Is there hope to do it without CPAP?

Hi, my name is Edgards, 44 years old. I've been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. I will post my journey into my blog http://cure-apnea.blogspot.com/, come and see how I did it, without the need of CPAP.

Best Regards,
Edgards

This guy makes me wonder how chopper999 is doing!
viewtopic/t59014/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=56 ... er#p530622

Hmm, I don't seem to understand what your accusations are about. I decided to make a blog so that I can give back to the community and share my knowledge, most importantly how I managed to overcome my problems. Nobody is forcing you to read any of it, though!

I also think you are a spammer. That said, if you have apnea which I doubt, you are on the wrong forum.

Edgards,

You are getting a cold shoulder here because your original post and your blog (yes, I did go there and read it) seem to claim that sleep apnea is largely a lifestyle disease: In other words, it's largely caused by being overweight and out of shape and that losing weight will cure apnea. You also claim that 80% of people with apnea are overweight.

These facts are WRONG.

According to both my sleep doctor and his PA, some 40% of patients with OSA are NORMAL weight or UNDERWEIGHT. I am one of those patients: I am 5' 1" tall and weigh 103 lbs. And of the 60% of apneaics who are overweight, in many cases their apnea may very well have been the major underlying cause of their weight gain. Untreated apnea can lead to metabolic changes that both increase the tendency to put on excess weight and make it much more difficult to lose excess weight even when one is making a reasonable effort to eat a healthy diet.

The primary causes of OSA are physical problems in the throat---not an unhealthy lifestyle. In a person with OSA, the physical structures in the upper airway allow it to collapse when the smooth muscles that control the upper airway relax (perhaps over relax) during sleep. People do not have conscious control over smooth muscles and you can't "exercise" to get these smooth muscles into "better" shape by the way.

Now, that's not to say an unhealthy lifestyle doesn't add to the very real health problems caused by OSA. Of course it does. If you have OSA and if you've also got an unhealthy lifestyle, then all those things are going make everything about OSA worse: If the OSA is untreated, then the consequences of the untreated OSA will be magnified by the consequences of an unhealthy lifestyle in general and the OSA will like be harder to treat if or when you decide to treat it. The damage to your body by the OSA will likely be greater because it will be augmented by the damage by the unhealthy lifestyle in general.

Please quit promulgating the false and misleading stereotype that sleep apnea is a lifestyle disease that can largely be cured by loosing weight and getting into shape, and, by implication prevented in the first place by living a healthy lifestyle and never gaining weight to begin with.

I'll now get off my soapbox.

I'm not against anyone trying to make a buck, but when a blog is light on the supposed topic and heavy on unrelated (or even related) ads, it's hard to give credibility to the "cause". It may feel like an insult when your intentions are questioned, but do understand it feels like an insult when someone's business venture is pawned off as a good deed as if users aren't smart enough to recognize what is one of today's most popular ways to bring in a few extra bucks. I knew someone a few years back who was attempting to get several hot-topic blogs up and running for the sole purpose of getting pay-per-click google ads. The expertise offered was merely cut-and-pasted from other sites. Even if a site is a business venture, I'm ok with that - if the blogger gives the site visitors something worth reading.

You are so badly informed (I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here) that the blog/site should be taken down by your server. Even if you are completely well intentioned here, you are wrong on various counts and the blog is completely lacking in many others. At least do basic research before you go online.

I have been recently diagnosed with OSA and only had my machine for 2 (restless) nights. I had recently gained 30 pounds and was embarrassed because I was under the impression that my weight probably was the reason. I just wanted to thank you for clearing that up for me. Now, to try and a find a chin strap.

I would have to agree with Robysue.

While I am overweight (and working on rectifying that issue - have been in a battle with my weight for >30 years), I love the treadmill and eat 10k fun run/walks for... well, fun... have walked two half marathons and am active on my Wii Fit Plus - how much more active do you want me to get? My blood pressure has ALWAYS been in the low to "normal" range and I have never had a stroke (although there is a very strong predisposition for stroke in both sides of my family) and yet (surprise, surprise) I have moderately severe OSA.

How do you explain that?

robysue wrote:Edgards,

You are getting a cold shoulder here because your original post and your blog (yes, I did go there and read it) seem to claim that sleep apnea is largely a lifestyle disease: In other words, it's largely caused by being overweight and out of shape and that losing weight will cure apnea. You also claim that 80% of people with apnea are overweight.

Thanks Robysue for going there and giving us the gist of it so we don't have to visit ourselves. I read in November Men's Health magazine, the magazine for the buff guys, or the want-to-bees like me, that sleep apnea hits even the lean and strong. http://www.menshealth.com/health/sleep-apnea-danger-0 , or just go to MensHealth dot com and search Sleep Apnea, just make sure you start on page 1 as the search brought me to page 4 in the middle of the article (Title: A Fit Man's Last Gasp, Sleep apnea can harm even the most fit men. Learn more about it in this Men's Health special report). Nice 4 minute video as well.

Edgards, you can't fool the experienced folks here. They have more knowledge than most GPs on the subject of OSA.

For those of you who still want to know more about alternative treatment, please visit http://cure-apnea.blogspot.com/2011/01/ ... -will.html to see some alternative magic tricks Have a great day!

"alternative treatment" usually means not scientifically validated and/or based on pseudo-science. From what I can tell from this blog, the author only knows of people who say these techniques work.... my question is... how did you validate these results? Did these participants have sleep studies before and after and found that their sleep apnea is gone? You don't need to answer... we all know the answer is no.

I find it highly irresponsible to go around saying you have a treatment for something and leading people to believe that it works. They may even try it and convince themselves it does work, but in reality, their apnea still persists and causes them many health issues as we all know.

Unlike some here, I don't think you are a spammer, Edgards, but I think you are misinformed individual who is spreading that misinformation further. Please think about what you are doing and the effect you will have on people who take you seriously.