Oprah Winfrey is one of the most recognizable Americans on this planet. She is a gifted artist, savvy businesswomen, a thoughtful person and generous contributor to causes she is passionate about. She is also a middle age woman with issues about her weight.
Getting older and gaining weight are two predictors for the likelihood that someone has sleep apnea. Current population statistics estimates that 2% of middle age women and 4% of middle age men are likely to suffer from obstructive sleep apnea. Oprah fits into this category.
Have you ever heard of the “Couric Effect?” An article appeared in Time magazine: “When NBC television personality Katie Couric underwent a colonoscopy live on national TV in March 2000, she did more than show the world the insides of her bowels. Couric, whose husband died from colon cancer at age 42, also significantly raised the rate at which Americans signed up for a colon-cancer screening.
In a study that appears in the current issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, a team of researchers from Michigan and Iowa reports that colonoscopy rates across the U.S. jumped more than 20% following Couric’s examination.”
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1005302,00.html#ixzz0oIPIrzP0
What obstructive sleep apnea needs is a public figure acknowledging they have the disease and begin educating the public on how to treat it. Oprah is certainly entitled to her privacy, but if she has sleep apnea, admitting it could save thousands of lives worldwide.
