IMPORTANT;- How Sleep Affects Your Weight - please read!!

[suntan]

Pursuant to my May 10 posting on my successfully overcoming my OSA through weight-loss, I thought this article might be of interest to you. I found it whilst researching weight loss programs. I don't have an actual web-address, but if you go to Nutrition Action Healthletter, and scroll down the 2005 Highlights to "Perchance to Eat: How Sleep Affects Your Weight" July/August 2005, click on and read the article by David Schardt. It is most informative!!
For years, I have slept in 4 hr. cycles, not counting interruptions, and wondered why I couldn't get rid of the blubber. It makes sense now, and I have acted on the information, successfully.
One of the many reasons I chose to go the weight-loss route, was a book:- "Sleep Apnea, The Phantom of the Night", by Johnson, Broughton and Halberstadt, from which I quote:- "Sometimes a small weight loss, even 10-15lbs, can reverse sleep apnea and reduce snoring. A major reduction from severely obese to normal body weight can actually cure sleep apnea for some people."
I realize that apnea doesn't allow one to have a free choice about how long to sleep, and that weight gain can have many causes, but the more we are aware of how our bodies work, the better off we are.
I'm still browsing some of the articles I discovered whilst researching, so I'll post those that seem appropriate, or helpful. Good Luck everyone!!

[puffing billy]

Yes weight loss does definitely work.
But the big problem is not losing weight but keeping the weight off.

Billy

[chdurie2]

weight loss does not seem to affect my snoring/apnea. if it did, losing this machine/mask would be a big incentive for me to stay at my slimmest. i basically have a 20 lb. range -- from thin to chubby, since i am short. maybe it makes a bigger difference for folks with a bigger weight range. unfortunately, i snore and sleep poorly whether i am chubby or thin. but i question whether weight loss makes that much of a difference since the problem is in your throat, and you don't lose weight there. to be sure, you breathe better if you are fit and thin, but i don't think you erase the problem. maybe others will report different results.

Caroline

[suntan]

I have found the link for the article I was referring to:- http://www.cspinet.org/nah/08 05/perchance.pdf
Cheers! suntan

[Goofproof]

Weight is but a small part of the equation of Sleep apnea, no doubt most of us would benefit from losing weight, but not only to relieve our sleep apnea, our general overall health would be better I for one am carrying about 120 lbs of dead man around, and he's not my brother but as the song says, He sure is heavy.

Many who have Sleep Apnea aren't overweight, The way we are built has a lot to do with it. When it comes to Sleep Apnea there's no box one size fits all, we must all find our own path, by sharing knowledge we can widen the path so more of us can walk toward a better life. Jim

[SleepyQuilter]

Actually, you DO lose weight in the nasopharyx area of your throat. I am an OR nurse in pediatrics and we do many many adenoidectomies on overweight children who have sleep apnea in order to give them a little more room in their throat in which to breathe to offset the fatty tissue pressing in toward the airway. I am nearly ninety pounds overweight still, and my sleep doctor told me that I have a lot of fat in and around the nasopharyx that not only is causing severe sleep apnea but also qualifies me as a very hard patient to intubate if necessary. This has been confirmed by flexible endoscopy and I have seen the video of the airway. We kid ourselves when we ignore the clinical evidence of the effect of obesity on airway. I have seen twenty three years worth of endoscopies at the bedside on overweight children versus normal weight children and believe me, the picture is quite clear. Though we do not notice it as much as abdomen, thighs, and buttocks, when we gain weight, it is distributed thoughout the entire body, even your pinkie fingers.
This is NOT to say that you cannot have sleep apnea if you are thin, but the statistics are much much lower. These folks suffer from their anatomical structure of their throat, rather than the fatty tissue pressing in on it. I am actively working with a fitness trainer and nutritionist to lose further weight, as I did not have this until I was a full forty to fifty pounds up. Ditto my husband. It is not easy, but neither is strapping on the mask every night.

[Swordz]

AHI: 55/hr
Height: 6'0
Weight: 166 lbs

The weight issue is one common misperceptions of OSA. Sleep apnea has nothing to do with weight for some people, while others it does. A "one solution fits all" approach is what causes people to get unrelated and unsuccessful treatment. This same principle applies to CPAP treatment; its not the only option and one should search all options. The same case for doctors: a "sleep doctor", usually pulmologists, can't describe everything causing your OSA-causes.

A multi-doctor approach should be used as well: pulmonologists, psychologists, neurologists, otolaryngologists, maxofacial surgeons. Dont depend on one doctor or one type of doctor to give you the answer you need. Be an educated patient and seek out your options and diagnoses. Expensive, but I am not one to put price on my health.

[Offerocker not logged in]

Swordz, You said it very well.

I am considered 'underweight', and small-boned.
I have been gaining weight! as the XPAP therapy improves. I don't like the weight gain because it's going to the wrong places!!
Likewise, my cholesterol is high, but that is hereditary.
I feel as if I'm the exception to more rules than not!

[bluedesh]

I weigh 106 pounds and have never snored or slept on my back. I do not know why I have sleep apnea. My Dr. says my throat looks fine so he can't surgically correct my sleep apnea.