Episode 56 Dr. Sheila Asghar - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home

Dr. Sheila Asghar, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at LSU Health Shreveport, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:

0:41 1. Dr. Asghar, you are a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at LSU Health Shreveport. One of your areas of expertise is something that affects every single person in our community, SLEEP.

I would like to discuss both pediatric and adult sleep with you today. You see patients who present a wide range of symptoms because of sleep difficulties and sleep disorders.

Let’s start here today to give people a sense of the type of cases that you see.

A 5-year-old is seen in your clinic. Mother says that he has a hard time breathing at night and snores loudly. During the day he is inattentive and almost hyperactive. Mother denies daytime sleepiness.

Walk me through some of the steps you might take to diagnose the above case.

6:52 2. I have heard you speak about a variety of factors that might assist someone, child or adult, who consistently has difficulty sleeping. I have heard you suggest, among other things, a Worry Diary, Melatonin, Teas and Lavender Oils.

Can you outline some aspects of what you would consider Good Sleep Hygiene?

14:04 3. We are all spending more time, children and adults, in front of our screens. Can you share some recommendations around screen use? For example, how long before we go to bed should we turn off our computers or phones?

18:09 4. I’m hearing more and more about people, children and adults, going to sleep labs and participating in sleep studies. Talk to me a little if you could about what sleep labs and sleep studies are. And how do you determine that someone needs to go to a sleep lab or undergo a sleep study?

24:43 5. I am also hearing of more cases of Tourette’s. Can you tell me a little about Tourette’s syndrome? What age is it typically first diagnosed and what are some symptoms that might suggest a possible case of Tourette’s?

34:00 6. I’m curious, what would be the results of maybe going a year or an extended amount of time not addressing chronic, poor sleep or repetitive bad sleeping?

39:10 7. Lastly, I commonly hear people talking about Sleep Apnea and CPAP devices. A few questions here – would you mind defining sleep apnea? How is it typically diagnosed, does it exist in children and adults and is it curable?