. There have been many cases where people are burned even though they’re doing things that seem harmless and not even smoking. There are cases where people were using an electric razor or a hairdrye...

What is obesity? Thank you so much for joining me on today’s episode of Simple Health Radio. We received a great question from one of our fellow podcasts, Doc and the Deacon. This is an amazing podcast hosted by a family medicine physician plus a member of the clergy. They talk about a lot of different medical topics, life issues, and include religious from a different perspective. You should definitely give it a listen. You can visit their website www.docandthedeacon.com Let’s listen to the question that the Deacon sent in: First, let me thank the Deacon for sending in a great question. Obesity is a very delicate subject and often times it’s hard to talk about it openly with your family or even with your doctor. So I appreciate you recording the question to send it to us. Medically speaking, obesity isn’t just a cosmetic issue. It’s really a chronic medical disease and it’s directly related to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems, and even things like gallstones and cancer. We do know have people who try to lose weight regain it within 5 years. Therefore has a very high relapse rate. That causes a lot of frustration, even if people are eating right and doing everything away their supposed to. Obesity is now defined as an epidemic in the US. Over-two thirds of adults are already overweight. An additional one-third of Americans are obese. This is based on BMI. Obesity is based on BMI, which is the body mass index. Take the body weight in kg and divided by the height in meters squared. BMI of 25 to 29 is overweightBMI over 30 is obeseClass I – 30.0 to 34.9 kg/m2Class II – 35.0 to 39.9 kg/m2Class III – ≥40 kg/m2 Orlistat (Alli, Xenical) is a medication that blocks the absorption of fat in the intestine. It stops Lipase from breaking down dietary fat so the intestine can’t absorb it into the blood. Over the counter medications don’t work. They are low doses of herbs that cause diarrhea or urination. However, this can lead to imbalances in sodium and potassium. It can also cause harm to the liver and kidneys. Lasix (Furosemide) is a strong diuretic that works on the kidneys to remove excess fluid and lower blood pressure. HCTZ is a low dose of blood pressure medicine that helps with water retention. Belviq (Lorcaserin) works on serotonin receptors and helps reduce appetite. Contrave (Bupropion and naltrexone) is a type of anti-depressant and opioid antagonist. This is used for food addiction behavior. Phentermine (Adipex P) is a stimulant. It increases heart rate and stimulates metabolism. Topamax (Trokendi) is an anticonvulsant that is effective in binge eating disorder. It’s also used for seizures and migraine headaches. Liraglutide (Saxenda, Victoza) works for diabetics to help lose weight. References: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes.html https://www.medicinenet.com/g00/obesity_weight_loss/article.htm?i10c.ua=1i10c.encReferrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubWVkaWNpbmVuZXQuY29tL29iZXNpdHlfd2VpZ2h0X2xvc3MvYXJ0aWNsZS5...

How do blood clots occur in pregnancy? Thank you so much for joining me on today’s episode of Simple Health Radio. One of our listeners named Aharon Franco sent in a question. Aharon is the administrator of the Phoenix Center. This is one of the premier skilled nursing facilities in Pennsylvania. You can learn more about their services by visiting www.PhoenixCenterHC.com Aharon had a great question about blood clots. Let’s take a listen. Let me thank Aharon for taking the time to record a very detailed question about a problem that affects many pregnant women. There are different names for a blood clot depending on which part of the body is affected. If a blood clot is in a vein and it’s on the leg or the arm, we call it a venous thrombosis. If it’s in one of the deep veins, it’s called a DVT which means a deep vein thrombosis. If the blood clot starts in one place and travels to another, we call that an embolism. PE stands for Pulmonary Embolism. Pulmonary means lung and embolism mean blood clot. That means the blood clot probably started in the leg traveled up through the veins went through the heart and then was pumped into an artery near the lungs. Wherever I got stuck in the location of the pulmonary embolism or PE. Blood clots can develop any time there is a disruption in the normal blood circulation or if there are external factors that cause the blood to become thicker than usual. We call that a hypercoagulable state. Coagulation is a process where the body wants to create a blood clot. For example, if you cut your finger there be some bleeding for a few minutes. Platelets will form and there are chemicals that are released which cause coagulation which is a good type of blood clot. Without the coagulation pathway, a simple cut would be life-threatening because people won’t stop bleeding. There are some situations that are considered hypercoagulable. For example, if someone just had major surgery such as hernia repair or appendicitis, that person will be at a higher risk of developing blood clots. First, those people are less mobile. After surgery, people don’t really want to walk or exercise much because it hurts and different parts of their body will be swollen. That alone causes the blood to become thicker and increases the risk of blood clots. If a person has a broken ankle or a broken arm, they will usually wear a cast for 6 or 7 weeks. The part of the body that’s enclosed in the cast will have less range of motion and some muscle breakdown. This affects the blood circulation and again makes the blood thicker and more likely to have a blood clot. When people travel long distances, there is a high risk of developing a blood clot. This is true of someone is on a very long car ride such as from New York to Colorado. It can also happen if someone flies such as from Los Angeles to Miami. International travel has a very high risk of developing blood clots and airlines now is required to show videos to promote the health of the passengers and encourage them to walk whenever possible to reduce the risk of developing a blood clot. Some people actually have problems with their blood due to family history or a genetic defect. Others may have some type of tumor, such as colon cancer or leukemia, which can increase the risk of deadly blood clots. The category that we will focus on now is pregnancy. Pregnancy is a unique state of health. We know that women who are pregnant will have changes in their hormones. The hormonal changes are necessary to allow the developing baby to receive the proper vitamins, nutrients, and development through the placenta. However, some hormones can also increase the risk of blood clots. That’s why people who take testosterone or estrogen supplements are counseled r...

Thank you so much for joining me on today’s episode of the Simple Health Radio. Today’s question comes to us from Robert Reyes, who is the business development manager of Kupplin Worldwide. Kupplin is one of the world’s largest staffing agencies. You can visit their website and connect with Robert by visiting www.Kupplin.com Robert had a question about a new diet that he’s heard of. Let’s take a listen: Let me first thank Robert for taking the time to record a question and sending it into us. Intermittent fasting is one of the new diet regimens that become very popular globally. However, it’s important to note that intermittent fasting also known as IF has actually been around for thousands of years. First, let’s define what IF actually means and what it isn’t. With this type of fasting, there are no specific foods that you have to eat. Rather, it’s based on the time that you’re eating them. So it’s not really a regular diet where you are trying to cut out certain things like sugar or fat or protein. Instead, you’re trying to train your body to eat only at certain times of the day or even the week. The theory is that thousands of years ago, humans didn’t have a regular source of food. They lived out in the wild and sometimes there would be able to harvest or catch animals to eat, but not every day. The theories that the human body had to be lean and able to function on several days of minimal calories. Fasting is actually done for many religious reasons, including during Ramadan for Muslims, during Lent and the Christian faith It’s also common in the Jewish faith, Hinduism, and Buddhism as well. There are several different schedules that can be used to promote intermittent fasting. The 3 most common are called the 16/8, the Eat-Stop-Eat, and the 5:2. Let me talk about each of those 3 at a bit more in detail. The 16/8 method is also called the lien gains protocol. This is the most popular method. Essentially, you’re skipping breakfast and you’re only eating for 8 hours out of 24. Then for 16 consecutive hours, you don’t eat or snack. The Eat Stop Eat pattern means you fast continuously for 24 hours at least once a week. Often times, people go from dinner of one day until dinner the next day without eating. They can be repeated a 2nd time later in the week if necessary. The 5:2 diet is a calorie restricted diet. Here you only eat about 500 Cal on 2 random days during the week and then eat normally on the other 5. So it’s not a true fast, but it’s a dramatic reduction in calories in just 2 out of the 7 days. Let’s talk a little bit about the biochemistry of intermittent fasting. We do know that there are hormone levels that regulate metabolism and fat in the body. The 2 most well-known include human growth hormone and insulin. Human growth hormone is also called HGH and is necessary for hundreds of different functions in the body. HGH is necessary for children turning into teenagers and then into adults. People who perform fasting have an increase in HGH which helps with losing fat, but also to gain muscle mass. Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas, which converts blood sugar, also called glucose into energy in the muscles and the brain. They’re something called insulin sensitivity. For example, if people eat a large amount of sweets every single day and they snack on simple sugars, the pancreas makes extra insulin, but the sensitivity actually goes down. Now you have large amounts of sugar in the blood and large amounts of insulin in the blood which is a bad combination. The end result is that a lot of that sugar is converted into fat. During fasting, because there is no intake of simple sugars,

Thank you so much for joining me on today’s episode of Simple Health Radio. Today’s question of the day comes to us from Ricky, known as the Jolly Rancher Commander. He is the host and producer of Geek’d Up Radio. He has a very interesting podcast that talks about a lot of the recent movies and other pop culture topics. You can listen to his show at geekdupradio.podbean.com He sent in a question about a problem he’s been having with his foot. Let’s take a listen: First off, let me thank Ricky for taking the time to record a question and send it to us. When we talk about foot rashes, there’s a lot of different causes. Feet are naturally exposed to a large number of chemicals, debris, liquids, infections, and irritation. As a medical doctor, I always ask certain questions to get a better history. The questions I would ask in this case include the following: When had you first noticed the rash? What color was the rash when it first started? What color is the rash now? Were there any blisters? Was there thickened skin? Was there any smell or odor? Was there any bleeding? Is it painful? The answers to these questions will help to rule in or rule out other causes. Then I would ask what treatments have been tried and whether any of them were successful. I don’t have any photos of this particular foot rash, however, I’ll talk about some of the common conditions and some of the possibilities that could be creating the symptoms. The most likely rash based on the description is going to be athlete’s foot. The medical term is tinea pedis. Tinea is another name for a yeast infection or a fungal infection. Feet have a high risk of developing fungal infections because the foot is moist, exposed to locker room floors, enclosed in shoes and socks, and sometimes just neglected in day-to-day activities. Fungal infections grow very slowly. It takes weeks or months for them to actually appear. Common sources of fungal infections include the gym, work boots, swimming pools, or cleaning out the garage. Fungal infections are not painful. When someone is exposed, the roots of the fungus actually grow underneath the skin initially. It can take several months for them to grow into a certain size and then pop up to the surface. Fungal infections are usually yellowish or whitish in color. The sole of the foot is usually affected. Sometimes there’s a smell. There are several over-the-counter medications available to help treat fungal infections like athlete’s foot. These include names like Lamisil, tinactin, ketoconzale, and terbinafine. The dilemma is that most people don’t use creams long enough. For example, if it takes 3 months for a fungal infection to develop, it’s going to take at least 3 months of daily treatment for it to go away. It’s not the surface of the skin that I’m worried about, it’s the deeper roots that are underneath. Fungal infections are untreated, can infect the toenails or fingernails. That is a very bad situation. Toenail and fingernail fungal infections require over a year of treatment to fully resolve. If these infections are not treated, people develop thick, twisted, and discolored nails that become very brittle. Often times, they just fall off and don’t grow back. It’s a very sensitive cosmetic issue if people are missing toenails. This affects men and women equally. So again, I started with a fungal infection because I think that’s the most likely cause of the current symptoms. I would recommend seeing a family doctor or a foot doctor called a podiatrist so they can do some basic testing to confirm if it is a fungal infection and then start treatment immediately. Normally, if the case is very severe, they do a combination of prescription antifungal creams as well ...

Thank you so much for joining me on today’s episode of Simple Health Radio. Today’s question comes to us from Terel Jackson the host of the podcast called Health Science for the Rest of Us. You can visit her website at www.healthscienceforeveryone.com She sent in a question about fear and death. There is a lot of Hollywood drama regarding being scared to death. That’s the whole basis for Halloween movies and horror films. Medically speaking, this is called the “fight or flight” response. Basically, our bodies have a defense mechanism. When our brain recognizes a danger or an enemy, it sends signals to the rest the body to prepare either to fight the enemy or take flight which means run away. The body has to divert resources from certain organs to others in order for that to happen. The primary hormone is adrenaline, also called epinephrine. Some people like the feeling of being scared. They love going to haunted houses and trying activities like bungee jumping. They get adrenaline releases and it gives them a rush or high. The same thing happens when you play football or compete in a track meet. What are the effects of adrenaline? There are several actions that occur from adrenaline, including raising the pulse rate, increasing blood pressure, increasing blood circulation to our muscles, increasing our breathing rate, increasing the air in our lungs, and large in or dilating the pupils, and changing our metabolism to increase blood sugar. Why does adrenaline do those things? If you’re preparing to fight, you want your body prepared in the best way possible. Increasing your heart rate and dilating your eyes actually gives you a heightened sense of awareness. If you’re planning to take a flight or run away, the same things would still benefit you. If you can see in the dark or run faster, it’s more likely you’ll be able to get away from the danger. The problem with adrenaline is that it can also affect the body in negative ways, especially if it happens multiple times. For example, if someone is in an abusive relationship, every day could be a fight or flight response. If someone has a car accident, they’re going to have a large adrenaline release. If they get into an argument at work, they could have another adrenaline release. They get fired and go home to have a confrontation with their spouse or landlord, it’s going to cause even more adrenaline to be released. Excessive adrenaline will cause hypertension, diabetes, and kidney problems. Terel asked whether people can be scared to death. The answer is yes. In the short term, adrenaline affects the heart. Adrenaline works on special receptors that are in the heart muscle. When these receptors are activated, large amounts of calcium will rush into the heart cells. Calcium is necessary for heart contraction. If you have a large amount of adrenaline with a large amount of calcium, heart muscle keeps contracting and it doesn’t get a chance to relax. The heart is unique because it has electrical connections which establish the rhythm. Think of it like the ticking of a clock. The adrenaline can cause electrical connections to become hyperstimulated. That’s where abnormal rhythms can lead to sudden death. If somebody has any type of heart condition, whether it’s an enlarged heart, congestive heart failure, or abnormal heart rhythm, it can easily tip that person into something called V. Fib or ventricular fibrillation. V. Fib is life-threatening. People who go into this rhythm don’t have a proper heartbeat and they can’t circulate blood from the heart out to the rest of the body. Within seconds to minutes, the person will die. This is a common type of sudden death.

Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Simple Health Radio. Today’s question of the day comes to us from Dr. Janice Hughes, who is a chiropractor in Boulder Colorado. She’s also a wellness coach and published author. Her website is www.drjanicehughes.com Recently she sent us a question. Let’s have a listen: First, let me thank Dr. Janice Hughes for sending in an excellent question about mindfulness. What are the top daily success, health habits with actions to promote health and wellness? There are 2 specific techniques that all talk about on today’s episode. I have found these to be beneficial not just for health habits, but also to promote health, wellness, and to reduce the anxiety of the mind. The 2 things I will talk about our multitasking and mind mapping. Don’t multitask. People who multitask think they’re getting so many things done. Multiple studies from Stanford and other researchers have proven that people who multitask actually have worse performance than people who just do one task at a time. There may be a small amount of time savings with multitasking, but the final outcome is actually of poor quality. That means we end up redoing a lot of the work, later on, to get it right. If we had simply focused on it the 1st time properly, you wouldn’t have to take time to redo it at a later time. Why is this important? So much of what we do is multitasking either at home, at work, or even on weekends. We’re never actually able to devote our full attention to one particular task. We’re dividing our brain and attention among 2 or 3 different things and not able to actually complete any of them successfully. Why is that relevant? Well, it increases stress hormones in the body, including cortisol and it causes a level of anxiety. It means people lose a little bit of control every time they multitask and the brain tries to compensate by overthinking or overreaching. Furthermore, if we’re at a baseball game to watch our child play, but were consumed by emails and Netflix and other distractions from work, your child is going to notice. That behavior carries over. People tend to tune out people in their own household when they become overwhelmed and start multitasking. It even carries over into our sleep. People can’t turn off that switch they feel like there’s still something left undone. It creates a constant state of chaos. That’s the opposite of what you’re looking for with wellness. So the short answer is don’t multitask. Successful people don’t do it. If you can’t get the work done yourself it’s okay to delegate to someone else or even to decline that project or that task. But don’t try to do to were 3 things at the same time. It’s not beneficial. What does work? Mind-mapping. Write down your thoughts. Whenever you are faced with a challenge, it is tremendously helpful to write it down. This actually frees up your mind to focus on something that you need to do to get done. It also creates specific steps and things you can act upon a very concrete manner. Let’s take the example of buying a car. Some people know exactly what kind of car they want, what color they want, and how much they’re willing to pay. They go into a dealership and buy it and they’re finished. However, many people are overwhelmed at the thought of buying or even test driving a car. They have no idea how big of a car they want, how many seats it should have, what features it should have, whether they should lease it, or whether they will even like that car. In this situation, those people go into decision paralysis. The simple act of buying a car is now extremely complex for them.

Thank you for joining me on today’s episode of Simple Health Radio. Today’s question comes to us from Terel Jackson, who is the host of “Health Science for the Rest of Us” podcast. This is a very interesting podcast and they talk about a lot of common health topics in different ways. I highly recommend you take a listen to some of the recent episodes. Terrel sent in a question about burns. Let’s have a listen: First, let me thank Terel for taking the time to record a great question about burns. When we see people in the ER or the urgent care they and have a burn, we have to identify several different factors immediately. We need to know what caused the burn, for example, touching a hot object, chemical burn, sunburn, scalding burn, or explosion. Then we need to know the exact part of the body that was affected. We need to know if it was the hand, face, neck, or joint. Then we have to measure it in centimeters so that we can calculate something called the total body surface area. For example, we use a rule of nines. Each arm is 9% of the total body. The abdominal area is 18% of the total body. Each leg is 18%. So if somebody has a scald burn or explosion and it affects both their arms and abdominal region, that could easily be 30% of their body surface area. That affects the whole treatment for complex burns. Once we’ve identified the patient’s history, then we go to the anatomy. There are 4 major types of burns. 1st°, 2nd°, 3rd°, and 4th°. These are based on the depth of the burn. So you can have a burn that doesn’t go very deep but it covers over 50% of the body. That’s the 1st burn and the most common type is a sunburn. A sunburn only affects the epidermis meaning the outermost layer. After a few days or a week, the skin will peel and there’s no scar tissue underneath it. Compare that to a 2nd° burn, which goes into the dermal layer. That’s the layer under the epidermis and there’s a lot of the nerve endings.If you touch a hot stove you’re going to get blisters and a 2nd-degree burn even though it only affected the fingertips. So here you have a less than 1% total body surface area, but you could have a bad burn because it’s a 2nd degree in depth. A 3° or 4° burn goes deeper and deeper into the body. These often burns through muscle and sometimes even to the bone. There may be charred flesh. These people are going to be hospitalized. Maybe they were in a house fire or a car accident where there was a lot of flames that overwhelmed their body. These people have a high risk of serious complications and may need surgery, amputation, and careful monitoring in the ICU. Now that we talked about the classifications of burns, we can answer the question that was sent in by Terel. Can you treat burns with butter? That answer is no. It is true that people in the past have tried using butter as a burn ointment. However, it has been studied and it causes increasing pain, increasing risk of infection, and no benefit to healing. So don’t use butter on a burn whether it’s a first-degree, second degree or third degree. What things have been studied and proven to help? The first thing is cool water. Not ice water not freezing cold water. Just cool water from the tap. If you have any type of a burn whether it’s a superficial burn or a sunburn running a little bit of cool water for about 10 to 15 minutes will help to calm it down and you can cleanse it with some mild soap and water to reduce the bacteria and hopefully reduce infection. The 2nd thing is cool compresses. For example a towel under cool water which you can apply as a wet dressing for about 5 or 10 minutes onto a burn. Many people use antibiotic ointments like Neosporin or bacitracin and then they will apply a very light dressing to help keep it covered and prevent infection.

Thank you so much for joining me on today’s episode of Simple Health Radio Today’s question comes to us from Dave who is the host of the Sleepy Time Tales podcast. You can visit his website at www.sleepytimetales.net He has an interesting format. The goal of his show is to help people fall asleep. He also recorded a question for us to answer. Let me thank Dave for sending in a great question about insomnia. Over 40 million Americans have insomnia each year. That represents about one-third of the adult population. About 10% will have chronic insomnia which lasts for at least 3 months. To understand insomnia, we have to understand what sleep actually is. Sleep is a part of healthy homeostasis. This means that all the things we do throughout the day such as walking, exercising, thinking, and even digesting need to be restored at night. There are multiple stages of sleep. These are labeled as stage I, stage II, stage III, stage IV, and RAM or rapid eye movement sleep. Stage I sleep is the lightest form and EEG brainwave testing tells us that were slightly slower than one was fully awake. Our breathing is normal and her muscle tone is actually normal as well. This is similar to taking a brief nap. Stage II is a deeper sleep and it’s harder to wake up people at this level. Stage III and IV become deeper and deeper types of sleep. It takes louder noises to wake up people in this level of sleep. As people get older, for some reason they spend less time in stage III and stage IV. That’s why some people say they need less sleep as they get older. However, if you wake up a person who’s in stage IV sleep, they are very groggy and dizzy. If you asked them of math question or a computer-related question, can take up to half an hour for them to fully awaken and be able to function properly. Waking up someone who’s in this stage of sleep actually causes a decrease in mental performance. The final stages of REM sleep. This is where people have dreams and nightmares. Their muscles are without movement to protect them otherwise they would act out on their dreams thinking they are real. The breathing becomes very unusual and irregular and even the heart rate will jump up frequently. If you look at someone’s eyelids, will see that their eyes are moving back and forth quickly and that’s why we call it rapid eye movement sleep or REM sleep. Now that we’ve identified the different types and deepness of sleep, we can talk about insomnia. Insomnia can mean you have trouble falling asleep, you have trouble staying asleep, or you wake up too early. Most people feel exhausted when they wake up if they have insomnia because they never get into those deeper and deeper stages of sleep. When people don’t have enough sleep, the body is unable to heal properly. This includes muscles, bones, and even nerves. For example, if you have a teenager who doesn’t get enough sleep, they will actually be shorter than other friends who sleep deeply at night. The reason is that wearing a deep sleep, there’s more regeneration of the bone and more calcium deposited into the shins and the thigh bones which allows those people to be taller. A lack of sleep also affects blood pressure. When the body is unable to go into that deep sleep that we talked about, it causes an increase in cortisol which is a stress hormone. This has been linked with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, and stroke. There are people who actually have mood changes due to insomnia. This can include mild irritability meeting they just are not pleasant people to be around. It can progress to depression, meaning those people just can’t focus and function in society. They can also develop anxiety and paranoia.