Uninformed Sleep Dr.

My sleep Dr. is a nice fellow but kind of uninformed or trying to tell me a little fib. He
keeps harping on the fact that if I am using my cpap I should lose weight. Well we all
know that just using our cpap doesn't make us lose weight right ? Well I found a little
article saying the same thing and it even brings up the fact that using cpap may cause
women to gain a pound or 2.


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

Successful treatment of OSA should result in better control of the hormones Ghrelin and Leptin, but unless you put the fork down, you won't lose weight.

Woody wrote:My sleep Dr. is a nice fellow but kind of uninformed or trying to tell me a little fib. He
keeps harping on the fact that if I am using my cpap I should lose weight. Well we all
know that just using our cpap doesn't make us lose weight right ? Well I found a little
article saying the same thing and it even brings up the fact that using cpap may cause
women to gain a pound or 2.


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

Woody,

I forgot, are you overweight enough for the doctor to be making that remark?

I know from personal experience that if I get a lousy quality of sleep, I have a hard time refraining from overeating. Fortunately, I am still considered to be normal weight so I don't have to deal with doctors getting on me to lose weight.

So I guess my question is what is your sleep quality like?

I think he was fibbin' but I understand where he was coming from. Sleep apnea aggravates a lot of health issues, but it is not a direct cause of health issues. When I started to treat my apnea, I lost a bunch of weight and my blood pressure and diabetes dropped to a point that it is not a health issue with me. Did sleep apnea cause those issues? No, but treating the apnea relieved my body of the issues that did.

Sheriff

Ooooops........I musta forgot the "put down the fork" part!

I GAINED weight at first because on CPAP I had less GERD and found I could eat more with impunity.

But, the CPAP did help me lose weight when I changed my eating habits because sleep interruption was no longer messing with my insulin, ghrelin, and leptin levels.

So yes, CPAP can help you lose weight, IF "you put the fork down".

I think doctors are total ignoramuses when it comes to weight loss. Ask your doctor how much training he got in nutrition in all of medical school, and he's likely to say it was a few HOURS, maybe a whole week. So they don't know diddly squat. And what they do know totally contradicts what they learned in biochemistry, but they never think to question the conventional wisdom promulgated by such luminaries as Monsanto, Coca Cola, M &M Mars company, and every diabetes drug company on the planet--that's who sponsors their continuing education in nutrition and that's who sponsors the studies they learn from.

So they engage in magical thinking of such concepts like CPAP causes weight loss and that obesity is the cause of OSA. And we all know fat and excess calories and laziness cause obesity, right? Except none of these statements is true--if they just looked at their patients and their advice they might get that. But they don't.

I don't think your doctor was fibbing, I think he genuinely believed this drivel.

At one point, when my machine was misadjusted, I was on what I call the "too sick to eat" diet. I didn't feel like eating.

It's a common belief that apnea can cause weight gain for various reasons, including hormones, activity levels, etc. I suspect there's some truth in that, but not everyone drops weight.

In addition to Sludge's "put down the fork" process, you may also need the "get up off the couch" process. We may tend to stay in our "tired all the time" habits even after we eliminate our apnea.

I feel a lot better since starting cpap a year and a half ago. I am not nearly as tired.

But unfortunately, cpap has not made vegetables taste any better. The vast majority of foods that are considered to be healthy are NOT on my good list of things to eat. And of those that are, many are in the 1-2 times am month category, not weekly or daily. There are a lot of textures I just won't eat, and I also have a very strong preference for sweet flavors. If I could take a pill that would make fruit and vegetables more appealing, I would. I would be a nutritionist's nightmare. I do try new things, hopeful for something new and good that I can add. But as an adult, the only thing I have been able to change is that I can now eat nuts in almond chicken entree, chicken salad, and peanut m&ms. That occurred about 3-4 years ago (before cpap). I still can't eat nuts in anything else even though I love nuts on their own. Other than that, I cannot think of anything that I like now that I previously did not.

I think there are a lot of adults who have sensory processing disorders because when we were kids we were just considered "weird". These are people who have very limited palates because of texture, taste, even temperature. They may also be people who hate tags in the backs of shirts, tight socks, loud noises, bright lights. There are treatments, but kids have much better responses because their brains are still "plastic".

Janknitz wrote:I think there are a lot of adults who have sensory processing disorders because when we were kids we were just considered "weird". These are people who have very limited palates because of texture, taste, even temperature. They may also be people who hate tags in the backs of shirts, tight socks, loud noises, bright lights. There are treatments, but kids have much better responses because their brains are still "plastic".

Definitely agree. I wish something like this was known when I was kid. My mom figured out pretty quickly that I had no objection to granulated onion, but I would sit there and pick out real onions. At the time, I couldn't articulate that it was the texture. Most of the things I don't like are due to texture rather than flavor. My mom figured out to work with some of it by "fooling" me. And later realized what I was actually objecting to. But I was known for dissecting my food. I would open a burrito and pick out what I didn't want, then eat the rest. I went to bed a lot without finishing dinner, until my parents gave up on that.

As an adult, I order things at restaurants where I can ask for something to not be on it, or can easily be removed. If I think it is too complicated or will look bad, I pick something else.

I can't any kind of soggy bread, except pancakes if eaten quickly. No oatmeal or plain steamed rice. The smell will get me before the texture. I love nuts by themselves, but not in things, because the texture mix is wrong.

I can't stand tags in shirts. That gets removed before I put it on. Can't wear dangle earrings since they touch my neck. No turtle neck of any kind. Or even a snug collar. I do not like the texture of flour on my fingers. Gotta wear gloves while working with it. Certain materials feel icky to me. One kind of popular towel feels horrible to me. Microfiber something.

Visually, I see very well, the only one in my family without glasses. But I do have trouble with very high contrast. A referee shirt moving around a lot near me bothers me as I can't stop noticing it. A book with very glossy high contrast pages will feel like it is screaming the whole page at me. I have to really concentrate to read one line at a time. It took me awhile in high school t figure out that my random going home sick was actually due to a text book that didn't get used very often. I started using tracing paper as an overlay, and never had that problem again. Escalators without painted edges are a little more challenging for me. I have to watch the rhythm before getting on and on, or I will stumble. Once, when traveling at some ruins, I climbed the building made of rock stairs. I then looked down and saw a pile of rocks, no stairs. I had to carefully go down sideways, as I could not see the stair I was on, just a bunch of rocks.

And I can't stand the hissing sound of a mask leak. So, I pretty much have a flat zero for leaks. If it does leak, I have to get up and start over. I also hate patterns. ticking clock, dripping faucet, white noise. I much prefer a tv with random sounds. I usually sleep better with the tv on as it covers the other sounds.

I don't have it as bad as many others do, but I do have sensitivities in taste, touch, sound, and vision. Some worse than others. I have learned to make these things fairly minor. Except for food. If you take away with I should not eat, and what I won't eat, there isn't much left. At least not very enjoyable.

I wish carbohydrates were less appealing to me.

chunkyfrog wrote:I wish carbohydrates were less appealing to me.

That is because they gave you a "lift" in mood when you ate them when tired. Foods get associated with moods = a form of addiction. You have lots of brain cells wrapped around your digestive system too - literally.

But knowing that and not going down stairs with potato chips and dip and a mushy novel don't have anything to do with each other when stressed.

When, as a child, I made oatmeal raisin cookies, my brother would pick out the raisins,
so I ran them through the meat grinder first. Last summer he told me he was just saving them for last.

Interesting to read the stories from those who have sensory issues. I've got a few quirks but nothing to the degree some have discussed. Thanks for sharing. Good to be reminded that we don't all interpret sensations the same and to be mindful to try not to place an expectation upon others based solely on my personal experiences.

kteague wrote:Interesting to read the stories from those who have sensory issues. I've got a few quirks but nothing to the degree some have discussed. Thanks for sharing. Good to be reminded that we don't all interpret sensations the same and to be mindful to try not to place an expectation upon others based solely on my personal experiences.

kteague,

As someone who on the basis of a recent sleep study was recently diagnosed with an RDI of 23 (5.9 AHI) which suggests an UARS profile even though it wasn't called that, I greatly appreciate your comments. Even before I ever heard of sleep breathing disorders, I had the sense I was more hypersensitive than most people. It seemed to affect me most with sounds and crowds of people.

I don't know if this is just a coincidence or not but I also seem to be very sensitive to meds and OTC remedies. Of course, lots of luck in getting doctors to understand this as many of them think you are a hypochondriac when you mention this.

Anyway, not to sound angry or bitter but sadly, society also in general is very intolerant of these types of differences. We are seen as lazy and not trying hard enough when actually nothing could be further from the truth.

49er