Latest news with #Parrott
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Sleep apnea underdiagnosed and on the rise, sleep specialists say
And at 27 years old, Mal Parrott was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). It's a medical condition that causes breathing to stop during sleep, and a recurring collapse of the upper airway that causes a drop in oxygen and the brain to wake up. It was a shocking diagnosis, Parrott told CBC News. Their father had sleep apnea, but it wasn't really discussed. And it's often associated with older people. Parrott wasn't seeking a sleep apnea diagnosis at the time. They asked their doctor about getting tested for ADHD. To their surprise, the doctor suggested a sleep test, as well. "I've been told by many, many people that I'm a very loud snorer," Parrott said. "I mentioned it to my fiance and she said, 'Oh yeah, there have been several moments while we are asleep, I will wake up, You are not breathing in your sleep.'" Armin Rahmani, a sleep medicine specialist with the Canadian Sleep Society, said about 25 per cent of the people in Canada have some severity of sleep apnea. Michael Mak, a psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, said approximately 93 per cent of people who are at a high risk of sleep apnea have not been tested. Parrott went to the Breathe Well clinic in St. John's to get an at-home sleep test. A week later, they had a diagnosis. Sleep apnea is measured through the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), which counts the number of times a person stops breathing during an hour. Anything over 30 is considered severe. Parrott's AHI came in at 36. Specialists indicate sleep apnea is on the rise across the country, and among all age groups. Mak and Rahmani both told CBC News that rising rates of obesity are contributing to the increasing diagnosis of sleep apnea. Mak said eastern Canada has higher rates of obesity, specifically Newfoundland and Labrador. "If that's the case, then you're going to see a greater proportion of people having sleep apnea in your area," he said. But that's not the case for everyone who is obese, according to Wanda Dollard, a respiratory therapist at the Breathe Well Clinic in St. John's for the last three decades. "A lot of times it has to do with the shape of your jaw. If you have a small airway, it could mean that you're a higher risk of apnea," she said. "It could be hereditary. So … if your parents have sleep apnea, not that there's a genetic link, but people inherit the same structure of airway." Parrott's symptoms fall in line with what Rahmani describes as typical: snoring, interrupted breathing, chronic daytime sleepiness, never feeling refreshed, difficulty concentrating, dry mouth, headaches and brain fog. Sometimes, he said, people can wake up gasping for breath and choking. But, the effects of undiagnosed sleep apnea aren't limited to lethargy and day-to-day cognitive difficulty. "In the long-term, what we see is that people with untreated sleep apnea have a greater risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, sleepiness, fatigue during the daytime, problems with memory and concentration and depression," Mak said. "So it affects a lot of, you know, what we have to use on a daily basis and our general health." Parrott's day-to-day life — what they considered normal — was along those lines. "There would be times where I would just, like, fall asleep wherever I could," they said. "Like, if there was a couch, I was sleeping. If there was somewhere that I could sit, I was sleeping. I have come close to falling asleep at my desk at work sometimes." Parrott said the brain fog was thick and their attention span was decreased. "They said that CPAP therapy would be probably the best option for me," Parrott said. CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. It's a machine with a tube attached to a mask that a person wears while they sleep. The machine pushes pressurized air through the mask and keeps airways open. For people with mild sleep apnea, a specialized mouth guard can open the airway. There's also a surgery that can help in some cases. But in adults, CPAP therapy is considered the gold standard. "That keeps the air going into your lungs and, you know, reduces those risks of those cardiovascular issues," Mak said. CPAP machines aren't the clunky, loud machines of the early 2000s. They're small, portable, and relatively quiet. Mak said a lot of people have preconceived notions about wearing the mask and using the machine. "You're doing so in the privacy of your own home. You're doing it in your own bed," he said. "You're not broadcasting this to everybody and it comes with a tremendous improvement to your quality of life." But CPAP therapy does come with a hefty price tag. While some insurance companies cover a partial cost of a CPAP machine, without insurance, one could cost anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000. Parrott said wearing a mask to sleep was a challenge at first. "I didn't know how to process it right away until literally I had the CPAP, like, plugged in next to my bed and I was like, well, guess this is my life now," they said. But they describe the treatment as life-changing. "A lot of people in my life often say, like, I'm a new person, essentially, after getting CPAP therapy," Parrott said. "It felt like I actually woke up for the first time. Like, I actually had some sleep and then I woke up." For years, Parrott said they were surviving on extremes. It was either three hours of sleep or 10 hours of sleep. But they never felt refreshed. And a month later, Parrott was also diagnosed with ADHD, their original inquiry at the doctor. "It was a fun little two-for-one special," they said with a laugh. As for using a CPAP machine, they said "it's not something to lose sleep over." Download our to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our . Click .
South Wales Argus
24-06-2025
- Politics
- South Wales Argus
Calls for Welsh teaching incentives to match England's
Eluned Parrott, head of Wales at the Institute of Physics, warned Wales had fewer physics-trained teachers (174) than secondary schools (205) in 2024. She told the Senedd's education committee no one measure is going to be a silver bullet but evidence shows teacher training incentives work. 'That's why we're calling on the Welsh Government to increase our physics teacher trainee bursary from £15,000 to match England's £29,000,' she said. 'We need a bold reset to recruit, retain and retrain the next generation of physics specialists to help secure the future of physics in Welsh schools." Ms Parrott, a former politician, said only seven specialist physics teachers qualified through Wales' initial teacher education (ITE) system from an intake of 10 in 2023/24. She said: 'The intake allocation target was 67, meaning the intake fell 86% short…. The intake allocation target has since been increased to 72. It is unlikely to be reached." Warning of systemic challenges, Ms Parrott expressed concerns about investment in Welsh ITE compared with centres in other parts of the UK. Contrasting the two, she told the committee: 'You could go to study in an ITE centre that has a full-time professional and professorial level of ITE tuition or you could go to somewhere else where they're struggling to recruit part-time tutors to help you.' Ms Parrott, a former Liberal Democrat member of the then-Assembly, suggested setting up a centre of excellence for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She explained: 'It is important to have ITE centres spread out across the country but – rather than spreading that expertise – maybe create something that is robust, academically respected, driving improvements across ITE.' Ms Parrott said: 'I think there's also an equity issue here with the bursaries and what that means because you cannot realistically live on the bursary that you would get in Wales."
South Wales Guardian
23-06-2025
- Politics
- South Wales Guardian
Calls for Welsh teaching incentives to match England's
Eluned Parrott, head of Wales at the Institute of Physics, warned Wales had fewer physics-trained teachers (174) than secondary schools (205) in 2024. She told the Senedd's education committee no one measure is going to be a silver bullet but evidence shows teacher training incentives work. 'That's why we're calling on the Welsh Government to increase our physics teacher trainee bursary from £15,000 to match England's £29,000,' she said. 'We need a bold reset to recruit, retain and retrain the next generation of physics specialists to help secure the future of physics in Welsh schools." Ms Parrott, a former politician, said only seven specialist physics teachers qualified through Wales' initial teacher education (ITE) system from an intake of 10 in 2023/24. She said: 'The intake allocation target was 67, meaning the intake fell 86% short…. The intake allocation target has since been increased to 72. It is unlikely to be reached." Warning of systemic challenges, Ms Parrott expressed concerns about investment in Welsh ITE compared with centres in other parts of the UK. Contrasting the two, she told the committee: 'You could go to study in an ITE centre that has a full-time professional and professorial level of ITE tuition or you could go to somewhere else where they're struggling to recruit part-time tutors to help you.' Ms Parrott, a former Liberal Democrat member of the then-Assembly, suggested setting up a centre of excellence for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She explained: 'It is important to have ITE centres spread out across the country but – rather than spreading that expertise – maybe create something that is robust, academically respected, driving improvements across ITE.' Ms Parrott said: 'I think there's also an equity issue here with the bursaries and what that means because you cannot realistically live on the bursary that you would get in Wales."
Perth Now
21-06-2025
- Perth Now
Forget the diamonds, camels are a girl's best friend
Instead of a dozen red roses, a bottle of bubbly or romantic poetry, Emily Parrott gave her hubby a camel for their first Valentine's Day. "When he met me, that's when he met camels," she tells AAP of husband Luke. "He found his first two loves. "As long as I don't ask which one comes first then we don't have a problem." Nearly 15 years after that fateful February, camels remain the centre of the Parrott family's world. The couple runs the Oakfield Ranch with Ms Parrott's father at Anna Bay in the NSW Hunter Valley, hosting camel rides along the picturesque beaches of Port Stephens. They're gearing up to take 10 camels, including Foxy Lady, Polished Copper, Bronte, Barry and Jeffrey on a nearly 6000km round-trip via South Australia to Queensland for the Desert Champions Way: Outback Camel Trail. Winding through the red dust to the Queensland outposts of Jundah, Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia and Winton in July, the trail features camel races and rides, live music and markets at every stop. Ms Parrott, who has been around camels since she was a baby and began racing at 14, can get the animals running up to 45km/h. It's a bumpy - or humpy - ride around the dirt track as jockeys skilfully hover above the saddles. "They're not very nice to sit on at speed," she says. "They're quite bouncy, so the less your bottom is in the saddle is probably more comfortable." Apart from the rollicking races, the trail is a celebration of the outback spirit and pays tribute to the storied history of cameleers in colonial times. Camels were brought to Australia from Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent during the gold rushes, when they were used to transport goods across the arid inland. Cameleers established their own transport and import businesses until cars were introduced in the 1920s. Many of the animals were then released into the wild. An eccentric "globetrotter" named HD Constantinou spent nine years walking with camels and a cameleer from Sydney to Perth in the 1930s, wearing through 50 pairs of boots. "He stated he had walked every inch of the way across from Sydney, the camels ... carrying his baggage," Brisbane's Telegraph newspaper reported in 1939. Ms Parrott feels an affinity with the ancient creatures, a passion passed down by her father who bought 20 camels to establish his business. "Animals don't get enough recognition for the amount of effort they've put in for humanity," she says. "Donkeys and camels are a huge part of Australia's history. "They were brought over here to build Australia up." Her 10-year-old daughter Abby, who will accompany her parents on the outback trail with her six-year-old brother Cooper, has observed the deep connection between her mum and the herd. "About six months ago she said, 'mum, when do I get my special power?' "I said, 'what do you mean?' and she said, 'your special power, how you know what animals are thinking'." The Desert Champions Way: Outback Camel Trail kicks off with the Jundah camel races on July 5 and ends in Winton on July 26.
West Australian
21-06-2025
- West Australian
Forget the diamonds, camels are a girl's best friend
Instead of a dozen red roses, a bottle of bubbly or romantic poetry, Emily Parrott gave her hubby a camel for their first Valentine's Day. "When he met me, that's when he met camels," she tells AAP of husband Luke. "He found his first two loves. "As long as I don't ask which one comes first then we don't have a problem." Nearly 15 years after that fateful February, camels remain the centre of the Parrott family's world. The couple runs the Oakfield Ranch with Ms Parrott's father at Anna Bay in the NSW Hunter Valley, hosting camel rides along the picturesque beaches of Port Stephens. They're gearing up to take 10 camels, including Foxy Lady, Polished Copper, Bronte, Barry and Jeffrey on a nearly 6000km round-trip via South Australia to Queensland for the Desert Champions Way: Outback Camel Trail. Winding through the red dust to the Queensland outposts of Jundah, Birdsville, Bedourie, Boulia and Winton in July, the trail features camel races and rides, live music and markets at every stop. Ms Parrott, who has been around camels since she was a baby and began racing at 14, can get the animals running up to 45km/h. It's a bumpy - or humpy - ride around the dirt track as jockeys skilfully hover above the saddles. "They're not very nice to sit on at speed," she says. "They're quite bouncy, so the less your bottom is in the saddle is probably more comfortable." Apart from the rollicking races, the trail is a celebration of the outback spirit and pays tribute to the storied history of cameleers in colonial times. Camels were brought to Australia from Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent during the gold rushes, when they were used to transport goods across the arid inland. Cameleers established their own transport and import businesses until cars were introduced in the 1920s. Many of the animals were then released into the wild. An eccentric "globetrotter" named HD Constantinou spent nine years walking with camels and a cameleer from Sydney to Perth in the 1930s, wearing through 50 pairs of boots. "He stated he had walked every inch of the way across from Sydney, the camels ... carrying his baggage," Brisbane's Telegraph newspaper reported in 1939. Ms Parrott feels an affinity with the ancient creatures, a passion passed down by her father who bought 20 camels to establish his business. "Animals don't get enough recognition for the amount of effort they've put in for humanity," she says. "Donkeys and camels are a huge part of Australia's history. "They were brought over here to build Australia up." Her 10-year-old daughter Abby, who will accompany her parents on the outback trail with her six-year-old brother Cooper, has observed the deep connection between her mum and the herd. "About six months ago she said, 'mum, when do I get my special power?' "I said, 'what do you mean?' and she said, 'your special power, how you know what animals are thinking'." The Desert Champions Way: Outback Camel Trail kicks off with the Jundah camel races on July 5 and ends in Winton on July 26.
