Jay Aitchsee wrote: It is extremely rare for people to be "cured" of sleep apnea simply by loosing weight, IMO.
Got any data to back up this claim? I see a number of members making the claim, but so far all that I've seen in terms of evidence is their opinions. I also have seen research that indicates that for very meaningful pct of OSA sufferers, their OSA is directly related to/caused by excess weight and can be "cured" by weight loss.
There are a large number of people who have structural issues that cause their OSA. For these people, weight loss has zero impact (some are already thin so losing large quantities of weight would be dangerous). For people who are obese (50+ lbs over their optimal weight), weight loss has a reasonable chance of curing their OSA, but not all can be cured by weight loss, since their weight condition is actually caused by their OSA (and not other way around). Heck, there are threads in this forum where people indicate INCREASED pressure requirements, after weight loss. This latter group gives the perception, to OSA sufferers that weight loss can't work, but actual research indicates that it may.
I personally have lost over 15% of my body weight (started at 280 lbs) and have seen my require pressure go from 11 CM to 4.5 CM (I actually do fine at 4, but a little better at 4.5). I'm still 50 lb over my optimal weight. I know that when I was 20 lbs lighter than I am now (8 yrs ago), I had no OSA symptoms. Given the reduction in pressure (approaching the magical 4 cm threshold) and the fact that I didn't have OSA symptoms until I gained an excessive amount of fat, I believe that if I continue to lose weight, I'll eventually be able to lose the CPAP. While I definitely don't believe in a case of 1 being "proof" of something, I also don't believe that there's anything that's unique about my situation.
In the end, if you are grossly overweight with a high fat pct, try losing weight to see if it cures your OSA. Heck even if it means lower pressure, the CPAP therapy will be easier to tolerate. If neither of these occur, then the other health benefits from weight loss are certainly worth the effort.