Ever watch someone with sleep apnea? It’s one of the most frightening — and unforgettable — things you’ll ever see.

One minute, the sleeper is snoring away. The next, nothing.

At first, you might be thankful for the quiet — until you realize the reason for that sudden silence: they’re not breathing.

Someone with apnea can go through dozens of breathless bouts per night and never even realize it — but in this case, what you don’t know can not only hurt you… it can kill you, too.

Apnea has been linked to everything from sexual dysfunction and metabolic syndrome to diabetes and heart disease — but now, researchers have confirmed that it’s not too late for people already fighting that nightly battle.

The standard mainstream treatment for apnea is an oxygen mask called CPAP, for continuous positive airway pressure. In a new study, 86 patients with moderate to severe apnea were assigned to either the real CPAP mask or a sham treatment.

After three months, the volunteers took a one-month break… then switched places for another three months.

When they got the real CPAP, the volunteers saw drops in blood pressure and cholesterol levels — including an average dip of nearly 20 points in dangerous triglycerides — as well as better control of their blood sugar levels.

More importantly, they also lost weight — and while most of the patients were battling metabolic syndrome at the start of the study, 13 percent no longer had the condition after the three months of CPAP, according to the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

But does all the credit go to that mask?

The researchers say they’re not sure — and I’m not either, because while CPAP can help get you through the night, the best way to beat apnea isn’t with oxygen — it’s with lifestyle changes.

And it starts with losing some weight — like the patients in this study managed to do. Studies have shown that even modest weight loss can end the apnea as well as slash your risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Lose that weight yourself, and you’ll not only look and feel better than you have in years — you’ll sleep better, too.

If you thought statin meds to lower LDL cholesterol were useless, you should see what they’re cooking up next: drugs to raise your HDL levels.

As easy as it is to get your LDL under control through lifestyle changes, it’s even easier to boost your HDL levels the natural way — and I’ll tell you everything you need to know in a moment.

But first, a new study of 400 patients finds that the “promising” experimental med evacetrapib can raise HDL levels by between 54 percent and 129 percent without any significant side effects.

Sound good? Of course it does — but don’t sign up for the next wave of trials for HDL meds, because there’s more going on here than meets the eye.

Evacetrapib is actually part of a new class of meds called “cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitors” or “CETP inhibitors” for short. If those names are unfamiliar, it’s because there are no CTEP inhibitors on the market yet despite earlier research that looked just as promising.

In fact, the last CTEP inhibitor to make it this far in clinical trials, torcetrapib, also raised HDL levels… but it did something else when taken with statins: It boosted the risk of heart problems and even death so significantly that the trial had to be shut down.

Those problems didn’t pop up in smaller studies with hundreds of people — only in the later trials involving thousands.

But you don’t have to wait for the perfect HDL med, because you can raise your levels on your own right now — and you can do it naturally:

Fish Oil: People who eat the most fatty fish have higher HDL levels — and studies have shown that a fish oil supplement can raise those levels by between 4 and 8 percent and even reduce your triglycerides, too.

Astaxanthin: This pink pigment found in krill can boost HDL by up to 15 percent — and, like fish oil, it can slash your triglycerides at the same time.

Nuts: Just a handful a day can boost your HDL, slash your LDL and lower triglycerides all at once. There’s not a drug in the world that can do that.

Booze: Moderate drinking can boost HDL levels so well that the researchers behind one recent analysis said it works better than any known med.

Quit Smoking: Cigarettes can slash your HDL levels. Quitting can bring them back up and improve your health in so many other ways at the same time.

Looking for more? Visit the Web site of the Health Sciences Institute and browse the free online library.

Statins for kids? The very idea is insane, yet millions of children are already taking these “adult” meds — and a new set of guidelines aims to give these drugs to millions more, including kids still in elementary school.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute says every child between the ages of 9 and 11 should be screened for cholesterol, even if they’re in perfect health and have no family history of high cholesterol or heart problems.

Forget that there’s no evidence high cholesterol is even harmful to a child. And don’t even think about the fact that supposedly high LDL levels in kids usually normalize on their own over time.

Nope, none of that matters any more. All that matters now are the numbers on the blood test. And if your kid’s number comes up, he needs to be “treated.”

That’s code for those cholesterol meds, especially the statins that make up some of the best-selling drugs in the world despite side effects such as debilitating muscle pain, kidney and liver damage, cataracts and even a higher risk of diabetes.

If there’s one group of doctors out there who should be standing in the way of this, it’s the doctors who supposedly know children best — like the members of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

But that organization actually helped to create the new guidelines — and, in fact, last year called for giving statins to kids as young as 8 years old. (Read about that here.)

This failure to protect our children from over-medication is not a surprising one. Just last month, this very same group called for giving ADHD meds to children barely out of diapers. (Read the full story here.)

You might say they can’t keep their hands away from their prescription pads — because even without these new guidelines, they’ve been busily passing out adult meds to children for years now.

In 2009 alone, pediatricians wrote nearly 3 million prescriptions for cholesterol meds for kids, including 2.3 million statin prescriptions. So many kids are on these meds that Pfizer even created a chewable Lipitor just for children — and it’s already been approved in Europe.

Thanks to the new guidelines, you can bet we’ll be seeing it here at some point, too.

Statins aren’t the only adult drugs aimed at kids. Millions of children are already hooked on painkillers, antidepressants, BP meds, diabetes drugs and more.

But all of these conditions, up to and including high cholesterol, can be treated and defeated without a single med.

Now, you just have to find a doctor who still knows how to do it.

You don’t need to hunt wooly mammoths to be a “caveman” these days. In fact, you don’t even need a cave.

The “caveman” diet is more about what you eat than where you live — and if you can stick to a 100-percent natural lifestyle of fresh meats and vegetables with no processed foods, congratulations.

You’re officially a caveman.

It’s hard to find anything wrong with this diet, and science now confirms what should have been obvious all along: Eating only fresh foods can help put you in the best shape of your life and slash your risk of illness and disease.

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco asked a group of unhealthy people to stick to a “caveman” diet high in healthy fats and proteins from meats, fish, and nuts as well as generous amounts of fresh fruits and veggies.

After just two weeks, everyone’s blood pressure and cholesterol levels plunged — with triglycerides alone falling by an average of 30 points.

“That’s the kind of drop you get by taking statins for six months,” Dr. Linda Frasettom, who led the research, told Medical News Today.

I’d almost agree — except statins come with a risk of severe muscle pain, liver problems and kidney damage. A diet of fresh natural foods will do none of those things to you.

Statins can even increase your risk of diabetes — but a diet with no added sugars and zero processed foods will practically guarantee that you’ll never get the disease.

Dr. Robert Lustig, an endocrinologist at the university, says diabetics who’ve tried this back-to-basics approach have seen a reversal of the condition — and some have actually been cured.

That’s right. The “c” word — and while most of the media is of course only too happy to trash the diet and even mock the people who follow it, one reporter got an up-close and highly personal look at just how well it works.

Dr. Kim Mulvihill of the CBS station in San Francisco had been battling a weight problem and pre-diabetes when she volunteered for the UCSF study. In just 10 days, she saw dramatic changes to her cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels as well as a boost in energy.

She eventually lost 30 pounds, and after seven weeks was no longer considered a pre-diabetic — causing her own doctors to tell her to stick to the diet permanently.

If you’re facing your own battle with disease — or simply want to avoid ever having to worry about one — maybe it’s time to go caveman yourself.