Two fast and effective snoring cures....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 8-17-2010

In yesterday’s, San Francisco Chronicle (Monday, 8-16-2010) the lead story on their Datebook section was about these two methods.

Though obesity can cause snoring or make it worse and even help trigger sleep apnea, reversing it has two problems as a snoring cure.

Although it can be done, doing so is neither fast nor easy to do.

Second, you can lose all your excess fat and still have most of your snoring problem in many cases.

Here are two extremely valuable methods that are quite effective at stopping snoring.

1. Quite some time ago, we posted on the Pillar procedure which has two wonderful things going for it.

It’s so noninvasive, you can have it done on Friday and be back at work on Monday. Some people even have it done over their lunch hour and go back to work that afternoon – although they may work by email only that afternoon.

Second, it simply shuts down the major cause of snoring so well, over 80% of all snoring stops once it’s done.

(Most snoring is caused by the uvula, or back of the throat flap vibrating. It’s a bit like an unlatched screen door banging in the wind. The pillar procedure is like having a few tiny door stops added to help hold it open. The tiny inserts actually stiffen it enough that it vibrates less or not at all.)

The Pillar procedure is also FDA approved and has been for quite some time.

2. Most of the people who the Pillar procedure does not cure almost entirely --snore from their nose instead of the back of their throat.

Since this is caused by having their nasal passages too narrow or that swell shut from allergies, it can also cause mouth breathing and bad breath.

(I’ve had this occasionally and temporarily from allergies. I call it “air-brake nose” since that’s exactly what it feels like.)

In snoring, this is usually caused an enlargement of the balloon shaped membranes, called turbinates, that line your nasal passages.

Nasal turbinate reduction using FDA approved coblation therapy is done at the doctor's office using local anesthetic --- usually in less than 20 minutes. And it's over 90% effective in improving nasal airflow.

And, by doing both these two procedures if necessary, something like 95% of all snoring can be stopped successfully.

Not surprisingly, one of the two doctors interviewed by the writer of this story has a practice that offers both these procedures -- and a third noninvasive method to reduce the size of the uvula in people where it is simply too large or loose for the Pillar procedure to work.

Dr Matthew Mingrone is the medical director of the Sereno center recently opened in downtown San Francisco. He practiced in the South Bay of the San Francisco area before that and has considerable experience. The center specializes in effective and noninvasive treatment of snoring and sleep apnea.

Its website is: http://www.serenocenter.com .

The only bad news is that the until now extremely short sighted insurance industry has not covered these procedures.*

But compared to many medical procedures and surgeries it doesn’t cost that much, in the $2500 to $3600 range according to the Chronicle article.

*(Since the noise of bad snoring can ruin marriages and, unfortunately often does, the health harm from that alone justifies it being covered. But it also disrupts the sleep of the snorer sometimes by enough to cause excessive sleepiness which can lead to lower productivity at work and even fatal car accidents. Worse, the sleep apnea associated with it can kill though high blood pressure, heart attacks, and more – and it does. So, I think it likely costs the insurance companies more to treat the consequences than it would to cover these procedures. )

In closing, we do often post on effective ways to lose fat and its added weight.

So, if snoring is an issue for you and you have more than 20 pounds to lose, try some of the methods we suggest in our posts. They do work when used; and we aim for those that are doable and sustainable.

If you have more than 20 pounds to lose and lose even 20% or 30 % of it, you are likely to find your snoring will improve.