Shocking way to help stop snoring
Help could be on the way for snorers after an NHS surgeon invented a device that stops the problem with a tiny electric shock.
Sleep disorders expert Professor Anshul Sama’s Snoozeal zaps the culprit’s tongue.
The device – which fits into the base of the mouth – has to be worn for 20 minutes at any time of day for six weeks, not while asleep.
It contains two electrodes that rest against either side of the tongue. A tiny current is transmitted to the device by an app on a smartphone.
The current tightens up floppy muscles in the tongue and at the back of the throat, which are often the cause of snoring.
It has worked in 70 per cent of cases during trials in Britain and Germany.
Louise Fitzpatrick is one of the first to benefit from the device.
Pub landlady Louise, 50, from Islington, London, thought she would have to have an operation to stop her heavy snoring.
She said: “I was resigned to surgery but within a couple of weeks on the Snoozeal trial I started to notice a change.
“And by the end of the six weeks I was hardly snoring at all.”
It is hoped the device will be launched later this year.
Sama said: “The results of surgery are not very good and yet we are spending thousands on treating patients with an operation that can leave them in discomfort.”