Sixteen Million

Today's Thoughts 2/13/12 Sixteen Million
Sixteen Million results, well, at least I think big when I get to thinking. There is no way though that I am ever going to be able to come up with a complete list with that many research results on the topic I entered into my search engine. What topic was that you ask? I was looking for cures for Sleep Apnea without using a CPAP machine.

Of course, everyone knows that the FMCSA and its attacking the killer trucker's medical advisory board are at it once again. Soon there will be a new comment period so that the public (that is you and I) get to put in our unwanted opinion and they get to ignore it again. However, me being me, I have to figure out a way to self educate myself on the hot topic of the day and see just how many monkey wrenches I can throw into the mix. Just would not be right if I did not get involved in some way. So let us see what or whom it is that I have been able to come up with this time.

Introducing Sandy Long of course; and her research into the topic of sleep apnea and its connection with the FMCSA and highway safety. Wow, How lazy of me but the truth is, she pretty much hits the nail right on the head with her research work. Sandy is much better than I am at pulling the stats when it comes to the technical stuff and after a few conversations with her, I am sure you will agree the truckers in this country are fixing to get the CPAP shaft basically just to line the pockets of the elite that regulate our industry. So let us pull a few facts from some of Sandy's latest articals and see just what it is we are up against with this thing.

First, I love the fact that Studies have shown fatigue related factors in large truck crashes are under 2.5% of the cause of the wreck. The numbers of truck crashes over all has gone down and stayed that way for over three years. Then of course, there is the fact that I can find no study showing that the reason for the fatigue cited as the factors in the wrecks as shown above have anything at all to do with sleep apnea. As far as anyone knows, the driver simply stayed up to late studying all the new FMCSA regulations and was not able to get in a proper rest period. Nothing at all to do with sleep apnea as you can see. So let us go see what else Sandy can teach us about this subject.

Body size has a lot to do with your chances of having sleep apnea and as we all know, it is not the only factor to look at though. While the new supposed regulations are calling for any one over a body mass (BMI) of over 35 for a mandatory testing, skinny people are just as likely to have a problem as fat people like I am are to have. I am not the biggest guy out here but as I read through Sandy's articles I'm learning that Cortisol causes excess belly fat and what causes Cortisol? Work related stress of course. The two main causes of stress for me is dealing with the 80% of the traffic that causes wrecks in the first place between cars and trucks, the cars of course and the stress caused by wondering just which new regulation the FMCSA is going to come up with next month to put me out of business.

I can just about bet you that the majority of my weight problems comes from not being able or not being allowed to deal with stress like any normal person outside of the trucking industry could deal with it. I have to run my butt off to keep within the hours of service rules and wherever that forces me to stop, whatever food is available is all that I can choose from that day. Then stepping out of your truck for exercise in a busy truck stop or road is more likely to get you killed then it will do you any good. Take this from a guy that has twice been hit by trucks trying to get some exercise in. Kicking back and winding down in a safe place and a nice cold beer will send just about any politically correct person over the edge. No Sir, As far as the powers that be see this, we just pull up and flip a switch, grab a rice cake and all our stress is not only gone, but never a bit of it was caused by them.

I think the most fascinating thing I learned from Sandy's articles was about the money trail. Yes, I have always been a believer in the fact that if you want to know why something is, just follow the money. So let us see what this money trail shows us.

In the year 2001, Sleep Apnea made the industry sixty two million dollars and by the year 2009, a whooping 235 million dollars was in play so as you can see, profits have been growing extremely rapidly in this industry. But what if we can get three million truck drivers and force them to have to be tested. How many millions would that bring in? Easy enough to accomplish when the first head of the FMCSA's medical review board was a Doctor Barbra Phillips who just happens to be the Chair of the National Sleep Foundation (NSF). Interesting at the least you would think. She did her thing trying to get all the drivers on CPAP machines but her efforts failed.

In today's world, we have as the head of the FMCSA's Medical Review Board a Doctor Benjamin H. Hoffman, M.D. M.P.H. Please notice his affiliation as the Global Chief Medical Officer at GE Energy. We all know that GE Energy develops and markets sleep apnea aid parts. Wonder what good old DR. Hoffman's cut will be if all us drivers have to kick out for sleep studies costing between $2,000-3,000.00. and then a C-PAP machine plus parts and labor, """the only corrective device suggested by the Medical Review Board,""" all this can cost over $5,000.00 per driver on the road. Now let us times that by about three million of us drivers and somebody needs to be explain the words CONFLICT OF INTEREST to somebody before we get reamed in our CPAP induced sleep. I guarantee you one thing though; just around the time they figure all this is going to be paid for by Obama care, it will all go away as if it never happened.

Sandy Long has done some great articles on this subject. I have only touched on a few of the points and I highly recommend that you seek out and read about more of them on your own. Take some time now to look into this matter so that when the comment period does open up, you will be able to put in a well educated, well informed and most importantly, a respectable argument that will be taken seriously by those in power.
Be safe peeps …
Jeff Head.
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