How to Educate Yourself on ApneaApnea Self-Education
in writing: http://sleepdisorders.about.com/health/s... ,
the National Sleep Foundation http://www.sleepfoundation.org ,
the Sleep Disorders Section of MedWebPlus http://medwebplus.com/subject/Sleep_Diso... ,
the sleep apnea section of Dr. Koop's site http://ahsmidwest.drkoop.com/conditions/... ,
the pre-eminentStanford Center for Excellence for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Sleep Disorders http://www.med.stanford.edu/school/psych... ,
Bibliosleep http://www.websciences.org/bibliosleep ,
the Sleep Apnea Information Clearinghouse http://www.pilgrimvoices.com/apnea .
At Cybear http://www.health.cyber.com/atoz/Sleepd/... and many other sites already listed, you can find reviews and ratings of various major and minor sites.
Last and least, don't neglect my own site--"A Doctor with Sleep Apnea Reviews Recent Research for Fellow Patients" at http://www.geocities.com/klwhitemd/index... .
Obviously, there is more information on the Internet on almost any subject, including sleep apnea, that any but the most studious would want to explore in toto. Nor is this necessary, since many repeat the same basic information; there is a lot of knowledge about sleep apnea which has earned general acceptance.
Moreover, there is another, possibly more helpful path to follow through the Internet: the opportunity to exchange information with individuals, including both other people with sleep apnea and professionals in sleep medicine (who are, at times, the same!). This has the advantage of bringing up your own specific situation and problems, whatever they might be, to obtain very specific feedback from others who may have coped with similar issues and found solutions.
There are basically three ways to accomplish this personalized exchange of information on the Internet: (1) through e-mail question-and-answer, offered by many of the preceding sites (I do this for visitors to my own site); (2) through bulletin boards where you can post questions and get varied numbers of answers from whoever feels they have had relevant experience or knowledge (these are present at many of the preceding sites, plus the alt.sleep-disorders newsgroup); (3) through on-line chats, offered at several sites, especially at TalkAboutSleep http://www.talkaboutsleep.com , where I cohost a sleep apnea chat on Monday evenings 9-11 pm EST, while others host similar chats there on other days at other times. I consider the last-mentioned avenue one of the most productive ways to raise personal issues and get feedback and support from both patients and hosts.
There is one other path of information on the Internet: commercial sites which offer information on and access to products, such as CPAP machines. These I will leave for a later article. I include among these the few sites that promote surgical and dental devices.
Yet another issue to
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