One of my favorite stocks (that I do not currently own) is ResMed (
RMD) a company that manufactures equipment that treats
Obstructive Sleep Apnea. A very common disease that affects millions of people worldwide and that untreated can
increase your risk of dying early by as much as 46%.
As this same report relates, sleep apnea
"...is closely linked with obesity, high blood pressure, heart failure and stroke"
Incredibly common, the same article found that
"Among men, 42.9 percent did not have sleep-disordered breathing, 33.2 percent had mild disease, 15.7 percent had moderate disease, and 8.2 percent had severe disease," they wrote.
They said about 25 percent of the women had mild sleep apnea, 8 percent had moderate disease and 3 percent had severely disordered breathing."
It is estimated that 20 to 30 million Americans have undiagnosed sleep apnea and it remains largely undiagnosed. 
Now that I have you convinced that obstructive sleep apnea is a common and usually easily treatable disease with positive airway pressure masks, let's take a closer look at one of the dominant companies in this market, ResMed (RMD).
I say that ResMed (RMD) is an "old favorite" of mine, because I have written about this company several times, and my sentiment towards their business has remained positive. I first wrote about ResMed on December 5, 2003, when the stock was trading at a split-adjusted $20.88. (ResMed had a 2:1 stock split in October, 2005).
