Weight Effects Question

I have a question. It seems to me that a person's weight would affect their breathing in 2 ways. First, by the extra tissue in the throat which contributes to the throat collapsing during sleep. Second, if a person carries alot of extra weight in his belly, each inhalation requires the body to work extra hard to lift the belly when sleeping on his back. Has anyone thought this through? Is that why sleeping on an incline helps with breathing? If this is true then stomach strengthening exercises would seem to help also, maybe. Any thoughts?


Randy

I think that there is no question that being heavy affects any number of things on your body, including your breathing.

However, since you're new, it is worth pointing out that there is anecdotal evidence that seems to suggest it's a vicious cycle: having apnea reduces your energy, so you exercise less, so you gain weight, which maybe makes the apnea worse, which further reduces your energy, so... etc.

There are quite a number of people who have said once they got their Apnea under control, they either lost weight, or at least were successful in dieting when they had not been before.

So yes, I think losing weight might help, but I'm not convinced getting down to ones ideal weight necessarily solves the apnea problem, and in the mean time, getting to (and staying at) that weight is probably much more difficult while the apnea has you.

Liam, pleasantly plump.

While I am new to this forum, I was originally diagnosed with apnea in 1992 after nearly ramming the rearend of a car on the 405 freeway and then doing the same thing about 20 seconds later. Previously after dozing off the first time I would be so scared that I would make it home without falling asleep again on the road. But I guess I was so sleep deprived by then that nothing scared me enough.

This forum contains great info, I'm glad I found it!

Thanks

rhbarker wrote:I have a question. It seems to me that a person's weight would affect their breathing in 2 ways. First, by the extra tissue in the throat which contributes to the throat collapsing during sleep. Second, if a person carries alot of extra weight in his belly, each inhalation requires the body to work extra hard to lift the belly when sleeping on his back. Has anyone thought this through? Is that why sleeping on an incline helps with breathing? If this is true then stomach strengthening exercises would seem to help also, maybe. Any thoughts?


Randy

The force of gravity can help pull the tissue of the throat from front to back when you are lying down as well as pull the tongue further back into the throat. When we sit more upright, the force of gravity has less impact on the tissue of the upper airway.

Lots of us found that pre-diagnosis we would migrate to sleeping in the recliner or on the sofa sitting up because we slept better. Less gravity to help seal our airways. This is why sleeping on the side is better than on the back (as far as apnea goes).

Dave