Treating SA with Weight Loss?

Woody wrote:I wonder if sometimes a DR. make a statement like that
just to make you more committed to losing weight. Or
if he is just misinformed.

The sad thing is there are some doctors out there who actually believe the crap "if you lose weight your lose the OSA"...
Maybe the doctor mentioned above was just trying to motivate but I would respect a doctor more if they just would tell the whole ugly truth which is losing the weight might or might not help lose the OSA.
I was skinny little thing when I was first diagnosed. Weight had nothing to do with the OSA. It does for some people but not all people.

I do know of one forum member, who is a friend of mine, that lost a huge amount of weight and had a sleep study done afterwards which confirmed that the OSA was no longer an issue. She had the surgery and lost well over 100 pounds. Funny thing about her though...she continues to use cpap because the added moisture helps with nasal issues. She just can get by with minimal pressure though.

I think a lot of that "you have apnea because you are overweight and weight loss will "cure" apnea is really about fat shaming. This is a favorite sport of medical professionals.

When you understand what apnea does to the metabolism, there's much to suggest the opposite is true--apnea causes weight gain.

Some people do see improvement in OSA with weight loss, but certainly not all as pointed out, just shy of 50% will get improvement (which is not the same as cure).

I see the dangerous side of this on the groups I frequent for keto diets. People lose weight very successfully and toss out their cpap's assuming they are cured. But when I question, NONE of them know how to look at their data and none are re-tested. They equate "no longer snoring" with no apnea. So they may not be cured, just making a possibly dangerous assumption. If I suggest retesting, they scoff. "I know I'm not having apneas anymore." Um, ok, good luck with that.

I lost 75 lbs, but apnea is not cured.

Ok, I tried holding down the command key while opening the Sleepyhead software. Unfortunately, still getting the same message with no option to open it anyway.

Kteague -

My current pressure is 13. I'm using an AirSense 10 with humidifier and Simplus full face Mask.

A sleep study done in December was inconclusive...AHI on a pressure of 19 during the study was 43 with 42 OSAs, 28 mixed, 25 central, 25 hypopneas, and 5 RERAs. So way too high still. My sleep doc wants me to do another sleep study, this time with BIPAP. If you need additional numbers from the study, I can provide them.

I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea in 2003. Five sleep studies, multiple types of masks, CPAP, BIPAP and Autopap, numerous different pressures...and I'm still struggling. Seems like we would have figured it out by now or at least have enough data to guess at a pressure without doing yet another very costly sleep study plus an expensive BIPAP machine.

Pugsy wrote: I do know of one forum member, who is a friend of mine, that lost a huge amount of weight and had a sleep study done afterwards which confirmed that the OSA was no longer an issue. She had the surgery and lost well over 100 pounds. Funny thing about her though...she continues to use cpap because the added moisture helps with nasal issues. She just can get by with minimal pressure though.

I breath much better night and day because of my CPAP therapy.
It is much easier to exercise now that I can breath through my nose.
I just assumed everyone's upper airway felt like fire during exercise.

lwieland11 wrote:Ok, I tried holding down the command key while opening the Sleepyhead software. Unfortunately, still getting the same message with no option to open it anyway.

Maybe you should start a second thread "Need help installing SleepyHead to MAC". That way you may get more help from MAC users.

lwieland11 wrote:Kteague -

My current pressure is 13. I'm using an AirSense 10 with humidifier and Simplus full face Mask.

A sleep study done in December was inconclusive...AHI on a pressure of 19 during the study was 43 with 42 OSAs, 28 mixed, 25 central, 25 hypopneas, and 5 RERAs. So way too high still. My sleep doc wants me to do another sleep study, this time with BIPAP. If you need additional numbers from the study, I can provide them.

I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea in 2003. Five sleep studies, multiple types of masks, CPAP, BIPAP and Autopap, numerous different pressures...and I'm still struggling. Seems like we would have figured it out by now or at least have enough data to guess at a pressure without doing yet another very costly sleep study plus an expensive BIPAP machine.

Looks like your Sleep Study results may have been pointing to something more than plain OSA. Pressure in a regular or apap machine does not treat the mixed and central apneas. And sometimes high pressures can make them worse. That is why the doctor was wanting to try another type of machine.

lwieland11 wrote: My current pressure is 13. I'm using an AirSense 10 with humidifier and Simplus full face Mask. A sleep study done in December was inconclusive...AHI on a pressure of 19 during the study was 43 with 42 OSAs, 28 mixed, 25 central, 25 hypopneas, and 5 RERAs. So way too high still. My sleep doc wants me to do another sleep study, this time with BIPAP. If you need additional numbers from the study, I can provide them. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea in 2003. Five sleep studies, multiple types of masks, CPAP, BIPAP and Autopap, numerous different pressures...and I'm still struggling. Seems like we would have figured it out by now or at least have enough data to guess at a pressure without doing yet another very costly sleep study plus an expensive BIPAP machine.

In view of the test results I admit that your situation is out of my league. I'll defer to the gurus on here to offer suggestions. You might get more targeted viewers if your title mentioned bilevel and centrals. Good luck with everything.

lwieland11 wrote:Ok, I tried holding down the command key while opening the Sleepyhead software. Unfortunately, still getting the same message with no option to open it anyway.

The exact procedure to run an application from an unknown developer depends upon the version of MacOS you are running. This Google search results page should point you in the right direction:
https://goo.gl/vHw8OB

Janknitz wrote:I think a lot of that "you have apnea because you are overweight and weight loss will "cure" apnea is really about fat shaming. This is a favorite sport of medical professionals.

When you understand what apnea does to the metabolism, there's much to suggest the opposite is true--apnea causes weight gain.

Some people do see improvement in OSA with weight loss, but certainly not all as pointed out, just shy of 50% will get improvement (which is not the same as cure).

I see the dangerous side of this on the groups I frequent for keto diets. People lose weight very successfully and toss out their cpap's assuming they are cured. But when I question, NONE of them know how to look at their data and none are re-tested. They equate "no longer snoring" with no apnea. So they may not be cured, just making a possibly dangerous assumption. If I suggest retesting, they scoff. "I know I'm not having apneas anymore." Um, ok, good luck with that.

I lost 75 lbs, but apnea is not cured.

I gained 100 lb, mine isn't cured either, but even so my treatment pressure remained the same as when I started 11 years ago. Jim