What are the chances? Weight Loss/OSA

Sleeping With The Enemy · Post by **Sleeping With The Enemy** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 10:22 pm

Just wondering if anyone knows of anyone who has lost enough weight to be able to stop using CPAP?

I've heard that it only decreases the pressure requirement but why do the MDs say that if you lose weight you won't have to use the CPAP?

I'd love to get off this thing. I don't know if I'm just having a bad time but this is kind of getting me depressed. I feel pretty defective, like I'm falling apart, getting old, etc. I'm only 37

Okay Mikeus, this is where your research comes in, help me figure this one out!

Night Owl · Post by **Night Owl** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 11:11 pm

I don't know about the weight / Cpap connection. but it's funny, Sleeping, just today I wondered how I would feel if I had to hose it up every night when I was a decade ( or so ) younger.......most likely about the same as you do in your post. But someone would step up to me and say: Yeah, that hose, it's a bother. But you defective ! No way. This is one of the little blips in the image of what you think things should be like -- you grouse awhile and then get on with all the important things in your life. Getting older ? Yup, so what. It's the great challenge to liberate yourself from thoughts that slow you down so you lose sight of the all you are. The hose is just a little cosmic fun.

Now all the knowledgeable folks on the forum will step up and give you that practical info you were looking for. Owls can only hoot.

Janelle · Post by **Janelle** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:03 am

I've known people who were on CPAP and lost weight and said they didn't need it anymore, but I wonder if that is really the case. Seems to me only another sleep test would confirm that. And to also realize that the Sleep Apnea was probably the reason they gained the weight in the first place, I've seen some that almost immediately gain the weight back after losing it unless they continue a really active workout program. If you have OSA it would depend on what problems you actually had causing the OSA --enlarged tonsils (those won't get smaller), deviated septum (that will still be deviated), sagging soft palate (that might remain sagging). The only thing that would improve would be the fat accumulated on the inside of the oral cavity.

Mty son lost 30 pounds, went from a size 18 1/2 neck to 16, but he still has sleep apnea.

I saw a machine advertised on ebay that the seller said she didn't need anymore because she'd had surgery to correct her problems. Guess she hasn't read this forum. She might be wishing she hadn't sold it a few years down the road.

There · Post by **There** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:33 am

I've heard of numerous cases where people who had gastric bypass surgery have been able to stop using the CPAP - but I have no idea if they actually had a sleep study to confirm that. It's a question that's been large on my mind as well, and I kinda figure there's just no way to know, so I have to make the best of it for the time being. So many people in my family snore like the proverbial freight train, I figure it may well be inherited. In the interim, I'm just trying to look at it for the positives it provides now and not worry about the "what if" for the future

Tina

Sleeping With The Enemy · Post by **Sleeping With The Enemy** » Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am

For the record, I'm a size 18. I'm chubby, not really obese, at least not what anyone on the street would look at me a say, "oh my god, is she fat".

No one would ever guess that I weigh as much as I do. I'm 210 at 5'4". I look like I weigh 160, seriously--have always carried my weight well.

But I have to lose it!!!!!