Weight loss and treatment

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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Ravensclown
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Weight loss and treatment

Post by Ravensclown » Thu Oct 09, 2014 5:35 am

I have used CPAP S9 autoset every night for 4 years. Recently over 6 months I have lost 15kg of body weight, BMI is back in the normal range. Downloaded my data with my service provide service provider said I still have apenoa and that it will never be cured. She pointed to the graph and said my airways still collapse a couple of times through the night. I have 99% compliance. ie I wear it every night. however last night I fell asleep without it, wife said no snoring, and I feel fine.
My centrals were less than 0.1 and I think the OSA were less than 5. Should I get another sleep study. (it has been 4 years since my study)
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Julie
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Re: Weight loss and treatment

Post by Julie » Thu Oct 09, 2014 6:11 am

I would... you don't want to assume you're suddenly cured over the weight loss (but congrats on it!). Do you use an oximeter - you could try it for a few nights/a week and see what it shows.

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zoocrewphoto
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Re: Weight loss and treatment

Post by zoocrewphoto » Thu Oct 09, 2014 7:29 am

Ravensclown wrote: My centrals were less than 0.1 and I think the OSA were less than 5. Should I get another sleep study. (it has been 4 years since my study)
If that is from your machine, it is showing your treated AHI. The machine has no way of knowing how many events were prevented by the treatment. The only way to know is to get a sleep study where they can record data with the cpap machine.

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ButtermilkBuoy
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Re: Weight loss and treatment

Post by ButtermilkBuoy » Thu Oct 09, 2014 7:31 am

last night I fell asleep without it, wife said no snoring, and I feel fine.
My centrals were less than 0.1 and I think the OSA were less than 5.
How do you know this if you were not using CPAP???


Downloaded my data with my service provide service provider said I still have apenoa and that it will never be cured. She pointed to the graph and said my airways still collapse a couple of times through the night.
Weight loss rarely cures sleep apnea. "It's not the size of the neck on the outside. It's the size of the airway on the inside." - Dr. Mack Jones

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BlackSpinner
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Re: Weight loss and treatment

Post by BlackSpinner » Thu Oct 09, 2014 8:18 am

15Kg (about 30 lbs) is not very much weight to lose. Plus weight loss often doesn't affect OSA. In fact it can cause a need for increased pressure for some people.

In weight loss surgery for very obese people the is only a 49% chance that your OSA is "cured"

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bv1800
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Re: Weight loss and treatment

Post by bv1800 » Fri Oct 24, 2014 10:46 am

Ravensclown wrote: She pointed to the graph and said my airways still collapse a couple of times through the night.
Let's do the math... If you literally assume a "couple times per night" (so 2) over 6 hrs of sleep (I'll low ball here to get the max number), then we're talking:

AHI = 2/6 = 0.33. This is a "treated value" so, it doesn't mean you don't have OSA, but it doesn't support the notion that you'll "never" get off the machine.

Heck, even if we assume 2 per hour, that's an AHI of 2, which is still below the threshold of 5 that's used to determine whether or not you suffer from OSA.

Studies that indicate that for SOME people, losing weight reduces OSA symptoms indicate that a 10% drop in body weight can have a large impact and even "cure" mild OSA. The only way to confirm the impact is to have another sleep study.

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Wulfman...
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Re: Weight loss and treatment

Post by Wulfman... » Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:10 am

Ravensclown wrote:I have used CPAP S9 autoset every night for 4 years. Recently over 6 months I have lost 15kg of body weight, BMI is back in the normal range. Downloaded my data with my service provide service provider said I still have apenoa and that it will never be cured. She pointed to the graph and said my airways still collapse a couple of times through the night. I have 99% compliance. ie I wear it every night. however last night I fell asleep without it, wife said no snoring, and I feel fine.
My centrals were less than 0.1 and I think the OSA were less than 5. Should I get another sleep study. (it has been 4 years since my study)
My question is: How did you fall asleep without it? Within a few months of my starting therapy, there was no way I could fall asleep in bed without it......it had become so comfortable and natural to sleep with the airflow. I've tried it at times and I CAN'T sleep without it. When I put the mask on, it's ZZZZZZZZs time and I'm out. Most faithful users report the same thing.

If you were to have another sleep study, they would probably have you stay off the machine for a number of nights before the study, because there can be a residual effect.
And, last night you may have had the residual effect (benefit from using it). Lack of snoring is not a guarantee you didn't have apnea events. They're not totally connected.


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49er
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Re: Weight loss and treatment

Post by 49er » Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:23 am

Ravensclown,

Congratulations on your weight loss. Yup, getting a sleep study is the only way to know for sure where you still have apnea or not and whether you can stop using the machine or if you have to continue to use it.

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Ravensclown wrote:I have used CPAP S9 autoset every night for 4 years. Recently over 6 months I have lost 15kg of body weight, BMI is back in the normal range. Downloaded my data with my service provide service provider said I still have apenoa and that it will never be cured. She pointed to the graph and said my airways still collapse a couple of times through the night. I have 99% compliance. ie I wear it every night. however last night I fell asleep without it, wife said no snoring, and I feel fine.
My centrals were less than 0.1 and I think the OSA were less than 5. Should I get another sleep study. (it has been 4 years since my study)

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cathyf
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Re: Weight loss and treatment

Post by cathyf » Fri Oct 24, 2014 12:17 pm

One thing that I can see in my data is that for every event that gets flagged, I probably have 5-10 more not-quite-events that have the same shape but are shorter than the 10 seconds required to score as an event. So while I don't have many events, that's because the machine is working really hard and succeeding, and that it is a very sophisticated piece of technology that is keeping me breathing through the night. The way I think of it is this: with untreated apnea, my airway HAS apnea (a particular set of malfunctions of breathing while asleep), while my whole body SUFFERS FROM apnea (a whole host of cascading problems from not getting enough oxygen while asleep.) What I expect from apnea treatment is that I still HAVE apnea (and a couple of times most nights my airway defeats the machine for a few seconds), but I will no longer SUFFER FROM apnea in my whole body, because the machine mostly keeps the airway collapses from happening.

Like everybody else says, get the sleep study, it's the only way that you are going to know.