Why are so many people being diagnosed with sleep apnea?

MrGrumpy wrote:I also confess, what is a man who just weighs 170 at 6 feet doing with OSA? Honestly...how can your airway collapse during your sleep when youre that thin? Enlarged tonsils? Genetically caused narrow airway?

JeffH wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:

rooster wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:.........

I also confess, what is a man who just weighs 170 at 6 feet doing with OSA? Honestly...how can your airway collapse during your sleep when youre that thin? Enlarged tonsils? Genetically caused narrow airway?

Eric

No tonsils, straightend septum and turbinates reduced.

7 doctors over 6 years had your mind set and I suffered those 6 years because of it. In the meantime I found many thin people with osa.

Best comment on cause was from my ENT, who said the back of my tongue is a little bit thicker than normal and the airway in my throat is a little smaller than normal.

What is your story MrGrumpy?

My story is I suffered with OSA for about ten years before having it treated. I was formally diagnosed with mild OSA eight years ago, but my insurance refused to cover it and my doctor wasnt very cooperative about the whole thing...he wasnt knowledgeable at all about OSA.

Last year I ended up in the chest pain unit at a local hospital for shortness of breath, chest tightness...heart attack type symptoms. They gave me the complete check out, ruled out heart attack, told me my blood oxygen levels were low at night and I ended up being referred to a pulmonary doctor who does sleep medicine. He screened me for asthma, came back negative (at least at the time the tests were given, I wasnt symptomatic then), sent me for another sleep study which came back positive for mild to moderate OSA.

I was then treated with CPAP starting last summer and had dreams and halfway normal sleep for the first time in literally ten years.

Unfortunately, I have become very overweight as a result of the fatigue and lack of energy from the ordeal of the last ten years. I also have low testosterone, secondary form of hypogonadism. My sleep doctor is strongly encouraging me to lose weight, telling me losing a lot of weight will probably reduce the severity of my OSA.

I was interested in the idea behind structures in the throat causing OSA because right before I fell apart, I had been working at a job where I was exposed to a lot of occupational dust, developed severe sinus problems and breathing problems. A piece of skin in the back of my throat enlarged in the period before I fell apart, I dont know what its called, all I know is it was somehow related to the dust exposure I had. Its never been the same since and I always wondered about it...doctors ignore it.


Eric

NightHawkeye wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:I also confess, what is a man who just weighs 170 at 6 feet doing with OSA? Honestly...how can your airway collapse during your sleep when youre that thin? Enlarged tonsils? Genetically caused narrow airway?

Just to reinforce what others have said, at 6 ft and 160 lbs my docs missed my apnea diagnosis for years. I didn't fit the profile either.

I wish I'd been diagnosed years earlier. I'd have been grateful.

sharon1965 wrote:eric said:

I was interested in the idea behind structures in the throat causing OSA because right before I fell apart, I had been working at a job where I was exposed to a lot of occupational dust, developed severe sinus problems and breathing problems. A piece of skin in the back of my throat enlarged in the period before I fell apart, I dont know what its called, all I know is it was somehow related to the dust exposure I had. Its never been the same since and I always wondered about it...doctors ignore it.

could you be referring to your uvula?
just for the record, mine is too big and too long...always has been...and i have a narrow airway ~ these, along with genetic predisposition, are the reasons for my OSA

MrGrumpy wrote:

JeffH wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:

rooster wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:.........

I also confess, what is a man who just weighs 170 at 6 feet doing with OSA? Honestly...how can your airway collapse during your sleep when youre that thin? Enlarged tonsils? Genetically caused narrow airway?

Eric

No tonsils, straightend septum and turbinates reduced.

7 doctors over 6 years had your mind set and I suffered those 6 years because of it. In the meantime I found many thin people with osa.

Best comment on cause was from my ENT, who said the back of my tongue is a little bit thicker than normal and the airway in my throat is a little smaller than normal.

What is your story MrGrumpy?

My story is I suffered with OSA for about ten years before having it treated. I was formally diagnosed with mild OSA eight years ago, but my insurance refused to cover it and my doctor wasnt very cooperative about the whole thing...he wasnt knowledgeable at all about OSA.

Last year I ended up in the chest pain unit at a local hospital for shortness of breath, chest tightness...heart attack type symptoms. They gave me the complete check out, ruled out heart attack, told me my blood oxygen levels were low at night and I ended up being referred to a pulmonary doctor who does sleep medicine. He screened me for asthma, came back negative (at least at the time the tests were given, I wasnt symptomatic then), sent me for another sleep study which came back positive for mild to moderate OSA.

I was then treated with CPAP starting last summer and had dreams and halfway normal sleep for the first time in literally ten years.

Unfortunately, I have become very overweight as a result of the fatigue and lack of energy from the ordeal of the last ten years. I also have low testosterone, secondary form of hypogonadism. My sleep doctor is strongly encouraging me to lose weight, telling me losing a lot of weight will probably reduce the severity of my OSA.

I was interested in the idea behind structures in the throat causing OSA because right before I fell apart, I had been working at a job where I was exposed to a lot of occupational dust, developed severe sinus problems and breathing problems. A piece of skin in the back of my throat enlarged in the period before I fell apart, I dont know what its called, all I know is it was somehow related to the dust exposure I had. Its never been the same since and I always wondered about it...doctors ignore it.


Eric

JeffH wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:

JeffH wrote:

MrGrumpy wrote:

rooster wrote: No tonsils, straightend septum and turbinates reduced.

7 doctors over 6 years had your mind set and I suffered those 6 years because of it. In the meantime I found many thin people with osa.

Best comment on cause was from my ENT, who said the back of my tongue is a little bit thicker than normal and the airway in my throat is a little smaller than normal.

What is your story MrGrumpy?

My story is I suffered with OSA for about ten years before having it treated. I was formally diagnosed with mild OSA eight years ago, but my insurance refused to cover it and my doctor wasnt very cooperative about the whole thing...he wasnt knowledgeable at all about OSA.

Last year I ended up in the chest pain unit at a local hospital for shortness of breath, chest tightness...heart attack type symptoms. They gave me the complete check out, ruled out heart attack, told me my blood oxygen levels were low at night and I ended up being referred to a pulmonary doctor who does sleep medicine. He screened me for asthma, came back negative (at least at the time the tests were given, I wasnt symptomatic then), sent me for another sleep study which came back positive for mild to moderate OSA.

I was then treated with CPAP starting last summer and had dreams and halfway normal sleep for the first time in literally ten years.

Unfortunately, I have become very overweight as a result of the fatigue and lack of energy from the ordeal of the last ten years. I also have low testosterone, secondary form of hypogonadism. My sleep doctor is strongly encouraging me to lose weight, telling me losing a lot of weight will probably reduce the severity of my OSA.

I was interested in the idea behind structures in the throat causing OSA because right before I fell apart, I had been working at a job where I was exposed to a lot of occupational dust, developed severe sinus problems and breathing problems. A piece of skin in the back of my throat enlarged in the period before I fell apart, I dont know what its called, all I know is it was somehow related to the dust exposure I had. Its never been the same since and I always wondered about it...doctors ignore it.


Eric

MrGrumpy wrote: My story is I suffered with OSA for about ten years before having it treated. I was formally diagnosed with mild OSA eight years ago, but my insurance refused to cover it and my doctor wasnt very cooperative about the whole thing...he wasnt knowledgeable at all about OSA.

Last year I ended up in the chest pain unit at a local hospital for shortness of breath, chest tightness...heart attack type symptoms. They gave me the complete check out, ruled out heart attack, told me my blood oxygen levels were low at night and I ended up being referred to a pulmonary doctor who does sleep medicine. He screened me for asthma, came back negative (at least at the time the tests were given, I wasnt symptomatic then), sent me for another sleep study which came back positive for mild to moderate OSA.

I was then treated with CPAP starting last summer and had dreams and halfway normal sleep for the first time in literally ten years.

Unfortunately, I have become very overweight as a result of the fatigue and lack of energy from the ordeal of the last ten years. I also have low testosterone, secondary form of hypogonadism. My sleep doctor is strongly encouraging me to lose weight, telling me losing a lot of weight will probably reduce the severity of my OSA.

I was interested in the idea behind structures in the throat causing OSA because right before I fell apart, I had been working at a job where I was exposed to a lot of occupational dust, developed severe sinus problems and breathing problems. A piece of skin in the back of my throat enlarged in the period before I fell apart, I dont know what its called, all I know is it was somehow related to the dust exposure I had. Its never been the same since and I always wondered about it...doctors ignore it.


Eric