From: Therese Yang [mailto:yangdyfc@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2011 4:15 PM
Subject: Nicorette: Sleep
Four the consideration of those to whom it applies.
Of course, for the same people, make sure you have had a sleep study or at lesat an overnight pulse oximetry test. call for an appt with trang is you need to be evaluated for this.
May God bless you with health and peace,
Therese H. Yang, MD, FAAFP
Hi Dr. Yang,
I hadn’t been sleeping well for a looooooooooong time. I would … keep waking up gasping for breath as soon as I started to fall asleep because of the apnea. Then, I would wake up about 3 a.m. and not be able to fall back asleep. Needless to say, I was always fatigued.
…I finally bought some more Nicorette lozenges. It took a while, but I began to wonder if the nicotine in the lozenges had any bearing on this so I researched it because I started sleeping well again about the same time I started taking the lozenges. This is just one of what I found.
Nicotine: a different approach to treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.
Gothe B, Strohl KP, Levin S, Cherniack NS.
Abstract
Reduced upper airway muscle activity may contribute to the occurrence of obstructive apneas during sleep. There is no uniformly successful treatment of these apneas, and it is possible that agents which increase upper airway muscle activity could reduce the occurrence of obstruction during sleep. Nicotine, a known stimulant of breathing, also increases the activity of muscles which dilate the upper airway proportionally more than it does ventilation. Hence, we evaluated the effect of nicotine on apneas during the first two hours of sleep in eight patients with sleep apnea syndrome. It was concluded that nicotine reduces apneas during the early hours of sleep, and this effect may be caused by its stimulating action on upper airway muscles.
This is a link to the Website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3965253 So, if any of your patients have sleep apnea, you might suggest trying Nicorette lozenges – or some other form of nicotine, other than smoking, if any other form is available. I can’t believe how much better I’m sleeping!!!!!! And it didn’t only help during the early hours of sleep. I sleep well all night long now. Pretty interesting – huh?