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The You Docs Tip of the Day: To improve your golf game, quit snoring

By Michael Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D. - King Features Syndicate

Published: 11/20/09


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When your spouse's snoring is louder than a heavy metal concert, there is a device that can give both of you some rest.

The gold standard in anti-snoring, better-sleeping devices is known as a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). It's designed for people whose snoring is a symptom of sleep apnea - that's when a person stops breathing during sleep for more than 10 seconds at a time.

The trouble? It's about as popular as overboiled broccoli at a 5-year-old's birthday party. Could be thanks to the fact that it looks like a cross between an airplane oxygen mask and a World War II gas mask. And it's hooked up to a machine with tubes. Yeah, it's THAT sexy. But here's the thing: Sleep apnea not only contributes to daytime sleepiness (and all the nodding off in meetings and doing less than your best that goes with that), it also leads to high blood pressure, headaches and an increased risk of stroke, blood clots, depression and abnormal heartbeats.

Tell all that to your spouse, and chances are that he or she still won't use this device. So try this: Tell him or her that using a CPAP can improve golf scores. No kidding. A new study found that use of a CPAP dropped golfers' handicaps. The better the golfer, the bigger the drop (among better golfers, handicaps dropped from an average of 9.2 to 6.3). How? Sleep apnea interferes with some cognitive functions that are essential in golf.

What else works: Lose 10 percent of the weight gained since age 18, and 30 percent of the nonbreathing episodes will disappear.

The You Docs - Mike Roizen and Mehmet Oz - are authors of the best-selling "You: Being Beautiful." To submit questions and for more info, go to www.RealAge.com.

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