Can Sleap Apnoea be Cured Permanently

archangle wrote:
Weight loss may work for some, but there are a lot of thin apneacs. Quite a few people have lost weight and not been cured. Even more people have decided they'd lose weight instead of doing CPAP and ended up not losing weight and still having apnea.

Dental devices seem to have a low success rate.

Well I agree with you about how people may choose to lose weight instead of doing CPAP and then failed at weight loss. That's why I was saying they should use CPAP while losing weight and then if they accomplish their ideal weight, then there is a chance they won't need the CPAP anymore. As for thin apneacs, they may still have apnea, but I'm not sure how much they could be affected by it.

Enchanter wrote:

archangle wrote:
Weight loss may work for some, but there are a lot of thin apneacs. Quite a few people have lost weight and not been cured. Even more people have decided they'd lose weight instead of doing CPAP and ended up not losing weight and still having apnea.

Dental devices seem to have a low success rate.

Well I agree with you about how people may choose to lose weight instead of doing CPAP and then failed at weight loss. That's why I was saying they should use CPAP while losing weight and then if they accomplish their ideal weight, then there is a chance they won't need the CPAP anymore. As for thin apneacs, they may still have apnea, but I'm not sure how much they could be affected by it.

Why would a thin person not be affected by sleep apnea? We are talking about oxygen deprivation and sleep deprivation. Do those things really only bother overweight people? Are you saying that thin people won't get headaches if they suffer too much oxygen deprivation? They won't wake up frequently and have crappy sleep? They won't feel more tired and hungry from lack of sleep?

If I get down to my ideal weight, will my narrow airways suddenly get wider? I doubt it. They were narrow even when I was a skinny child. If I get down to my ideal weight, will my jaw grow out and give me more room for my teeth? Nope. My teeth were crowded long before I started gaining weight.

Sorry, but it is more likely that sleep apnea, after years of wearing down the skinny person, finally caused the person to not feel good, eat more, exercise less, and gain weight. If they lose weight, they will feel better and have some health improvements., but the sleep apnea will still be there. And sleep apnea is dangerous, especially when somebody is ignoring it for many years, pretending it isn't serious. I sure wish I had started treating it many years ago. Back then, I felt fine, was a normal weight, and was managing to cope. But I was setting myself up for lots of problems that could have been prevented.

Enchanter,

As a thin person, I am effected by sleep apnea big time. Unfortunately, due to pap therapy struggles and possible other sleep disorders, I have had a hard time resolving my issues which shouldn't alarm you or anyone else reading this post because my situation is unusual. But I wanted to respond because you seemed uninformed about apnea and weight.

Just so you know, I have a very strong family history of apnea in which members range from being thin to being overweight. That should tell you that apnea is an issue of hereditary narrow airways and has nothing to do with weight.

Archangle,

As I have repeatedly mentioned on this board, the link in my signature regarding dental devices mentioned that for adjustable appliances, they mostly work for people with mild to moderate apnea in getting the AHI below 5. While one study isn't the absolute truth, simply stating they don't work without any links to back up your point isn't very helpful. Sorry, I don't mean to sound anal retentive but in case folks reading this board are desperate for alternatives, they need to have the best information possible and not just biased opinions not based on facts.

You are also doing the same thing with surgical options without telling the whole story. If someone goes to a surgeon who operated without doing a thorough analysis of where the problem area is, yup, the failure rate is definitely going to be high with alots of problem. But if someone goes to a top surgeon like Kasey Li, their chances are alot better.

Anyway, if someone is strongly considering surgery, they should download this document from Steven Park's site. Even though he is obviously a surgeon, I feel he is objective about the issues.

http://doctorstevenpark.com/the-truth-a ... ea-surgery

Regarding the topic, technically, apnea can't be cured unless one undergoes successful surgery. Unfortunately, studies are lacking as to the long term results of the effectiveness of various procedures.

49er

archangle wrote:To bypass all the drivel and get back to the original question.

There's basically no cure other than CPAP. There are a few other options, but the success rate is low and the problems are high.

There are some surgical options. None are really that good. Failure rate is high. Cost and pain level may be high. Side effects are common. There are lots of doctors with delusions of grandeur and visions of dollars dancing in their head who think they can cure apnea. There are some "semi-surgical" things like RF treatments, but still very unproven.

There are some interesting and promising implantable pacemaker like devices. Still far from being ready for general use in my opinion.

There are some ideas about mechanical stent like devices, but there are problems, especially with being able to withstand something in your throat.

I have great hopes for an eventual cure involving "surgery" implants of some kind, but I have doubts it will be anytime soon.

Weight loss may work for some, but there are a lot of thin apneacs. Quite a few people have lost weight and not been cured. Even more people have decided they'd lose weight instead of doing CPAP and ended up not losing weight and still having apnea.

Dental devices seem to have a low success rate.

You know, it's ok to stop trying to justify something said early on in a discussion once it's been shown not to be true... in fact you'll look a lot smarter by doing that rather than continuing to circle the answer drain . If you have apnea, you have apnea, weight gain, weight loss, whatever. Yes a relative handful of people who've lost a really big amount of weight (often through bariatric surgery) may no longer need Cpap, but they first have had to get new sleep studies to be sure, and the vast majority of the rest of us are still going to need Cpap after losing e.g. 20 or even 50 lbs. Stop trying to convince us otherwise.

Enchanter wrote: . As for thin apneacs, they may still have apnea, but I'm not sure how much they could be affected by it.

Person with extreme apnea who fell asleep on her desk:

CCsnakej by Lena Breijer, on Flickr

Love your designs, btw.

zoocrewphoto wrote:

Enchanter wrote:

archangle wrote:
Weight loss may work for some, but there are a lot of thin apneacs. Quite a few people have lost weight and not been cured. Even more people have decided they'd lose weight instead of doing CPAP and ended up not losing weight and still having apnea.

Dental devices seem to have a low success rate.

Well I agree with you about how people may choose to lose weight instead of doing CPAP and then failed at weight loss. That's why I was saying they should use CPAP while losing weight and then if they accomplish their ideal weight, then there is a chance they won't need the CPAP anymore. As for thin apneacs, they may still have apnea, but I'm not sure how much they could be affected by it.

Why would a thin person not be affected by sleep apnea? We are talking about oxygen deprivation and sleep deprivation. Do those things really only bother overweight people? Are you saying that thin people won't get headaches if they suffer too much oxygen deprivation? They won't wake up frequently and have crappy sleep? They won't feel more tired and hungry from lack of sleep?

If I get down to my ideal weight, will my narrow airways suddenly get wider? I doubt it. They were narrow even when I was a skinny child. If I get down to my ideal weight, will my jaw grow out and give me more room for my teeth? Nope. My teeth were crowded long before I started gaining weight.

Sorry, but it is more likely that sleep apnea, after years of wearing down the skinny person, finally caused the person to not feel good, eat more, exercise less, and gain weight. If they lose weight, they will feel better and have some health improvements., but the sleep apnea will still be there. And sleep apnea is dangerous, especially when somebody is ignoring it for many years, pretending it isn't serious. I sure wish I had started treating it many years ago. Back then, I felt fine, was a normal weight, and was managing to cope. But I was setting myself up for lots of problems that could have been prevented.

Oh. I guess thin people do have it then. It was just my perception. I thought that thin people may still have mild apnea, but still feel fine. Guess I am wrong. I don't know, it's just I always felt guilty. I always felt sleep apnea was my fault.