Connecting sleep apnea with other's deaths.

Since I was diagnosed, 2 years ago, I have done a lot of research into Obstructive sleep apnea and central sleep apnea.

Whenever I hear of someone in the news dying in their sleep from "undisclosed causes" or "natural causes", my mind immediately thinks "SLEEP APNEA!" or an arrhythmia caused by untreated apnea. The weird thing is, we rarely ever get to find out the cause of their death, and it seems whenever we hear of someone dying suddenly, it ends up that they were found in bed or were discovered dead in bed throughout the night or following morning.

In the last 2 months, here are 4 big name people who have died in their sleep. No cause of death has been listed for any of them...

Amanda peterson- http://www.tmz.com/2015/07/06/amanda-pe ... ies-at-43/
Josh Greenberg- http://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyr ... ead-at-28/
Tony Lara- http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/20 ... ead-at-50/
Steve Montador- http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nh ... /23456083/

I can't prove these deaths are apnea related, but I suspect it plays a role in a large amount of nocturnal death's. I wish the health industry would work harder to uncover the causes of these deaths, and strive to educate the public about sleep apnea and the risks that come with it.

You can't take reports of celebrity's deaths to mean much at all unless there does end up being a lot of detailed follow up. Half the time the families don't want anyone to know what happened (understandable), and for all we know they were alcoholics, druggies, suicides, etc. etc... and the thing is also that people like that usually have enough money to have seen if not terrifically competent, at least well known doctors who one would think might have picked up on apnea long ago... the departed people may well have used Cpap for years, but it's not really our business as far as the families go. But sure, there are probably a lot with apnea, treated or not, but until someone makes a big deal of it, starts a foundation, sells ribbons, etc, we'll never know.

Indeed; because of privacy rights, any disclosure by the family would have to be voluntary.
This would silence many reports of drug use, etc.
Further, many injury settlements are accompanied with a gag order.
Concussions during contact sports seem to have this "feature".

I wonder if they do autopsies on people who die in their sleep... a so called 'they died peacefully' in their sleep death. I know if the circumstances are unusual or suspicious then they do the Y-cut and all. I'd guess sleep deaths are low priority.

Sleep apnea related deaths encompass many more than people who actually die while asleep. The complications often include things like heart issues or strokes or a number of other serious medical conditions.

And then there are the people who fall asleep at the wheel and have a crash that kills them and/or someone else.

What is it that you are trying to determine? That sleep apnea is more common than most people think? That's it's more dangerous or fatal than people realize? We know it, but most people don't want to hear it.

I've said before that there should be public service announcements, not just about the dangers of smoking, but about the dangers of untreated sleep apnea! We are the lucky ones who found out we had it and are doing something about it.

Sleep apnea probably contributes to alot of older people's deaths. My maternal grandfather died in his sleep. He also had diabetes which is common in sleep apnea sufferers. They never knew what the cause for his death was. He was in his mid sixties. Went to sleep and never woke up again. Died of a trek in his sleep.

And you know what? Something is eventually going to get all of us at sometime! In our sleep (if we're lucky) or out of it. There is so much speculation here (not this thread, but the forum and beyond) and none of it is likely to make much difference... I wouldn't be too concerned about strangers unless something very unusual seems to be going on.

Julie wrote:And you know what? Something is eventually going to get all of us at sometime! In our sleep (if we're lucky) or out of it. There is so much speculation here (not this thread, but the forum and beyond) and none of it is likely to make much difference... I wouldn't be too concerned about strangers unless something very unusual seems to be going on.

Indeed, we all die eventually, but when I cannot go more than two weeks without hearing about a younger person who is found dead in their bed, I can't help but feel compelled to investigate and look for patterns.

icipher wrote:

Julie wrote:And you know what? Something is eventually going to get all of us at sometime! In our sleep (if we're lucky) or out of it. There is so much speculation here (not this thread, but the forum and beyond) and none of it is likely to make much difference... I wouldn't be too concerned about strangers unless something very unusual seems to be going on.

Indeed, we all die eventually, but when I cannot go more than two weeks without hearing about a younger person who is found dead in their bed, I can't help but feel compelled to investigate and look for patterns.

I understand the curiosity. I'm sure it plays a big part in a lot of underlying health issues that pop up in people.

Julie wrote:And you know what? Something is eventually going to get all of us at sometime!

Was thinking the same. Users of therapy are going to die anyway, that's it. Breathing air when you sleep might help heart failure or stroke, but we die regardless.

It seems to me that the challenge apnea has is it's a disease that the sufferer themselves is highly unlikely to be aware they have, so they don't even relate it to what's happening to them. It seems to me that there has not been a really good public relations campaign to make people aware of just how serious it is, or if there is I missed it. When you hear the term "heart disease" you think "oh shit". Ditto for stoke and any other number of things that can kill you.

But when you hear the term "apnea", I think most people, in the rare case that they've even heard of it, think "heavy snorer" or "stops breathing for a few seconds when sleeping". There is no awareness that it's a serious condition. Or if there is, people have the idea it's like infant death syndrome and it's just something that happens in freak circumstances.

Heck, from what I'm reading one of the challenges is getting sufferers themselves to follow treatment, so obviously even many people that have been diagnosed with it don't think it's a big deal. I read an article yesterday about a study that found if people are shown videos of themselves gasping or not breathing during testing at a sleep center, they are much more likely to take their treatment seriously.

icipher wrote:

Julie wrote:And you know what? Something is eventually going to get all of us at sometime! In our sleep (if we're lucky) or out of it. There is so much speculation here (not this thread, but the forum and beyond) and none of it is likely to make much difference... I wouldn't be too concerned about strangers unless something very unusual seems to be going on.

Indeed, we all die eventually, but when I cannot go more than two weeks without hearing about a younger person who is found dead in their bed, I can't help but feel compelled to investigate and look for patterns.

Will you be accepting the bill for your compelling. It's hard to bring someone back after a autopsy. Jim

The first one that comes to my mind is James Gandolfini from the Sopranos. No idea if he had it, but I think it's plausible. Ever listen to him breath on camera? He always sounded extremely short of breath which reminds me of me pre-treatment.

The slightest thing used to get me breathing heavy... It wasn't so much that I was out of shape, but I was just a very lazy, quick, shallow breather. Always breathing from my chest instead of diaphragm.... It's amazing what your body can get used to.

Part of the problem is that OSA can only be really diagnosed while the person is breathing and asleep. No autopsy is going to determine that. The actual cause will be stroke or heart failure, while it is true it might be triggered by OSA, OSA is not the cause of death. They might look at the throat and suspect it might be possible they had OSA due to the structure but the severity can't be deduced in a non breathing person.

Mri can be used to visualize throat abnormalities.