Gateway adds new physician
Shady brings knowledge of pulmonology
According to a press release, Gateway shows "its commitment to the community through the recruitment of new physicians to its medical staff."
Dr. Trudy Shady, currently in an office in the Medical Office Building at Gateway, specializes in the treatment of asthma, sleep disorders, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other lung disorders.Shady, a board-certified pulmonologist, a discipline of the diseases of the lungs and respiratory tract, said the physicians from many other fields specialize in sleep medicine. A physician who brings to Gateway years of experience in her specialty, Shady practiced at Alton Memorial Hospital and at St. Anthony's in Alton. She spends Wednesdays working in the sleep lab at Gateway.
"In the sleep center, we evaluate each patient before they go into the sleep lab for a study," Shady said when asked about the day-to-day operations of a sleep center. "They're evaluated by a physician because they think they might have a sleep problem. We'll review their medical history and then do a comprehensive sleep evaluation of their sleep hygiene and why they're so sleepy."
Shady said the results of the evaluation could lead to a full scale sleep study. She also said a sleep study includes spending the night in the sleep lab under observation.
"The room is set up more like a bedroom," Shady said. "They come in with their regular pajamas. We measure their sleep stages. We have belts on them to measure their respiratory efforts and if they are breathing when they sleep. We also have monitors on their mouth to see if they are breathing or if their air is slowing." She also said patients are videotaped to watch their movements.
"We want to know if they're thrashing around or lying still," she said. "We measure the heart rate and rhythm when they are sleeping."
Sleep apnea, the most common sleep disorder in the world, according to Shady, is a disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. According to Web sites, individuals with apnea are rarely aware of their breathing difficulties. But those who suffer from sleep apnea often suffer from daytime sleepiness and fatigue.
Shady calls the continuous positive airway pressure mask "the most effective therapy" for obstructive sleep apnea. According to Web sites, the mask uses air pressure to push the tongue forward and open the throat, which weakens the apnea.
When asked about less-common sleep disorders, Shady mentioned insomnia, the difficulty in staying asleep or falling asleep, and periodic movement disorders, where people breathe but have limb disorders, in which individuals legs move in a repetitive fashion and they suffer sleep disruption, but not to the point of awakening. Shady said it affects the quality of sleep.
"Not only is sleep duration important, but the quality of sleep is also important," she said. "You can be in bed asleep for several hours, but if the quality of your sleep is poor, you're still not going to wake up rested in the morning," she said.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, 70 million Americans are affected by a sleep problem. Sleep deprivation costs $100 billion in lost productivity, medical expenses, sick leave and property and environmental damage.
"We don't have good sleep habits," Shady said. "Most good studies tell us an adult needs six to eight hours of sleep. If we sleep less than that, or more than that, our performance suffers. Our concentration suffers and we don't do well. Many of us (Americans) suffer from what's called sleep debt where we get too many days in a row where we don't get the number of hours of sleep that we need. We sometimes cat nap and push the caffeine. We live on caffeine, a lot of us have the high energy drinks and the Red Bulls as we drive down the road to keep us awake so we can pull 18-hour shifts. That type of lifestyle is being pushed. Many of our corporations and jobs are pushing us to work long hours and then we go home and try to do everything for our kids and families. We don't get our sleep in. We're trying to squeeze 26 hours into 24-hour days. It's the culture of our days."
Also in the realm of Shady's speciality is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a category which encompasses such diseases as emphysema and chronic bronchiectasis.
"It's the fourth leading cause of death in this country, soon to be the third leading cause of death," Shady said on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a disease common in smokers where the lungs are damaged, making it hard to breath.
She said the condition often goes unrecognized. "People don't get diagnosed until the very end," Shady said. "They don't complain about it. We do have new treatments for it, and we can do something for it, but people don't think that we can."
Finding the condition early is important.
"People who are short of breath need to be evaluated, they need to tell their doctors that they are short of breath and not say 'It's just because I'm old, it's just because of my arthritis, it's just because I'm fat,'" Shady said. "People use every excuse. If you're short of breath, just tell your doctor you're short of breath."
