I actually wanted to make a point. Dr. Wagner mentioned how the incidence increases, and is quite prominent in middle age. This is very often a weight-related phenomenon. And it's very important -- if you put on some weight, and, all of a sudden, they notice you're snoring -- that's also a key. It's both weight and your anatomy and to whatever extent, that is also affected by weight.
DAVID FOLK THOMAS: And then what -- if you've been diagnosed, what can you do besides keeping slim and trim?
SHELLEY ZAK, MD: Well, that's right. I mean, there are two things. One is treatment is one is cure. And the long-term cure is usually not always, but usually, weight loss. But, you can't lose weight if you're exhausted, you're not sleeping, you have no energy.
So the short-term treatment, the most common is something called nasal CPAP. That stands for "Continuous Positive Airway Pressure," C-P-A-P. And I will bet that most of your viewers know someone who has a CPAP machine. It's a machine -- it's about the size of a loaf of bread. And it literally blows in pressurized air into the back of the throat. I mean, the problem is collapse of the back of the throat as one is breathing at night. And what this does is work as a pneumatic splint. It is pushing air into the back of the throat. It can't collapse on itself. And that sounds kind of like, "Ooh, ah, how can anyone sleep like that?" And the reality is, if someone has significant sleep apnea, they sleep wonderfully with the CPAP machine.
