Cycling season

Spring - almost summer- is here and I'm back to riding the Loveland Trail. 20-26 miles is fun and great exercise. Send me note on facebook . I ride a road bike and travel at about a 12-14 MPH rate. Having comapny makes the time go much faster. I ride the streets on Sunday morning when there isn't much traffic. See you out there!!

cincinnati top dentistq

For the 2nd year in a row I managed to be named as one of Cincinnati's Top Dentists in Cincinnati magazine. I even had Nancy's (my wife) and my picture in the magazine. It was taken at a reception at the Cincinnati Mini store (at the BMW store). It's always nice to be recognized by your peers for a job well done. Thanks to everyone who voted for me!-- Barry

what happens when your e-mail account gets hacked

Here is some advice for those of you who do not back up your e-mail address list. Back it up!!!! My email account was hacked and google had to shut my account down. I lost all of my e-mail addresses and had to rebuild them from scratch. A simple way to back up is to export your contact list as a .csv file to excel and save the file or print it. If you back your computer up daily or weekly, you will have saved the file. You can also back up to outlook if you have it, although I don't know how to do this myself. But- as Nike says- Just Do It!!!

Seeing Hair in New York

I visited New york City last weekend and had tickets to see Hair- the Musical which is a revival of the original show I saw 40 years ago on Broadway and again in Cincinnati. The show was high energy and the cast was pretty talented but not fantastic. Certainly , some of the meaning and excitement of an out of the box show has been lost over the years. It is still worth seeing.

Treating My Own Sleep Apnea

I have moderate sleep apnea. It started with snoring and my wife elbowing me several times a night to wake me up. She was not a happy camper although it didn't bother me a bit. (or so I thought). Then I started a series of courses about treating sleep apnea and I learned that snoring generally progresses to sleep hypopnea and eventually to sleep apnea. Hypopnea is a partial obstuction to the airway decreasing the amount of oxygen getting to your lungs and brain. Apnea is a complete blockage of the airway that lasts more than 10 seconds. I learned that over 25% of Americans have sleep apnea- a breathing disorder in which cessation of breathing for over 10 seconds (sometimes for as long as 1 minute ) occurs between 5 and 30 or more times per hour!!. Just for fun- hold your breath for 30 seconds. How does that feel? Imagine doing that 30 times an hour!! Do you think you might feel tired during the day? Might you fall asleep while driving? Might your blood pressure increase?

I wasn't falling asleep during driving but I was tired at the end of the day, I would almost doze off at red lights driving home, and I was waking up several times a night with involuntary leg kicks.-- I thought it was from not stretching enough after exercising. I was wrong.

So I took an "at home sleep test" which measures the number of sleep apnea episodes per hour, snoring intensity, etc. Lo and behold I was diagnosed with mild to moderate sleep apnea. One of the accepted treatments for mild to moderate sleep apnea is an oral appliance similar to an upper and lower bite guard called a somnomed appliance. I made one for myself and the results were amazing. My leg kicking quit, my snoring stopped completely (making my wife very happy) and I was much more wide awake in the afternoon. After a few adjustments to the appliance, if found it to be very comfortable. In the next few weeks I will retake the sleep test to see if the appliance is helping the sleep apnea episodes as well. Stay tuned for more info.

Dental tip for the day

Probably the most important aspect of tooth brushing is -----How long you brush your teeth. Recent published research indicates that brushing 1 1/2 to 2 minutes is significantly more effective at removing plaque than brushing 30 seconds to 1 minute. This is regardless of whether you use a manual toothbrush or an electric - my favorite. Sometimes 2 minutes seems like a long time- try singing your favorite song or listen to the radio while you brush- Time will fly- stay tuned for the next tip.

vacation in Zihuatenejo

Heaven on earth exists and it is in Mexico. Just got back from zihuatenejo, mexico - or Zihua- as I call it. 7 days of 86 degrees and sunshine. Zihua is 120 miles from Acapulco. It is between Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta on the West Coast of Mexico. Imagine a beautiful bay bordered by sandy beach giving way to mountainous bluffs housing beautiful condos, boutique hotels and fabulous restaurants. Each one has a spectacular view and costs way less than comparable restaurants and hotels in the states. This was my third time there and my wife and I will be sure to go again.