Diagnosed with Severe at 21 and 15% bodyfat

The comment regarding seeing a sleep specialist is accurate, you will do better with a sleep specialist rather than a general practitioner. There is nothing to fear about CSA, it is simply a different cause that can be treated. Before posting inflammatory comments you should think twice about what you are saying.

Sms1 wrote:ambidex Central Sleep Apnea

Jeez.

Ambidex has had a sleep study. There is no reason for a drive-by poster to speculate about the diagnosis. All ambidex has to do is look at the results of the study. The study will show what type of sleep apnea he was diagnosed with.

Another case of someone thinking, "Whatever I have, everyone else has."

Really, some of you folks are pretty stupid with your comments. Don't bother responding, no more on this site for me, this is supposed to be helpful and to discount and disparage people's comments when they are trying to be helpful is unnecessary.

Sms1 wrote:Don't bother responding

You can't control that. I have a feeling you like to control other people.

Sms1 wrote:Really, some of you folks are pretty stupid with your comments. Don't bother responding, no more on this site for me, this is supposed to be helpful and to discount and disparage people's comments when they are trying to be helpful is unnecessary.

Good Bye

Sleep2Die4 wrote:another case of someone thinking, "Whatever I have, everyone else has."

Sort of like another case of "this mask works for me so it's the best everyone else" and "my humidity setting works for me so it's best for everyone else"

Hi Ambidex

I'm really sorry to hear about your health issues as such a young age.

Since I didn't think anyone brought this up, I wanted to mention that psychotropic medications can really impact your sleep architecture. Some improve it but some could make it worse. I think it's said that apnea occurrence is much more frequent while in REM sleep, and some of these medications intensify or make you stay in REM sleep longer. It's also common to have ADD like symptoms as a result of depression or anxiety but get misdiagnosed as ADD (not saying this is the case with you, but could be something to check) or use that diagnosis to justify prescribing stimulants that can help with your symptoms. Some doctors will diagnose ADD but some will diagnose depression or anxiety and still prescribe them off label. Either way, in my experience and layperson research, I know that ADD meds can be prescribed for depression and fatigue; one does not necessarily have to have ADD to benefit from ADD medications. You could ask a doctor but also do your own research and see if ADD meds are possibly making your sleep apnea worse by changing your sleep architecture.

Here are some articles that might be a place to start:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181772/

Requires you to create login but free:

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/effects ... ants-sleep

I've been to numerous specialists and none have ever thought to determine if/how my medications were affecting my sleep architecture. I know for you weight isn't an issue, but for me, even though I was told I could have had sleep apnea all my life/when I was thin due to my anatomy, I didn't start gaining weight until after I started taking stimulants for fatigue and depression (despite what you hear about appetite suppression and related effects). So I wonder if that lead to chronic sleep deprivation for me, or worsened existing sleep apnea, sort of creating a cause/effect cycle for me, despite that it seemed I was getting enough sleep while taking those medications.

If heart attacks and diabetes seem too long term to worry about, keep in mind sleep apnea can prevent you from getting restorative sleep/slow wave sleep. This can effect your hormones (you can find this information by googling). Since I was diagnosed and sought treatment for sleep apnea, many strange symptoms I had before disappeared shortly after using CPAP. Doctors never linked the two, so I can only guess about this. Maybe there is more research out there.

I understand the balance of being seen or treated as a 'hypochondriac' vs getting the treatment you need. It happened to me for years, and after switching doctors and getting real diagnoses, I later discovered that most of the time, doctors made mistakes in not diagnosing the cause of my symptoms and were instead, just giving me pills that in most cases, created new health conditions and worsened my symptoms. It led to a downward spiral over years that I am just starting to climb up from now after finally being aggressive with my health care treatment.

I think you are being courageous.

Best of luck to you.

What a good note!

Ambidex, as a very thin, athletic woman dx with severe SA, recognize that the airway structure (lack of breastfeeding/genetics/ Apoe4???) provide the causation. Think of the benefit of not harming your brain by seeking immediate treatment. IMHO, all of your symptoms including high red cell count if you had oxygen desats and lowT, will benefit from SA treatment. However, I agree with the advise to consult an Endocrinologist related to the lowT, particularly at your age. Get set-up with PAP and continue the forum for support.

Your post sparked my interest in this subject, so I'm passing along some articles I just looked into in case you are interested.

ADHD Treatments, Sleep, and Sleep Problems: Complex Associations
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3441938/

Sleep in Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Before and During Treatment with Methylphenidate: A Controlled Polysomnographic Study
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2276739/

European guidelines on managing adverse effects of medication for ADHD
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3012210/

Sorry, my post might not be as helpful as I thought. It looks like there is much contradictory information out there about stimulants and sleep architecture, although I think it looks more clear in regard to the antidepressants. Hopefully one of your doctors knows about this. If things don't get better, you could always work with your doctor to consider stopping medications to redo the sleep study to see if your apnea improves. Are you on anything else besides Adderall?

When I saw my sleep study results, it was noted that I got almost no slow wave/restorative sleep due to the apneas preventing it, and my number was much lower than yours. My guess is that being deprived of that type of sleep has been very harmful to my body and caused numerous problems as it was untreated for maybe years, so I would get treatment or figure out the cause of the apneas based on that idea alone.

I wish I knew OSA/UARS is my problem at 21...

Do your research on treatment options