Poll Re: Apnea and Your Weight

[Heart Jumping]

I've read that there is often a correlation between being overweight and suffering from apnea. I know that anyone can have apnea and that it is not caused by being overweight, but there is a correlation. I'd like to do an informal poll here to see how many here are overweight. In my case I'm about about 50 pounds overweight.

Thanks

[Goofproof]

You want to know our weight and you can't even figure out your gender. Did you marry a Kardashian too. Jim

I didn't answer, you didn't have enough options, and I hate polls, and especially useless ones.

[Enchanter]

The fact is that weight contributes to sleep apnea. Now sleep apnea can also contribute to weight and so that is what makes it a vicious cycle.

Now OSA contributes to weight gain too, but that doesn't mean you can't overcome it if you work hard enough. You might have to work 3 times as hard to get the results you need. But it can be done. That's why I'm gonna get a new bike, one I can last for 3 hours a day in. I believe I need to be in near olympic athlete shape or at least my genetic potential to overcome OSA.

[Heart Jumping]

You want to know our weight and you can't even figure out your gender. Did you marry a Kardashian too. Jim

I didn't answer, you didn't have enough options, and I hate polls, and especially useless ones.

I'm sorry I didn't include enough options for you, I'm planning on doing another poll on mental outlook, I'll make sure and include an option for "miserable and unhappy" so there's an option for you.

[kteague]

Don't let my selection of being overweight give the wrong impression. I was symptomatic of sleep apnea long before I was overweight. Everything I've read about the hormone changes in sleep apnea and sleep deprivation lend to weight gain. Besides the stress hormones and appetite hormones being out of whack, there's the tiredness factor that makes activity difficult. So often we go for years before the accruing damage becomes recognizable, so assigning blame to weight is can be tricky.

[Heart Jumping]

Don't let my selection of being overweight give the wrong impression. I was symptomatic of sleep apnea long before I was overweight. Everything I've read about the hormone changes in sleep apnea and sleep deprivation lend to weight gain. Besides the stress hormones and appetite hormones being out of whack, there's the tiredness factor that makes activity difficult. So often we go for years before the accruing damage becomes recognizable, so assigning blame to weight is can be tricky.

Thank you, good information. One of the things I've fought for years is fatigue and lack of real energy!

Thanks to Enchanter for the info as well.

[zoocrewphoto]

Considering that many of us went 10+ years without treatment, it is kind of difficult to get decent data. I mean, I was normal weight in grade school and high school. About 10 lbs over when I started college, a little more when I finished college. And heavier now. But when did my sleep apnea start? I didn't snore in high school or college, but I had some of the symptoms back in high school, and I definitely had sleep deprivation in college (due to being a night owl and having early classes).

Posting my weight now with 15-25 years of sleep apnea history makes no sense if you are trying to see if weight causes sleep apnea. It does not represent my situation when my sleep apnea started.

[Heart Jumping]

Considering that many of us went 10+ years without treatment, it is kind of difficult to get decent data. I mean, I was normal weight in grade school and high school. About 10 lbs over when I started college, a little more when I finished college. And heavier now. But when did my sleep apnea start? I didn't snore in high school or college, but I had some of the symptoms back in high school, and I definitely had sleep deprivation in college (due to being a night owl and having early classes).

Posting my weight now with 15-25 years of sleep apnea history makes no sense if you are trying to see if weight causes sleep apnea. It does not represent my situation when my sleep apnea started.

I agree with everything you've said, as I said in my first post, I'm just interested in the correlation for those willing to answer.

[Krelvin]

Hmmm is this supposed to be when I started CPAP? Or sometime along the 9 years I've used it? Or way back when my symptoms started more than 20 years ago but never got tested. No correlation can be obtained from such a poll.

[chunkyfrog]

Incomplete poll, ignores people who are UNDERWEIGHT!
Nobody is clear-headed that early in the morning, so not your fault.
It's really hell to have insomnia and be BORED at the same time.
Totally sucks!
But did you have to SHARE?
Edit: PS, I lied. Looking at the numbers, I bet a few others did, too.

[Goofproof]

Not to mention, this idea of polling weight, is done every few months, with the same results.

Other factors make any corrolation of this poll flawed. Back when our weight was in line with it the norm, we were younger, more active (Bulletproof) Most of us didn't start out life with sagging boobs, and flabby arms, life and gravity gave us those, muscle tone lessens as we age, If it didn't, many of us wouldn't have sleep apnea, or be over our ideal weigh.

Sure, if we didn't have life to take care of, we could be more active, work out, exercise, run marathons. Then our bodies would look better, except for the problem of the excessive wear on our body causing the need for knee & hip replacements ect. In the old days, we had to do physical work to earn a living, (Hunting & Gathering all day, fighting off wild animals and other tribes). We also lived to the ripe old age of 35 to 40. Now the government just mails out our entitlement checks, and we take or chances opening the envelope. (Paper cuts)

A large percentage of the U.S., do get some exercize, pulling their heads out of the sand, shaking the sand out of their ears, then promptly reincerting into the sand again. (Sheeple) Jim

[Janknitz]

There is nothing to be learned from a poll like this because it is flawed at the outset by making the assumption that excess weight is the cause of sleep apnea. It's probably one of the causes, but sleep apnea is multi-factoral, and it may be that in many cases sleep apnea causes weight gain. So perhaps blaming excess weight for apnea is like blaming the firemen for the fire.

[chunkyfrog]

If some stranger (or even someone I KNEW) asked me my weight,
I would be offended. It is a very personal matter.
Now if someone chooses to leave the tag on their Levi's,
perhaps they would like to put their weight on their t-shirt.
OK to volunteer the info, but rude to ask!

[SewTired]

I didn't have apnea until I lost 30 pounds. Still overweight, but it was the weight loss that actually qualified me for a machine. Otherwise, it's just lack of oxygen due to heart issue.

[chunkyfrog]

Lousy insurance or dimwit doctor. IMHO