Have A Happy, Healthy Holiday Sale
December 13, 2009
Give the Gift Of Health This Holiday Season…
by Dr. Steven Y. Park
Wake up to better health
In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Steven Park chronicles his 10 years of clinical experience helping thousands of patients sleep better and breathe better. He provides simple, rational answers to many of the problems you’re currently facing and provides guidance for preventing illness later on.
Discover the real reasons why…
- Your sleep problems may actually be a breathing problem
- Most sleep aids are making your sleep problems even worse
- You’ll continue to gain weight until you treat this one problem
- People who sleep less than 5 hours or more than 9 hours are at higher risk of heart disease
- Most doctors misdiagnose this simple yet chronic sleep/breathing disorder
- Many people with cold hands and feet are the beginning symptoms of a sleep breathing disorder
- You can have hot flashes, night sweats and mood swings and NOT be going through menopause
- Your jaw shape affects how well you sleep
- Non-creative people sleep better than creative types
Save Money, Get a FREE E-book and Get an Additional $25 off any purchase over $50 from now until 12/25!
As this is a season for gift giving, you’ll get a FREE E-book version of Sleep, Interrupted if you purchase the hard copy version for a specially reduced price of $21.00 (regularly price: $24.99).
This way you can share the benefits of learning how to sleep well and breath well, with someone else you care about!
In addition, between now and 12/25/09, we’re taking $25 off any purchase over $50. Use discount code: holidaypromo1209.
Here are some of the products we’re featuring this month:
Learn from the Experts…
10 Tips for Better Sleep: A Chinese Medicine Doctor’s Perspective
The Surprising Truth About Maxillomandibular Advancement (MMA) Surgery
The discount along with the FREE E-book, and coupons are a total value worth over $48.00.
But hurry, this offer is only available until 12/25!
To purchase a copy and to receive your FREE E-Book click on the
"Buy Now" button below.
New York state residents please include 8.875% sales tax
"There are many good books on better breathing. But none of them address why you need to breathe well when sleeping. Let Dr. Steven Park, an ENT physician, show you how you can breathe better while sleeping. Not only will this improve your energy, it can also save your life."
- Christiane Northrup, M.D., Author of New York Times bestseller, The Wisdom of Menopause
"Both patients and physicians must read Dr. Park’s unique and enlightening perspective on health issues related to poor breathing."
- Dean Ornish, M.D., Author of New York Times bestseller, Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease
"The unique concepts presented by Dr. Park questions traditional models of health and disease and challenges physicians and patients alike to be inspired towards better health."
- Mark Liponis, M.D., co-author of New York Times Bestseller, Ultraprevention
“Dr. Park’s revelation of the vicious cycle of interrupted sleep and health problems turns the medical community on its head. More importantly, it provides answers for so many who struggle to understand why they feel so lousy, and how they can feel better.”
- Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., leading authority on chronic fatigue syndrome, author of best-seller, From Fatigued to Fantastic
“Many physicians treat only the symptoms of illness. Dr. Park carefully identifies what is causing millions of us to be sick, and shows us how to get and stay healthy and happy.”
- James, O’Keefe, M.D., author of The Forever Young Diet and Lifestyle
“Dr. Park’s book offers not only a fascinating look at the critical role sleep plays in health and wellness, but practical advice to help resolve health- and energy-sapping sleep problems.”
- Mary Shomon, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss
"So many health problems result from sleep interrupted by breathing problems, poor sleep position, and other causes, yet few physicians make the connection and treat accordingly. This book will begin to change that and lead people to better health."
- Eric Braverman, M.D., Author of the bestselling book, The Edge Effect
“Sleep Interrupted” is a seminal manuscript which not only reviews the upper airway anatomy and physiology in a concise reader-friendly fashion, but more importantly postulates associations between poor sleep and some everyday maladies in a manner heretofore unaccomplished. This is must reading for anyone who sleeps or breathes."
- Stephen Lund, M.D., Co-Director, Sleep Disorders Institute, New York CIty
"The concepts in this book hold so much promise for a Kuhnian paradigm shift in the knowledge and practice of conventional medicine."
- Dorothy Hung, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Pubic Health, Columbia University
"Billions of dollars are spent every year in ICUs throughout the United States, attempting to treat and salvage patients at the end stage of chronic conditions. In contrast, very little time and effort is invested, in the education of the lay public, in recognizing and treating sleep disorders that can lead to a number of these chronic conditions. This outstanding and simply written book does just that. A must read."
- Anita Bhola, M.D., FCCP, Attending Physician, Critical Care Medicine, Sleep, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Assistant Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
"This is an excellent book that covers sleep and the consequences of not receiving good restorative sleep in an inviting, conversational style. Once you read this book, you’ll know more about sleep-breathing problems than most doctors. It’s a must read for anyone with chronic sleep or fatigue issues, and especially for all healthcare practitioners."
- Brian Palmer, D.D.S., Sleep apnea researcher and breastfeeding advocate
or
Buy the book today and receive
your FREE E-Book and get an additional $25 off with purchase of $50 or more
( *total value of $48)
Sleep And Grow Rich: 5 Steps to More Restful, Rejuvenating, Refreshing Sleep
August 17, 2009
Napoleon Hill, in his classic book, Think and Grow Rich, details the mindset changes that are necessary to achieve success at life, accomplish goals, and live a life of abundance. In a similar way, your ability to obtain quality and refreshing sleep also requires changes in how you think about sleep before you take the necessary physical steps.
Sleep Better, Live Better
Numerous research studies have shown that a good night’s rest is vital when it comes to your ability to focus, concentrate, remember, be creative, and various other mental and cognitive abilities. Your athletic abilities are also enhanced significantly when you sleep well. Needless to say, consistent, high-quality, refreshing, rejuvenating sleep can enhance almost every aspect of your emotional, mental, physical, sexual, and spiritual live. Unfortunately, in our fast-pased, information-driven, stress-filled modern lives, sleep is the first thing that’s sacrificed when we have too much work to do. The common corollary to getting that promotion or making more money is to work harder, and longer, and in the process, forgo even the most basic necessities. Forgoing a balanced meal, and substituting fast food instead, and sleeping less to work more, becomes the habituated norm for the success minded. Nonetheless, how can you enjoy the fruits of your success if you’re so tired and sick all the time?
Reasons For Your Sleep Deficit
Sleep deprivation can be so insidious and cumulative that you may not realize that your depression or anxiety may be from months or years of chronic low-grade levels of poor quality or quantity of sleep. Not only are we not getting enough sleep, our sleep quality has diminished significantly in modern times. In my book, Sleep, Interrupted, I explain how due to major changes in our diets and with the addition of bottle-feeding, our jaws are much more narrow with dental crowding. Smaller jaws leads to smaller breathing passageways, especially when we’re on our backs and in deep sleep (due to muscle relaxation). This leads to various degrees of partial to full obstruction, disrupting deep sleep, and preventing you from getting restorative, refreshing, and rejuvenating sleep.
Sleep Well and Prosper
Here are 5 habit and mindset changes that will help you to begin your journey towards a better nights’ sleep today.
1. Make an appointment with yourself at bedtime. If you had an important job interview or meeting, would you ever come late because you had some work left to do or you wanted to finish watching your TV show? Think of sleep as an appointment that’s just as important as an important meeting. Dr. Mao of AskDoctorMao.com recommends setting an alarm to go to sleep, as well as for waking up.
2. Plan your activities well during the day so that you can fall asleep quickly and stay asleep. What you do during the day has significant effects on how well you sleep at night. Exercising in the morning exposed to early morning sunshine can strengthen your internal sleep clock. Eating healthy meals with lots of fiber and multi-colored vegetables will not only keep you regular, it can also affect the the type of foods that you’ll crave, since your appetite, weight and sleep are all inter-related.
3. Set SMART goals. Commit yourself to goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable, and timely. Rather than just saying, "I want to sleep better," say something like, "I’m going to eat 3 hours before (8PM) going to bed (at 11PM) for the next 7 days," or "I will get up at 6 AM to jog 3 miles on Tuesday and Thursdays for 4 weeks. Yes, getting better sleep is your bigger goal, but it’s easier to succeed if you break it down into small bite-sized chunks that have SMART features.
4. Be mindful of how well you sleep in relation to your diet, activities, and your sleep times. The best way to is document this by writing everything down in a sleep journal. Short of doing this, be more aware of how you feel in the morning or during the day after you went out to have a late dinner, or during the weeks when you exercise. Which foods make you feel better and which make you feel more tired or sluggish? Bare minimum, make a quick mental note of how well you slept when you first wake up and how you felt during the day as you’re about to fall asleep.
5. Unclutter your mind just before you sleep. Turn off all forms of electronic stimulation such as your computer, TV, and radio at least one hour before you go to sleep. Watching the news is the worst thing you can do, since not only is it stimulating, but also disturbing stories and images that you don’t want cluttering up your subconscious during sleep. Read a relaxing book, do some light stretching, breathing or meditation before going to bed.
There are plenty more tips I could list here for you, but all of this is a moot point if you can’t breathe properly at night while you’re sleeping. Any by definition, all modern humans are susceptible to breathing problems while sleeping to various degrees. This is the one major flaw with Western medicine as well as alternative and complementary forms of healing. Everyone naturally assumes that you’re able to breathe properly at night. But this is not true. You can do everything I listed in this article, as well as every sleep hygiene recommendation that’s mentioned in thousands of books, articles, and reports, but if you’re not able to breathe well, you can only get so far. Lack of inspiration can definitely hinder your brain’s ability to think at all, let alone sleep or grow rich. Something to think about.
7 Tips to Breathe Better Through Your Nose
December 23, 2008
Most people take breathing through their nose for granted. But for many chronic mouth breathers, breathing through the nose is a struggle, if not impossible. Not only is their quality of life diminished, but they’ll also have a variety of other health-related conditions such as dry mouth, snoring, fatigue, and poor sleep. In my last article I addressed 5 reasons why it’s important to breathe through your nose. In this article, I’ll talk about 7 ways that you can breathe better through your nose naturally.
Before I discuss the various ways to breathe better, a short anatomy course in in order. The nasal septum is a thin piece of cartilage and bone that splits your nasal cavity right down the middle. No one has a perfectly straight septum; everyone’s septum is slightly curved. Sometimes, nasal trauma can shift or move the septum away from its’ midline position. The nasal turbinates are wing-like structures that line the sidewalls of your nose. It’s covered with a mucous membrane, and normally it helps to smooth, warm and humidify air. The turbinates and sinuses also produce about 2 pints of mucous every day. The turbinates swell and shrink, alternating from side to side every few hours. This is called the nasal cycle.
The front side walls make up your nostrils, which are soft cartilages covered on the inside and outside with skin. The back of your nose is one big cavity (called the nasopharynx), and the passageway turns down 90 degrees into the back of your throat. The nasopharynx is also where your ears connect via the Eustachian tubes.
If any part of the anatomy that I described becomes obstructed partially or completely, you’ll feel stuffy in your nose. Usually it’s not one thing, but usually due to a combination of different reasons. For example, if you have a mildly deviated septum, suffering from mild allergies will swell up your nasal turbinates, narrowing you nasal passageways. This may not be enough to clog up your nose, but if you have flimsy nostrils or had rhinoplasty in the past that weakened the nostrils, then breathing in with a stuffy nose may trigger your nostrils to collapse.
Starting from the tip of your nose, the first thing you must do is to find out if you have flimsy nostrils. If you have a very narrow nose, or if your nostril openings are very narrow and slit-like, then you may be prone to having flimsy nostrils. Try this experiment: Take both index fingers and press them just besides your nostrils on your cheek. While firmly pressing on your cheeks, lift the cheek skin upwards and sideways, pointing towards the outer corners of your eyes. Take a deep breath in. Can you breathe much better through your nose? Let go and try it again. If this maneuver works for you, you may benefit from using nasal dilator strips at night (one brand is called Breathe-Rite). Sometimes, the adhesives on these devices are not strong enough, or end up irritating the skin. Another way of treating this condition are various internal dilators (such as Nozovent, Breathewitheez, Nasal cones) that you can find over the counter or over the internet.
Second, try using nasal saline sprays. You can use the simple spray bottles that put out a fine mist, to more sophisticated methods such as aerosol cans or even using a Water-pik machine (there’s a nasal adaptor that you can buy for this). Another popular variation is something called a Nedi-pot, which uses gravity to pour salt water into your nose and sinuses. You can either use prepared saline packages, or mix your own recipe (one cup of lukewarm water and 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt or Kosher salt with a pinch of baking soda). Whatever method you use, you’ll have to do it frequently to get maximum results. Besides cleansing out mucous, pollutants and allergens, saline also acts as a mild decongestant.
Third, try not to eat anything within three hours of going to bed. If you still have food or juices lingering in your stomach when you go to bed, it can leak up passively into your throat and not only prevent a good night’s sleep, but these same juices can also leak up into your nose, causing swelling and inflammation. In addition, many people will also stop breathing once in a while, which creates a vacuum effect in the throat which actively suctions up your stomach juices into your throat and nose.
Fourth, try to avoid drinking alcohol close to bedtime. Not only does alcohol irritate the stomach, it also relaxes your throat muscles as you sleep, which aggravates the process described in the previous paragraph.
Fifth, if you have any known allergies, especially if it’s something in your bedroom, try to either remove it or or lessen your exposure to it. For example, many people are allergic to dust or molds, and if you have carpeting, or an area rug, it can harbor these allergens. Frequently washing your bed sheets in very hot water also helps. Investing in a quality HEPA filter should help even more. If you have any pets, consider keeping them out of your bedroom. If conservative measure to control allergies is not good enough, consider seeing an allergist for a more formal evaluation.
Sixth, get regular exercise, especially outdoors. Not only are you exercising your heart and your muscles, you’re also exercising the nervous system in your nose. Vigorous physical activity activates your sympathetic nervous system, which constricts the blood vessels that supply your nasal turbinates. This allows you to breathe better through your nose, with all the added benefits described in my previous article.
Lastly, slow down and relax. Modern society has removed all the natural built-in breaks throughout the day. Along with all the information overload and constant stimulation, going nonstop all day only adds to the increased stress levels that everyone experiences. In between major activities, take a minute or so to stop what you’re doing and stretch, get up and move around, and do some deep-breathing exercises. Stress can tense up the muscles, causing you to breathe shallower, which causes physiologic changes that can ultimately aggravate nasal congestion.
These simple 7 steps won’t help everyone, but If you can go down the list and apply all the steps, many if not most of you should feel some improvement in your ability to breathe through your nose. If you’ve tried all these steps and still can’t breathe through your nose, then seek medial help. An otolaryngologist (an ear, nose and throat doctor) is the best doctor to take care of this condition.
If you are a chronic mouth breather, in addition to what I described above, your jaw is probably more narrow than normal, with some degree of dental crowding. Chronic mouth breathers also tend not to sleep well at night due to various degrees of breathing difficulty. I discuss these issues in my other articles (sleep apnea and upper airway resistance syndrome).
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