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Dr. Rudi Ferrate, Sleep Specialist (ASBA) interviews Andre Collins Executive Director of the Professional Athletes’ Foundation (PAF) at the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) about the Living Heart Foundations (LHF) health screenings for former players through their National Wellness health program.
HOPE Program
The Hope program is wellness screening program designed to improve the early identification of health risks in former elite athletes and utilize the information to also help capture the interest of the general public. In large part, the atheles vulnerability relates to continued very large body mass which is associated with a variety of co-morbidities including hypertension, diabetes, and obstructive sleep apnea.
Saving Former Players Lives
The bottom-line is that we're saving players lives! I thought about this for a number of years about some of the sudden deaths of former NFL players and well you could probably attribute some of that to you know oxygen deficiencies and I decided I just didn't want to have to read about these tragedies anymore and you know working through this study we've learned there are lots of benefits certainly staying alive is a big one, but players have lost weight players are getting full sleep.
The benefits of a full night sleep as it relates to a person's overall health is so critical for me personally, especially understanding that I have some mild sleep Apnea issues and I didn't even want to go to bed with mild issues I wanted to be 100% every night when I sleep and for me personally, I realized right away how valuable it has been. I sleep great now and I can't wait every night to put my oral Appliance in because I know I'm going to dream in full color and I know it's going to be fabulous, and I know I'm not going to wake up so I mean I’m having a great experience and I know everyone is different but to even be able to just try and hit that goal for our former players is so important and I can't imagine not doing this for the players as this program has become so successful.
Treating Sleep and it's Impact on NFLPA Members
The program began officially in 2012. The first opportunity to come together and work with the player years was in in Phoenix AZ and at the time we didn’t know a lot about sleep and sleep medicine.
"We also started working directly with David Gergen CEO Gergens Orthodontic Lab (GOL), American Sleep and Breathing Academy (ASBA) and his team who helped educate me on what sleep medicine is about and the importance of sleep as well as the perils of sleep apnea." Once I fully understood, I realized that for so many former NFL players they were really living in the danger zone when it came to sleep and sleep apnea episodes and that it was important for these NFL players go to our screening events and find out if they had issues with sleep disordered breathing" said Andre Collins.
Living Heart Foundation
The Living Heart Foundation (LHF) is a multi-institutional, IRB approved organization dedicated to CV health screening, database creation, outcomes reporting and wellness program development. https://www.livingheartfoundation.com...
National Football League Players Association
National Football League Players Association “NFLPA” We represent the players of the National Football League.We are dedicated to the success and well-being of all players on and off the field. https://www.yourpaf.com/
American Sleep and Breathing Academy
American Sleep and Breathing Academy “ASBA” The mission of the ASBA is an academy exemplifying professional excellence in upper airway, breathing and sleep issues in the burgeoning field of sleep-related Dental Medicine. https://asba.net/