Fat Tongue

Just reading an article on CNN. They say that most obstructive sleep apnea is due to a fat tongue and are looking to see if cold sculpting the tongue could help. I have been told that I have a fat head but never a fat tongue


https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/10/health/t ... index.html

Getting a job in journalism is said to require little more than the copious use of kneepads.
That article is proof.

Ohhhh Chunkyfrog you must forgive me ( suffering from cabin fever here in BC canada with the snow and cold temps -14 F with wind chill) But if sleep apnea is due to a fat tongue then how come frogs with their massive tongues don't have it??

roadcycler wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 14, 2020 9:27 pm

Ohhhh Chunkyfrog you must forgive me ( suffering from cabin fever here in BC canada with the snow and cold temps -14 F with wind chill) But if sleep apnea is due to a fat tongue then how come frogs with their massive tongues don't have it??

Cuz frog tongues aren't fat... they're long and slender.

That scares the mess out of me. I'm still fat but my enlarged tongue got smaller after a period of CPAP use. Makes me lean more toward sleep apnea causing the swollen tongue. Of course it makes sense a larger tongue fills up the airway more, but I'd need to see evidence that cold sculpting for fat made an impact on the sleep apnea while not harming other delicate tissues like muscles and nerves important to tongue function. The tongue is but one factor in sleep apnea, but even people with normal tongues can have sleep apnea. This is reminding me of some of the oral surgeries that leave people still having apneas after surgery. Did a little reading that said the presence of tongue fat is mostly in the back at the base of the tongue. How do they cold sculpt back there? And how much preop exploration is done to they tell if the tongue is swollen or fatty? Forgive me, I'm am admittedly by nature a skeptic.

I have a scalloped tongue.
This apparently means I have a fat tongue.
I use my CPAP machine whenever I sleep and have great AHI numbers but my tongue is still scalloped, it has not improved one jot since being on CPAP. I had so hoped it would based on what others have reported here. Also I am not overweight.

Once again it just proves that OSA is not that simple, and it is not the same for all of us.

I hate news articles based on some sort of study.
The author of the news article most often cherry picks the results of the study to suit their "story".
It's never black and white yet these stories often make it out like it is.
And finally just because someone does a study about something and comes out with some rather odd ideas doesn't make it the gospel.

Arlene1963 wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 15, 2020 7:44 am

I have a scalloped tongue.
This apparently means I have a fat tongue.
I use my CPAP machine whenever I sleep and have great AHI numbers but my tongue is still scalloped, it has not improved one jot since being on CPAP. I had so hoped it would based on what others have reported here. Also I am not overweight.

Once again it just proves that OSA is not that simple, and it is not the same for all of us.

CPAP won't help that... all it's doing is pushing your tongue out of the way of your airway.
Which probably pushes it against your teeth and makes the scalloping worse.