What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
tiredandscared
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by tiredandscared » Sat Dec 26, 2015 8:27 am

It's difficult to say. It has to do with the structure of your muscle fibers in the throat muscles. If they're defective congenitally or if they have been damaged by years of apnea. The OSA is permanent. If not, the the apnea should resolve with weight loss. I'd get treated instead of worrying about whether it's resolvable. It won't affect your life much if it's permanent, unless you like to go out camping or want to be in the military or do a job where electricity is unavailable. Even then you can try surgery. Stemcells might be able treat it in the future.

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ChicagoGranny
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by ChicagoGranny » Sat Dec 26, 2015 8:39 am


Skinny People Also Have Sleep Apnea

These results mirror a growing trend we have noticed in our accredited Sleep Center. Every week we see females with normal BMI, and even petite women, that are suffering from sleep disorders. They come into our clinic due to excessive daytime sleepiness or, because we have a Headache Center, their chief complaint is chronic migraine. A polysomnogram (sleep study) reveals to these patients something they had never considered… they have sleep apnea.

http://www.neurokc.com/sleep-article/sk ... apnea-too/

and

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... esearch%29
"It's not the number of breaths we take, it's the number of moments that take our breath away."

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Julie
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by Julie » Sat Dec 26, 2015 8:39 am

"if they have been damaged by years of apnea" - no such thing! Apnea makes you stop breathing, but does not have any effect on your muscles.

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ChicagoGranny
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by ChicagoGranny » Sat Dec 26, 2015 8:44 am

Julie wrote:"if they have been damaged by years of apnea" - no such thing! Apnea makes you stop breathing, but does not have any effect on your muscles.
Are you sure about that? Damage to the nerves that connect to those muscles means that the proper signals are not getting through to the muscles.
The low-frequency vibrations of snoring may cause physical trauma and, more specifically, peripheral nerve injuries ...

Histopathological analysis of upper airway (UA) muscles have shown strong evidence of a varying severity of neurological lesions in groups of snoring patients. Neurophysiological assessment shows evidence of active and chronic denervation and re-innervation in the palatopharyngeal muscles of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients. Neurogenic lesions of UA muscles induced by vibration trauma impair the reflex dilation abilities of the UA, leading to an increase in the possibility of UA collapse. The neurological factors which are partly responsible for the progressive nature of OSAS warrant the necessity of early assessment in habitual snorers.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3327562/
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chunkyfrog
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by chunkyfrog » Sat Dec 26, 2015 4:14 pm

At least we now have irrefutable proof that untreated apnea causes brain damage.

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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by Goofproof » Sat Dec 26, 2015 4:28 pm

chunkyfrog wrote:At least we now have irrefutable proof that untreated apnea causes brain damage.
You are on to something, maybe others are on something! Jim
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Julie
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by Julie » Sat Dec 26, 2015 4:33 pm

If it's true, it's not funny. If it's not true, what's your excuse?

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grayghost4
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by grayghost4 » Sat Dec 26, 2015 5:07 pm

You three are always good for a laugh
If you're not part of the solution you're just scumming up the bottom of the beaker!

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Gasper62
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by Gasper62 » Sat Dec 26, 2015 6:16 pm

The procedure for reviving a drowning victim used to be......... blowing smoke up their butt................... (seriously, it was)

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cathyf
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by cathyf » Sat Dec 26, 2015 6:34 pm

I've lost 90 lbs over the last year, and over that time my AHI has gone from roughly 0.2 to roughly 1. Before I started losing weight I never had clusters, always lone events. As the weight has come off, about once-twice-three-times per week I have a cluster of 5-10 events over a couple of minutes.

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Goofproof
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by Goofproof » Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:45 pm

Gasper62 wrote:The procedure for reviving a drowning victim used to be......... blowing smoke up their butt................... (seriously, it was)
Incorrect, first drag them completely out of the water, you must have their butt out of the water, or when you do cpr, you don't drain the lake. Jim
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IDontSnoreISwear
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by IDontSnoreISwear » Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:04 pm

Doctors don't just tell you to lose weight for sleep apnea. If you are fat, they will tell you to lose weight no matter what the reason is for the visit. Joint pain, abdominal pain, headache, insomnia, cough, infections, you name it. It's as if the sight of fat impairs their ability to be objective. Crazy. I like to tell people that if a doctor focuses too much on your weight, fire them.

I knew someone whose doctor kept telling her to lose weight because her back hurt. She dutifully dieted for several years, blaming herself for her own problems. Turns out nope, it wasn't fat causing her back pain, it was cancer. But by the time she was diagnosed it was inoperable. Basically she died young because her doctor was too lazy to properly diagnose her. Because fat.

My skinny husband has severe OSA. He even had UPPP but it did nothing for him. OTOH, I am very fat and have mixed OSA/CSA which is only classified as "moderate."

My sleep doctor wrote on my chart: "She never exercises," without ever asking me whether I did or discussing it with me in any way. Another doctor once told me to "eat less," even though I was at that point engaging in extremely restrictive, disordered eating, which he didn't know about it because he didn't ask me what I ate. Just assumed that the fat lady must be chowing down on Mickey D's 24/7.

TL;DR: The medical profession has some pretty fucked up, non-scientific attitudes about fat people.

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IDontSnoreISwear
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by IDontSnoreISwear » Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:19 pm

Julie wrote:"if they have been damaged by years of apnea" - no such thing! Apnea makes you stop breathing, but does not have any effect on your muscles.
Your heart is a muscle. And it can absolutely be damaged by untreated sleep apnea.

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Enchanter
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by Enchanter » Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:59 pm

So when a doctor looks down your throat and thinks you have OSA, what is he looking at? Just amount of room in the airway?

Also why isn't liposuction in the neck a recommended surgery if it is the fat tissues causing the obstruction?
My Current Therapies
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cathyf
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Re: What's the cause and effect of Weight and Sleep Apnea

Post by cathyf » Sat Dec 26, 2015 10:25 pm

IDontSnoreISwear wrote:I like to tell people that if a doctor focuses too much on your weight, fire them.
My mother-in-law has asked, "Do I need to find a fatter doctor?" on a few occasions. It shuts them up.

There is one doctor I have to give props to: when my (always-overweight) grandmother was in her 90's, with steadily worsening Alzheimer's, her doctor told my parents and the nursing home staff, "Let her eat whatever she wants, as long as she can eat. She's got enough problems you don't need to be making up more!"