"Lose the Weight and your Sleep Apnea Will Go away!"

[Kahfree]

The subject heading of this discussion is what I heard today when I went to get my nails done at the salon. I was speaking to one of the employees who I have known since early 2001 and she had a client in her massage room. (not getting a massage, just sitting there chatting) when the subject of my sleep apnea popped up. The employee asked how it was going, and the client of hers decided that she was an expert in sleep apnea because her mother, who NEVER had apnea until she gained weight, stated that its a Weight issue only and that losing it will cause mine to go away and I can toss my machine when I shed the pounds I need to get rid of.

It's Amazing to me that this woman felt she knew my entire medical history and was able to diagnose me by saying I am fat and if I lose it I will no longer have sleep apnea. (I do not know this woman and never met her before today) Because her mother GAINED weight and was diagnosed with OSA, that is, as she feels, the cause of OSA. I feel that I will no longer discuss my OSA with anyone anymore. I feel like I am put on stage and called a fatty, and to see me, I do not look like that overweight. I am, but not so bad that I look like what these people perceive to be a monster!

I felt offended today, as though its one more reason for someone to pic on people who have weight on them and are not skinny as a rail. My comment to her was "Skinny people get Sleep Apnea Too" Her response, "Yea, well maybe" Aggggggg

My lips are currently sealed from now on. I feel like my medical condition is a warrant for others to poke fun at. (Not here on the board, I mean people I meet in person)

[Jaylee]

People think they know everything. There are a lot of average weight people here on this board who have OSA.

[BlackSpinner]

The answer should be "Wow, are your facts ever out of date! When did you do your medical training?"

Hugs - the problem is that lots of medical people are just of out of date!

[Janknitz]

You're thin and it still stings.

I AM overweight, and when I've spoken to people about it, they assume that I have OSA because of my weight. But the reality is that I was having these issues for a very long time before I got heavy, and I have facial "dysmorphisms" from a genetic disorder that predispose me to OSA in the first place--a small, receding jaw, short, thick neck, narrowed airways, and low muscle tone that causes GERD which in turn is a factor in OSA. So even if I lost every spec of weight I could to reach my ideal body weight, it is unlikely that the OSA would be reduced enough to get off CPAP. That doesn't mean I shouldn't lose weight, but I hate the thought that I iknow in their heads "it's her fault that she has OSA and if she would just lose weight then it would go away.

So I don't talk about it with other people, either. And I'm talking friends, here, not just casual acquaintances.

[avi123]

It's debatable:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2546451/

[islandboy5150]

I prefer the more DIRECT approach of: "Shut your pie-hole until you know what you're talking about." It usually works quite well and I get a little kick out of seeing the shocked look on their face. Afterwards, proceed to tell them that my OSA and back pain both presented during a long period of weight loss. (I had lost 40 lbs and went from 205lbs to 165lbs and kept it off for a year and a half when both problems started, and only THEN did I begin to gain weight again! Those know-it-all, smarty pants types just end up sitting there with their jaw on the floor. I have to tell them "you better pick that up before someone steps on it! I even show them the picture of what I looked like when it all started. I'm changing my avatar so you can see too.

Don't let them bother you Kelly. If they are persistent, bother them back with facts. Let them know they can't armchair diagnose you.

[Fragman]

When people comment about my ,er, 'reserves', I usually tell them it cost more than their education.

[DocWeezy]

Oh geez....those stupid medical "experts" crop up everywhere! I never cease to be amazed and appalled at what complete strangers will say...or what uninformed friends will say.

While I'm new to the phenomenon of cpap experts telling me that once I lose weight I'll be fine again, I'm an expert at having people tell me that having a knee replaced is "nothing" and that I shouldn't have been on crutches after the first couple weeks. Sheesh. However, at least in that case I could graphically describe the process of cutting off my leg in two places and pounding several inches of metal into the fresh cut bone ends. That usually got them to back off and look sheepish.

There are ignorant people everywhere, and they will always be willing to share their ignorance with anyone who will listen.

Have OSA is NOT a character fault, nor can it be directly attributed to lifestyle. It is caused by a myriad of factors that are different for everyone. Ignore the ignorant, for they will be with us always.

Weezy

[tschultz]

I think its too bad that we tend to always see sleep apnea and overweight in the same sentence as though there is a clear cause and effect. I do agree it may play a part but at the same time, and even more so I think genetics play a much larger role.

Then there is the comment that my sleep doctor made regarding my severe sleep apnea; he indicated that it was largely responsible for my weight gain. He told me to not even bother to try and lose weight until I got the OSA under control because it was impacting my metabolism so badly that nothing would really help with weight loss. Now that I've started CPAP and been on it for almost 3 weeks I feel like a new person, I actually have energy and feel I can now start to work at the weight loss. I do hope my required settings for CPAP may be reduced with weight loss but I don't expect by any more than 2-3 cmH2O at best.

Seeing how I feel now, and looking back at my past, I've had sleep apnea for many years with no treatment and I was certainly much lighter then, but I know I still had sleep apnea.

So yes, there is some link but it is not fair to say that lose the weight and you will be cured - my DME said in 26 years she has only seen one person no longer need CPAP because of weight loss, and they only had mild sleep apnea to begin with.

[Bobby269]

I went from 230 pounds to less ten 210 in the last 3 months. On the sleep report it listed losing weight as one option to decrease or eliminate sleep apnea.I still need my mask and Cpap to get a real night's sleep. My weight is what it was when I was a lot younger in my prime.
it doesn't seem to have been what I needed.

But Cpap was what I needed and it sure is good to again sleep and not wake up tired. If you get your AHI low enough " no headaches".

[Cindy Lou Who]

Good Grief, kahfree....I feel real sad that that woman said that to you! However you are not alone. I don't talk about CPAP at work because that was several co-worker's reactions. Basically their tone of voice (very disdainful) and their words told me that I was extremely stupid to run to the Western Medical establishment and sleep with a machine rather than loose weight. Good heavens! I'm 5 ft. 9 in. and weigh 172 lbs. After her words hit me I was emotionally shut down for several days. But one of them was speaking very emotionally. I think she is in denial and was afraid she would end up like me.

Now when I'm out in public I share cautiously. When they talk about feeling tired I ask if they always feel that way and ask if they've heard about sleep apnea. If they are not open to talking and have no questions I go no further.

I wish you luck and that no one ever again dares to shoot you down.
Cindy

[robysue]

kahfree,

I think I told you about myself in a different thread: 105 lbs and 5' 1". Nobody's idea of an overweight woman.

You know what happens when someone like the woman you ran into today finds out someone like me has apnea? The conversation goes something like this:

Me: Yes, I have apnea.

Intentionally ignorant person who doesn't want to learn (IIP): You can't have apnea because you're not overweight. Only fat people get apnea. Everybody knows that.

Me: No. I have apnea. I have to use a CPAP.

IIP: No. That's not possible. Only fat people get apnea.

Me: No. I have apnea. It runs in my family. There's a structural problem in my throat that makes it collapse.

IIP: Then you must have lost a lot of weight recently and you just need to talk to the doctor. I bet you can get off the CPAP now that you aren't fat anymore.

Me: You don't understand. It doesn't work that way. I've never been overweight, but I still have apnea.

And so on and so forth ....

This only fat people get apnea stereotype is a wicked one: On the one hand it unfairly allows people like this woman to (untentionally?) cause OSA patients with weight issues additional grief by making it sound like they deserve the OSA simply because they're fat and could obviously "cure" the condition by taking better care of themselves. And on the other hand it encourages many, many thin folks with apnea-like symptoms to deny any possibility that apnea might be the problem. And they delay getting tested and refuse getting treated----because they buy into the myth that they couldn't possibly have apnea.

Sorry you ran into such an intentionally ignorant person today ...

[KimberlyM]

I had someone recently tell me that sleep apnea is just the most recent fad and she doesn't believe it is really a medical condition.

[JohnBFisher]

Bull Dinkies!

If you hear that again, tell them you know someone, who developed sleep apnea when he was a scrawny teen. The worse his sleep got, the rose he felt. The more weight he gained.

Yup. Sleep apnea runs in the family. When I turned 13 or 14, my sister started to complain that I sounded just like our grandfather when I slept. I would snore loudly, I would make loud gasping sounds and I would stop breathing. Now, if that's not apnea, I don't know what is.

Weight gain does not help, but I know in my case the weight gain came AFTER the sleep apnea.

[drj130]

I had someone recently tell me that sleep apnea is just the most recent fad and she doesn't believe it is really a medical condition.

It can't be a fad, just isn't possible. I'm not the type who does fads...

Myself, I know I was snoring when I was 5' 6" and 120lbs. For me there are links from my cleft plalet and lip that helped to give me this wonderful issue we deal with everyday. I have had some of the other Soldiers in my unit come to me and ask about it because they were really interested in what it was (my machine) as well as one other who had sleep apnea as well.

Now I do at times get a little ribbing from some of them about my Darth Vader equipment, and that I'll get thrown out of the building if I forgot it. But no one here has been anything but understanding.

I really hate informed people. Hope that one day they all can take a brain dump and do better.

David